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For Hope, do people realize they have open source tools to help you with the bleed process and alignment? https://www.hopetech.com/open-source-tools/ Someone I saw on the local hill this week mentioned that Hope is supposedly coming out with a Tech 5 lever to appease the people who don’t like their brakes because of the need to roll the membrane when closing up the system. I would assume it would be something similar to how Shimano has the screw that is removed and the funnel installed when bleeding.

Since the last Trump tariff battles in his first administration, more and more bike stuff has left China. Santa Cruz has largely switched to Thailand for their frames, at least what I am seeing in the US. This is pretty recent so I’m not sure if it’s a total swap. They have historically been built in the skybox composites factories, who make several other high end brands. I don’t know if they switched mfgs or just moved or expanded locations. Lots of other higher end mtb stuff is in Taiwan and Vietnam. Some brands don’t bother publishing, or including on...

One thing I want to flag is the possibility of a tariff-evoked credit crunch in the outdoor industry. Though no business is immune, I'd argue businesses with seasonality, long inventory turns (most outdoor industry stuff), and purveyors of elastic goods are extra exposed to the problem. In short, if we see continued softness with respect to consumer spending, prices go up a material amount due to tariffs, the COVID (inventory) hangover lingers, and companies are unable to stay within the covenants of their debt instruments, we might see a whole other level of pain, and this could come to fruition...

I've had a few new fox products, including the one released today, in my hands over the last few weeks and while I'm not a fox fan boy, the feel and look of the new 34SL, - Redacted- and - Redacted- are certainly a bump up from the previous gen. It'll be interesting to see how they review. The 34SL is stupid light in your hand.

But can you stand on it?

long time reader first time poster here.. friends of mine are developing an vacuum bleeder for shocks and fork dampers to fully service your suspension at home, without the need of messy handbleeding. I just got the chance to try the machine myself and it works pretty straight forward. I thought i spread the word in here because i think this is a pretty cool innovation in the mtb tech for home mechanics/ race day applications etc. https://www.futureliteindustries.com/

We get messages at least once a month from someone in the desert Southwest who's pissed that we no longer make the Chronicle. I could never get along with plus tires. If I ran the pressures low enough to get a benefit in traction then the tire would fold and roll like crazy even in mellow corners. With enough pressure to provide cornering support, I was getting bounced all over the trail. For me, plus tires offered only downsides. I'm glad they were a relatively short lived fad in our fad obsessed industry.

New brakes, coming out soon from famous ( B )rake company in collab with american ( S )upreme bike company.

More whoop related content that I think gives a good perspective on how big the whoops actually are. From down low they can get visually ironed out a little. The vast majority of these trucks are on 40" tires. Some of the whoops are about that tall. The other crazy thing is the amount of stress it puts on the drive trail going from fully loaded to no load over and over again. Plus there's the additional stress from your front or rear wheels touching down and not being at the same speed as the wheels on the other end.

I suspect people will hate the idea of the Genie shock less and less as they're exposed to them in real life, on friend's bikes and on their bikes. This will be a great contrast to many other proprietary Specialized forks and shocks, which people hated more and more as they were exposed to them in real life, on friend's bikes and on their bikes.

https://www.instagram.com/share/BAMMX9Dred

strange, i remember when all 3 won a world cup on the same weekend in the late 2000s in their very own catergories.

Aren’t ceramic bearings a scam? I remember seeing that all their alleged benefits disappear as soon as they’re under load. I’m at work and haven’t seen this video in a while so someone let me know if I’m right. https://youtu.be/o7iZVfSDbiA?si=qB6XlgViS41czS0u On a separate note, something I learned from my time in the industry is that almost everyone is undersizing their link bearings for the sake of weight, aesthetics, package space.

It takes over 2 years to bring a frame to market. That's with perfect timing that leaves little buffer for setbacks. Of course you can take short cuts and do it quicker, say 18 months but that's skipping out on critical areas of the development phase. Ideally the industry moves to a 4 year cycle to slow down the pace of things. The race to first and shortening timeliness is one of the reasons why the bike industry is in the place that it is today.

I wonder if they could do something with GT and Cannondale like Fox did with Fox and Marzocchi or Easton and Race Face? Cannondale becomes the XC and Road race brand while GT is the trail and gravity brand? Maybe some crossover in gravel..