All

Sometimes I feel crazy, in that I dislike the assegai, but everyone seems to love it. I started with dhf's, and always liked the sharp cornering character of them. The assegai felt vague, and more like it smears itself across the top of everything instead of biting in. I much prefer the kryptotals, high roller 3, and most recently the dhx.

The future of long travel enduro bikes is being modular and compatible with dual crown forks to double as park/DH bikes. It makes a ton of sense from a company and manufacturing perspective

I took the Float X off my Vala without even bothering to ride it, replaced it with a Vivid. 2 guys I know with Valas replaced the Float X with DHX2s. 2 other guys I know with Valas - 1 wants to replace it with an 11-6 but Push is dragging their feet coming up with a tune, and the other is muddling along with the Float X but doesn't like it and wants to replace it once he's over injury. The Vala & Bullit ride great once you shitcan the Float X.

feel bad for LMS maybe not getting the credit he deserves for putting well over a second into 2nd on a track that has many riders apart by only a tenth. like you have to go to... 9th place from 2nd? to get the same time gap LMS put on 2nd. nearly the same gap from 2nd to 10th. as he put from 1st to 2nd. damn

Norco DH is official - https://www.vitalmtb.com/forums/hub/norcos-new-team-dh-bike-and-hvp6-su…

more forbidden crab. uses the front triangle from the e-dreadnaught

I've run the diagonal mid on the rear a few times. It is fast rolling, decent grip, and tears side knobs quicker than the soft which has more of the expected wearing off than tearing off. Not sure if it's because the whole side knob is harder so it just rips off? I torched my first mid rear in ~75 miles and the second after one 25 mile ride. Schwalbe warrantied the second one (probably would have the first, I just didn't think to ask) with a soft compound rear which is wearing much better!

Can we just cut to the chase and pre-emptively ban Dougal? I thought this place was the last safe haven from his bullshit. The schtick of poo-pooing everything on the planet is old as dirt and he ruins every conversation he butts in on. Doogs, you spend an awful lot of time on forums for someone who claims to be so busy. Go farm downvotes somewhere else.

I have been running a 32" front wheel on my epic all year. Started out with my normal 35mm stem and riser bars and I had a hard time keeping the front end under control. Tried out a drop stem and it brought my weight back forward and the front end was much better. Bike is very fun still and very fast. I personally think it still handles very well even in the tight stuff. Despite the wild looking stem it's comfortable and feels normal. The bigger wheel just raised the front end so much that the bars are in...

If you hate loud air compressors: California air tools make super quiet ones. I can leave mine plugged in and turned on in the garage and it doesn’t bother anyone. Makes a difference not having to mess with it every time. Being always ready, you can then use it for daily inflation and not just seating tires. So the value proposition is better. Problem is, because they are cheap, they are kind of shitty, had to spend quite a bit of time resolving small leaks in the compressors manifold. I don’t use a floor pump anymore. It’s kind of nice...

Huge recommendation for the manitou mattoc pro. I love mine. Haven’t tried the latest pike or 34SL but it is far superior to the previous generations of both those forks IMO.

I'm so glad I left engineering. Lol. This reminds me of discussions with my old boss who loved analysis and wouldn't leave us alone when we had anything vaguely interesting on the go. Trails have bumps. Bumps give momentary grip. the momentary grip results in a momentary braking force. The momentary braking force results in a momentary decrease in the effective spring rate if you have high AR. So the bike feels softer in the rear which is exactly what you want in the moment when your rear tire hits a bump riding down steep shit. Trails have corners. Even...

That's quite a hard working rocker link...

Holy shit, so it's pretty damn high on the Revolt. If I loved braking on that bike and thought it was confidence inspiring, then maybe I'm a high AR kinda guy.

" This sort of steepness you can't use your back brake much at all." I can't speak to your experience, but I promise you that the steeper the trail gets, the more I use my rear brake to slow me down.

Respectfully, the mass grave that I've filled over the years with cooked brake pads and rotors, broken rear wheels, and punctured tires and inner tubes from riding steep trails tells me that my center of mass has a much stronger relationship with my rear wheel than what you've depicted in that free body diagram. The main difference being bumps and holes. as opposed to the endless monochromatic smooth grade that's implied by the instantaneous snapshot of your freebody diagram.

Evidence suggests that you run a soft and unsupportive setup. You also ride a knolly right? Low AR, long reach, low stack? Don't you run fairly high tire pressures? I'm not shocked that you think it's impossible to use the rear brake on steeper trails.

The front brake/rear brake thing really comes down to terrain and riding style, but mostly terrain. There are trails where it's easier for me to accidentally make my rear tire skid, and other trails where it's easier for me to accidentally make my front tire skid. If grip is good on a trail, my weight is typically going to shift forward when I brake, loading the front tire and creating grip there while unloading the rear. On trails like that my front brake is going to do most of the work slowing me down, which is what we would typically...

Another analogy - trail data or rider feedback is like going to the doctor - they will ask you questions, measure heart rate and blood pressure - thats like data acquisition and finding the symptoms, but getting more answers needs something like blood tests or an x-ray. They might not tell you the actual cause but they give much more information about whats going on