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I for one, am fully in favor of the increased availability of silver components (and I guess I should take some pics of my bike and post them in Bike Checks)

I know there’s a lot going on today with belt drives and pull shocks but how about silver rims?

Reece Wilson must have put together a few bigish names in order to get the points to go racing . Interested to see who else is on that team .

Just released: Orbea FMD Racing – The Gravity Cooperative

Neko reading this thread confirmed

When you think of a week in Vital time.....

What a superb article!

Word on the street the full production Specialized DH vessel is ready. Apparently it's a looker.

Remi on spesh. Ok - but no chance they’re paying him to travel around the world to get 30th on a circuit with zero coverage. I’m not being mean here - just truth. Same with Blenki - guy was cooked (results -wise) 3-4 years ago. There’s zero chance anyone picks him up to race wc dh. On a similar note, Lucas Cruz - has he ever had a result? And Norco is taking him to all the WCs? Again, not being mean - just facts. I think he has a family connection at Norco but there’s no way anyone’s expecting...

i know it's a fine line between relevant discussion about economy and the bike industry in this forum thread and i'm always blown away by how civil everyone is here. i appreciate that! as it's starting to get a bit more general, we have an "off the bike" forum area if you want to talk general global policy, thoughts on immigration etc. - https://www.vitalmtb.com/forums/VitalMTB/Off-the-Bike,3 let's keep this one as bike-specific as possible.

I would say that most American's think the economy is bad because the top 1% make all the profit while they struggle to make ends meet on crappy wages. Half the US households don't have a 401k.

If he's already backflipping on election promises before even taking office... that must be some kind of record. And not even remotely surprising. But to already be in the "find out" stage is certainly something. The "If those kids could read..." meme from King of the Hill seems pretty appropriate right now.

NY times article on tariffs, leads w/ bike company example https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/31/business/economy/trump-tariffs-china… (the link was gifted to me, i don't have a sub and i think you have to have a sub to read?) here's a snippet --------------- After President Donald J. Trump slapped tariffs on Chinese bicycles in 2018, Arnold Kamler, then the chief executive of the bike maker Kent International, saw a curious trend play out in the bicycle industry. Chinese bicycle factories moved their final manufacturing and assembly operations out of China, setting up new facilities in Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Cambodia and India. Using parts mostly from China...

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

We have entered the part of silly season where people float (and debate!) wild speculation that a 42 year old Dan Atherton returns to downhill (last result was 57th at Crankworx in 2018) on a new rubber band bike to chase a $100k podium. Perhaps we need an award for most ridiculous rumor every year. 🤣🤣🤣

Dan was never on a level with Gee and Rach when he was 25, nevermind now

Anyone else here hoping we’d have more team announcements by now?? I’m not very patient mind you lol 😂

Damn. Really hope someone picks tmac up. Finally getting a rampage podium and getting dropped by your two largest sponsors (pon dropped all of gt) has to be rough! Especially after all the injury time the past few years. Someone get the man some gear and a salary!

Believe it or not, I think the last minutes of this video reveal the FMD thing and what I think is that Kate Courtney will be racing for Orbea. The man is Ibon Zugasti, founding member of the Orbea Factory XC when it was a marketing strategy with several amateurs or semi pro riders in Spain. He has himself won XC and gravel masters worlds in his category. They also had Tomi Misser, a former DH WC racer from Spain, that won XC and DH world's masters on the same year. They sold a TON of bikes with this strategy...