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I'd like to think the companies aren't as stupid as we think and know those sales won't last forever, but seeing what happened during covid has me doubting lol. To your point about keeping your Bronson for 7 years and replacing it with a used Nomad, I think the industry is screwed for the foreseeable future because the "whales" who get a new bike/frame every 1/2 years have stopped buying. Couple this with the fact there's a ton of previously released bikes that us whales would love to try AND are dirt cheap on the used market. With brands reducing...

honestly looking at some of the bloated product lines I agree. as an amateur consumer, I would suggest that what really is needed is 3 mtb frames, and 2 ebike frames max. an XC and downcountry model - like a flex stay 29er, pedalling prioritised a trail/all mountain model - regular suspension, maybe option of 29 or MX via flip chip. big travel bike - maybe but not necessarly high pivot, MX wheel, descent focussed suspension, could be a DH bike, park bike, enduro bike based on fork and drivetrain spec. and then 2 ebike front triangles that would work...

It's important to note that ebikes are a good option for commuting, for older people and for mountain bikes. Ebikes are decidedly NOT an option (at least a possible wide spread one) for road bikes given the 25 kph cutoff. Besides, an electric road bike, for most people getting into the sport, kinda defeats the purpose, unlike with an MTB. Also, with sales declining, can it also be attributed (looking across all bikes) to commuters and older people buying new (electric) bikes in the past few years to replace their old regular bikes that would otherwise not be replaced at...

Great question. To your point, I think the cannibalism is worse than that, because instead of wanting multiple pedal bikes for different sorts of pedal days with granular differences between each model, one ebike is pretty much fine for everything. In the past, as a MTB pedaler, I would have loved to have at least three mountain bikes: a long travel enduro bike, a shorter travel trail bike, and maybe a hardtail or XC bike. Maybe more. If I wanted to give up on pedaling and get an ebike instead, I don't need two ebikes. For ebikers who want to...

Posting this here because it seems more bikeonomics related than tech rumours related, but it's sort of in reply or brought about to the discussion going on over there. I'm curious about eMTBs's impact on the MTB "market cap", whether you want to measure that by industry dollars or total number of riders or some other metric ("rider cap?"). I don't think this can be answered decisively as we haven't had enough years of clean data (setting aside any data-gathering difficulties or whether that's really happening industry wide) in the sense that eMTB has really only taken off recently in...

I think it is because we do not smoke cigarettes on our pedal to the mountaintop cafe while needing enough breath to complain about immigration

Why on earth would that specialized levo monstrosity only come in an sworks model... or even an sworks model at all? Why would the prospective buyer for this bike ever want factory level suspension, maven ultimate, XX transmission, with carbon wheels, bars etc? I envision the buyer for this being a commuter with too much money, a dentist that also does trail work or anyone with more ego/narcissism then common sense. Either way, none of the buyers I can project would want to shave 2-3lbs off of this bike and pay 4k more for it. The previous bike that was...

Wtf is this

Fallacy or not, if our domestic manufacturing capacity is contingent on wreaking havoc in the Middle East and the global south then I want nothing to do with it. Based on the tidbits shared above, it sounds like our domestic production capacity only exists because the ruling class can’t afford to outsource defense manufacturing without the risk of it being used against them (see Westmag drones) but they’re happy to sell us out for everything else. It may support the workforce but that’s just happenstance as evidenced by them actively trying to replace human labor with AI without any plan...

The "multiplier effect" is an economic fallacy. "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."

Yeah I don’t get it, shifts beautiful, great ergonomics, no clutch, like it was designed for bike paths

Yesterday I spoke with a guy who rode a couple of EDRs and would always ride xtr mech since forever but he was on a sram. He said not only the chain slap was unbearable on the new di2 xtr but he would also drop chains pretty much daily, to the extend the top of his crank which cought the chain became all scratched... The shifting was absolutely amazing but the reliability is horrible and he also noticed shimano sponsored enduro pros would run full dh chain tensioners or STFUs just to keep the chain on, which is mindboggling how...

I have a friend who works high up at one of the big five Defense firms and he said his firm is under increasing pressure from the DOD for all of their products, components, required maintenance parts and supplies, and the rest of the supply chain to come from within the US, so as not to be dependent on or beholden to foreign manufacturing, especially in regards to potential geopolitical adversaries. To be clear, they aren't able to meet 100% of their needs entirely within the US, but the planes he was talking about featured a shockingly high proportion of...

It's obvious Trump & co are doing oodles of gross stuff. But unless this is just a money grab that will go nowhere, they are still trying to solve a problem. And it is a problem. Recently (tariff wars) we were unable to buy magnets for our products because the Chinese government had to confirm the release of them for every customer. You can imagine the burecrautic gridlock that caused. But buying complete rotors or complete motors? Not a problem. Just to ensure more margin stayed in China. The situation has since gotten better and you can again buy raw...

I will probably get flamed for this, and will offer the caveat that I have only been skimming this page, but I feel like these bikes are great propositions and are in my eyes cool bikes because they’re made to be cheap and practical workhorses for younger demographics that don’t have as much disposable income and want a playful park bike that they can maintain themselves. Maybe I’m just haven’t been following the thread well enough, but I don’t see why the ebike bit is necessary to explain the appeal. Not everyone can afford bougie boutique racing machines, or ebikes...

Are you prying at the seal on the inner or outer ring contact point? When it comes to mine (and my wife's) bike, I am trying to protect the main bearings like this:

I think Raaw frames are exemplary when it comes to bearings: All bearings feature sealed caps on each side to keep dirt out They are easy to change There are no tiny bearings (smallest size is 28mm) They are interchangable between Raaw frames Raaw has an online web shop which makes it easy to source bearings, caps, replacement seals and a bearing press Anecdotally, I've had three Raaw frames and never had a single bearing issue.

Seriously, people have expressed concern over handing over their data to a Chinese company like Avinox but if you sync your phone to anything to do with Marc Andreessen (a16z) you might as well be giving it directly to the CIA. He’s not exactly shy about it

Translation: drone warfare is popping off and we want in on that bag 💰💰💰

Unfortunate to see a quality distributor find themselves in too deep and have to go down this path. They had a number of premium brands and, by all accounts, did some pretty heavy lifting on the marketing front, which can't be said of all distributors. Losing Cannondale and Enve certainly didn't help matters, but I would also guess Castelli and TLD (premium clothing) were a drag, and brands like Pivot and King likely carry some heavy inventory dollar/pounds. I don't know about the UK, but Silca is always on sale here, so likely some margin pressure for a distributor, and...