What's In, What's Out - Mountain Biking in 2020 30

Vital MTB is excited to launch their annual What’s In, What’s Out for Mountain Biking in the year 2020, list. Vital’s editors have comprised this prognosticating pile of putrescence for a number of years and are proud to carry on the tradition once again.

Please heed this trigger warning as e-bikers, haters of e-bikes, enduro riders, trail riders, plus-sized tire fans, downcountry fanatics, mixed wheelsize aficionados, internet freeriders, budding social media stars, YouTube vloggers and single or DINK mid-life-crisis males in their upper 40’s may find some of the material in this video distressing.

We’re offering a safe space for anyone who may feel uncomfortable about the existence of this video. Directions to the safe space here.

If this video bores or annoys you while not causing you anxiety, Vital RAW footage is being provided throughout the duration of the video to keep any real mountain bikers watching entertained.

What’s Out for Mountain Biking in the Year 2020

• Kids on screens. Get them and yourself off the stupid phones.
• Making comments about points in videos that are clearly explained in said video.
• Underbiking.
• Saying that only 29er trail bikes are what people want or what matters. There are tons of 27.5 bikes that absolutely slay (with more on the way) and the people want 'em!
• Saying that mixed wheel size bikes don’t or do work.
• Moaning about the size of somebody’s wheels.
• Boat anchors for cassettes
• Bullying, monopolistic pressure by big brands on mountain bike Product Managers.
• FIM E-bike races. What an embarrassment!
• The Bro-Only mentality.
• Doping.
• UCI selling the Mountain Bike World Championships broadcasting license to somebody who isn’t Red Bull TV. Yeah, we probably only WISH this was OUT, but hope springs eternal…and long live virtual private networks.
• Slack seat tube angles. Anything the wrong side of 76 will get docked a full star in our reviews from now on.
• Racers-turned-vloggers.
• How-to videos. Your how-to do a drop video is not better than the 1400 how to drop videos already on the internet.
• Dream Build videos done by anyone other than Gee Milner. We know you’re trying to milk the YouTube views with your dream build, but just let Gee Milner have it already.
• Making any urban riding/shredding edit if your name is not Fabio Wibmer.
• Riding an ebike to the top of the climb with a regular mountain biker and being fake out-of-breathe while saying “it really IS a good workout, believe me!”. It’s not. Just own it, and be stoked that you are getting more laps in than everybody else.
• The NICA racer who uses organized high school spandex competition as the loophole to trick mom or dad into buying them a trail or enduro bike that’s actually fun to ride.
• Job security aboard an Enduro World Series team.
• Saying you’re sponsored because you received 23% off retail price on a pair of grips.
• FOMO because of someone’s social media post. None of it is reality.
• Wires and cables on your bike.

What’s In for Mountain Biking in the Year 2020

• Kids on bikes in the dirt.
• Affordable bikes and components that perform as well as products twice their price.
• Fullface helmets all the time. We’re going faster and harder than ever. Just because our bikes have a singlecrown fork doesn’t mean we should protect our heads less, does it?
• Challenging the establishment - Ride Concepts, Marzocchi, Zipp Moto Wheels, Marin, Norco just to name a few.
  
• Underbiking
• Underbikes
• Custom suspension tunes. Tuned for everyone and tuned for you are two very different things.
• Short-travel trail bikes with coil shocks. As manufacturers hone in on the perfect amount of linkage progressivity and anti-squat, coil shocks are now a viable option on more and more bikes. Rejoice!
• On-the-fly adjustments to your coil spring. Sprindex leads the charge.
• Unofficial long-jump contests at World Cup DH races.
• SRAM AXS technology trickledown. Here's to hoping!
• Dropper seatposts with reset valves. Bike Yoke kicked things off, RockShox followed, and more are likely on the way.
• Wavy chainstay guards that silence the slap. Specialized was onto something and others have taken note.
• Handlebars with a bit of extra compliance. Flex in the right places can aid your ride.
• Wrapping your frame to protect the paint. Today's rides are so rad. It's easy and affordable to protect yours for the long haul.
• The rider you never heard of until their random video hits your feed.
• Longer chainstays for taller riders and big frame sizes.
• The use of clever, new materials in frames and components.
• The next generation of e-bikes. Sleeker, lighter, and more integrated with another round of development and technology has to be on the way.
• Pros training with e-bikes in search of covering more miles, more terrain, and that medicine ball effect when they hop back on a regular ride.
• Companies giving back to the trails and trail building in a big way.
• Staying home and learning every rock, root and condition of your local trail throughout the year.
• Junior-level mountain bike racing.
• Women going for it in the freeride space with movie parts and events like Red Bull Formation.
• Semenuk being Semenuk. That tailwhip on-off feature is probably the single most-committed move of mountain biking in 2019 and 2020.
• Quiet hubs.
• The Denim Destroyer in race pants.
• Loud hubs.
• Aaron Gwin. Trust us.
• Fabio Wibmer. 'nuff said!
• Increasingly open discussions about pro rider contracts.
• Projects like The Race Face Creator Series shedding light on so many meaningful stories.
• There perfect geometry…FOR YOU! With some many dialed options out there, if you get it wrong, you really only have yourself to blame.
• French downhillers. Seriously, do you see them giving up the throne anytime soon?
• Brendon Fairclough at Rampage! We know he said he wouldn’t be back again, but he’s said that before and we want to watch him ride, regardless of result.
• Storing stuff on your bike with trinkets like Specialized SWAT or the Oneup EDC tool.
• Debating mountain bike stuff on the internet. We love a good discussion!

*Vital MTB would like to note that since they nailed this list to perfection once again, that they apologize for the lack of comments or controversy this normally would have caused. Happy 2020.