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Northwave Tailwhip ECO EVO Flat Pedal Shoe

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Overall Review

Northwave is on an eco-journey, looking to minimize their impact on the planet as they continue to produce cutting edge apparel and equipment for life on boards and bikes. To help them do so, they’ve teamed up with “ACBC” – short for “Anything Can Be Changed” - a leading B Corporation consultancy in applied sustainability for fashion and textile industries. The project with ACBC had the main goal of producing a new bike shoe model that introduces Northwave on the universe of circular materials

Northwave Tailwhip ECO EVO Flat Pedal Shoe

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iceman2058

4/8/2024 7:50am

Cane Creek DB Kitsuma Air Rear Shock

The Good

Tuneability, Value, High performance, Smothness, easy to adjust

The Bad

None

Overall Review

I replaced my Fox X2 shock on a Specialized enduro with this shock and my god… what a difference. The bike before with the Fox X2 shock would blow through travel terribly. The Cane Creek has extremely good dampening. Better than anything else I have used. The ride quality is outstanding. I’ve ridden many suspension setups in Downhill settings since 2004 and I have always come back to the Cane Creek shocks. I’ve had probably over 10 of the Cane Creek shocks and have never had one leak or break of

Cane Creek DB Kitsuma Air Rear Shock

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dhracer3

4/5/2024 6:33am

Cane Creek DB Kitsuma Coil Rear Shock

The Good

Reliability, tuneability, smoothness, customer service, quality, affordability

The Bad

None

Overall Review

Cane Creek were the original high performance MTB shock. Many don’t know this that they were the first to license the Ohlins twin tube technology from the MX scene and brought it in to the MTB market. This caused the other big name manufacturers to redesign their suspension in order to compete. I have raced many setups since 2004 and I always come back to the Cane Creek setup. I’ve never once had a break down of any Cane Creek products. The shock to this day performs easily with the most

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Cane Creek DB Kitsuma Coil Rear Shock

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dhracer3

4/5/2024 6:24am

Cane Creek Helm MKII Air Fork

The Good

Chassis stiffness, buttery smooth, mid travel support, tuneability, customization of decals, quality is outstanding.

The Bad

Would be great to have these in a 38mm chassis for hard hitting 170-180mm enduro bikes.

Overall Review

On a trail bike with 150/160 suspension. better than my Fox 38mm. the fork is optimized for e-bikes so has a very stiff chassis with very little defection when charging hard fast rough terrain. Nice a supple on the top end and small bump sensitivity with excellent mid travel support and bottom out resistance. No frill and gimmicks. They took a well known dampening platform and made it the best out there. Has a manual negative chamber valve that you can then customize your negative spring

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Cane Creek Helm MKII Air Fork

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dhracer3

4/5/2024 6:05am

Öhlins TTX22m.2 Rear Shock

The Good

It just works, no need to fiddle with damping, it just feels great from the get go.
Very robust, used it for many years, sent for service, not because it felt bad but because I wanted to be a good boy, but the service technician basically said there is nothing wrong with it.

The Bad

There seems to be a little bit of stiction when it gets moving which can make a clicking noise as it reverberates through a carbon frame (noticed on 3 bikes). Spring also rubs on plastic cover on damper which causes squeeks.

Overall Review

Robust, plush damping, just works out of box. I fiddled with the damping and to be honest I didn't need to as it is already setup on a great window. It could be a bit more silent though. Very happy with this.

Öhlins TTX22m.2 Rear Shock

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RoJo1

4/4/2024 10:28pm

RockShox BoXXer Ultimate Fork

The Good

More supple than 35mm Boxxer so not fatiguing and has amazing mid stroke support.

The Bad

None.

Overall Review

More supple than 35mm Boxxer so not fatiguing and has amazing mid stroke support.

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RockShox BoXXer Ultimate Fork

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RoJo1

4/4/2024 10:20pm

Yoshimura Chilao SS Flat Pedal

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Overall Review

Legendary moto aftermarket tuning company Yoshimura entered the MTB market four years ago now, with their Chilao flat pedal. There was a lot to like about that pedal, although our review noted a couple of small points of potential improvement at the time. Fast forward to present day, and Yoshimura is releasing a new version of the Chilao, dubbed the Chilao SS. The “SS” stands for Static Spring, which refers to a clever preload system designed to keep sideloads away from the bearings and help the

Yoshimura Chilao SS Flat Pedal

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iceman2058

4/1/2024 6:15am

2022 Transition Spur X01 Eagle Bike

The Good

A rewarding pedal on the way up and an absolute blast on the way down. Way more efficient and capable than you'd think.
Solid value.
Great customer support from the Transition team

The Bad

Bolts have a tendency to come loose so keep to keep an eye on them
No UDH (but there is that on the new one)

Overall Review

Over the last few years, I feel I've drifted away from my prior love or pedaling and trail riding and ended up just craving shuttle days and ebiking fire roads. This bike reminded me how enjoyable it is to get way out in the woods and be rewarded for putting some effort in. Plus, when things did get gnarly, this bike was able to handle just about everything I would do on my 160mm+ travel bikes. So pumped I pulled the trigger and so grateful to have my love of pedaling back!

2022 Transition Spur X01 Eagle Bike

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mtbthe603

3/19/2024 9:12pm

2022 Devinci Spartan Deore Bike

The Good

Has decent climbing capability and doesn't feel boggy with every pedal rotation. It definitely isnt the easiest to do technical climbs that I have done in Moab but its not the worst.

Jumps and descending is great on this bike. The zeb fork with the coil shock is unmatched in my opinion.

The Bad

There is no climb switch on the coil shock (not surprising) but I would honestly think that it would not make much of a difference.

I do wish that the head angle would be steeper to be closer to 63 degrees than the 64.5 degrees.

I had too many complications with the shimano deore derailleur that I even had to switch the entire setup over to a Sram GX which did cost me a pretty penny. I had it adjusted so many times and looked over for many hours from a professional mechanic which still didn't result in any success.

It definitely weighs more than my dad's aluminum Trek Slash. Slight notice with this aspect however when riding.

Overall Review

It is a good enduro bike and is quite comfortable to ride. I got used to riding this bike within the first 5 rides that I did. It honestly isn't anything crazy or out of the ordinary when it comes to a bike. It is just solid and good with just about anything.

2022 Devinci Spartan Deore Bike

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jd991998

3/18/2024 1:38pm

2024 Specialized Epic 8 EVO Pro Bike

Overall Review

Historically, Vital doesn't do cross country. We dabble here or there, but our passion is gravity-fueled mountain biking. When Specialized reached out at the end of last year about a new mountain bike on the horizon, I assumed it was for the new Stumpjumper (we all know it's coming soon). But lo and behold, it was for the Epic. Having always kept my knowledge of the XC world at arm's length, I knew the Epic had helped steer the evolution of XC racing, that it had a rear shock with a mind of its

2024 Specialized Epic 8 EVO Pro Bike

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Jason_Schroeder

3/12/2024 6:48am