Latest Product Reviews

For the past few years, clothing and protection companies have pushed aggressively towards comfier products, lighter fabrics, better breathability and an emphasis on range of motion. In one phrase we could describe this line of thinking as “wear it without it being noticed.” Fox sent us a new protection product aiming to add options to the menu and score high marks in this category, but did they get the recipe right? Fighting out of the green corner, this is the Airframe Chest Guard. Strengths

Shimano likes to take its sweet time developing products. It’s kinda their shtick. The best (current) example of their conservative innovation is the Saint gravity line—it turned 16 this year. If a Saint derailleur could drive, it would, in 2026. A new Saint groupset is surely on the horizon based on the volume of prototype parts hanging from bikes at the first World Cup . I wouldn’t hold my breath that it lands soon, but it’s coming. To keep us occupied until then, Shimano casually dropped its

Since acquiring Ochain last July, SRAM has been working on a few updates to improve the system's durability. The design and benefits of the crank-mounted active spider remain unchanged—providing dampened rearward rotation of the chain ring to isolate the rider from chain-induced feedback—but the tolerances and sealing have been improved to increase service intervals. They’re also introducing a new ‘External Travel Adjust Kit’ as an upgrade for internally adjustable models, and have reduced

Pivot has once again expanded its Shuttle lineup with the Shuttle AMP'd—a souped-up version of the Shuttle AM built around the brand new Avinox M2S drive unit and 800 Wh battery. Intended to slot between the Shuttle AM and Shuttle LT, the AMP’d is a capable mixed-wheel all-mountain e-bike and Pivot’s first collaboration with an Avinox system. Highlights Full carbon frame 150mm of rear wheel travel // 160mm fork Mixed wheels (29" compatible, except size XS) Avinox M2S Drive Unit (150 Nm torque

RockShox resurrected the Vivid in 2023 with bold claims of coil-like performance. You know, what most brands say about their large volume gravity air shocks. However, if there was ever a time that the marketing hype lived up to expectations, it's been with the Vivid. Incredibly light and active off the top, but supportive and controlled under compression, the Vivid has been one of the best, most coil-like-feeling air shocks we’ve ridden. For model year 2027, the Vivid receives a few changes

The past few years have seen Intense quietly revamp its entire product line while publicly developing the latest M1 downhill bike at World Cups. The transparency of the downhill project was a reminder of the passion Intense pours into bike development. Unfortunately, I think it also overshadowed the work they put into the latest Tracer 279/29 , Primer and DJ models. Not to say that SoCal is the best sample case, but it is Intense’s backyard, and I’ve yet to see their bikes filling trail heads