Pit Walk - EWS Round 4, La Thuile, Italy

 Function over form, it's just a goggle lense with ear stems so you get the coverage without your eyeballs melting. Genius idea if you ask me, but not very fashionable.

 @Fix-the-Spade: Not very fashionable? Kool Moe Dee and Geordi La Forge disagree.

 @Fix-the-Spade: hah. Until you said that, didn't give them a second look, now that you say that, I want a pair. not excited for the $150 price, though.

 @groghunter: go Pit Viper instead

 @Pichy: hah, typed that comment knowing someone would bring up the Pit Viper. The sunglasses that were spawned from the the thought process of "how can we make the speed craft more American without putting an eagle swooping down from a flag carrying a shotgun on them... Oh, and add some pro wrestling style points too."

 @groghunter: smpfreeskiercom.c.presscdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Pit-Viper.jpg

 @Pichy: no please don't

 @TheR: Comment of the day my friend!^

 @richierocket: I used to love me some Kool Moe back in the day... How ya like me now?

 Those 100% are dope!

 @groghunter: you typed your comment to moan about the price, so Pit Viper are cheaper. English is not my main language but that's what I understood ????

 @Fix-the-Spade: Not very fashionalble?!?!?! This has been my signature look since '97...damn it...why didn't anyone tell me!!!

 Go for Oakley Jawbreaker

 @Pichy: You were correct man, it's just that those shades are kinda even more ridiculous looking. & for an american, they remind me very strongly of the most ridiculous fashion of the 80s. (which is why @ginger-wheels posted that pic.)

 @groghunter: haha!, Ok!. I forgot to turn on the sarcasm detector.

 @groghunter: Hey everyone's rocking eye-melting neon, why not Pit Vipers too!

 Macho man approved wooooooooooooyeahh!!

 @shakeyakey: ooooohhh yeah! Even Miss Elizabeth approves!

 @norcal77: LoL^^= WORD

 @Pichy:

Oakley Eyeshade for the oldschool/originator style points!
Often imitated...never matched!

 Oakley Factory Pilot Eyeshades, the bomb!
I'd still have them if some dipshit I let wear them for an "emergency" didn't steal them.

Y6ou owe me a 100 bucks dipshit...

 1. Yeah I always thought the Yakuza looked cooler than the Sunday even though it was considered a lower end model. Too bad the greedy bastards destroyed the company.

3. Cannondale products have changed so much in the mean time that I'm not sure what a Cannondale downhill bike would be like. If they'd bring those flexible pivots to downhill riding and/or use single sided suspension front and rear, that would be pretty cool. Maybe it should be "or" exclusively. Single sided suspension with flexible pivots for downhill racing sounds scary.

 @vinay: With Clementz riding a "normal" fork, I think (I hope !) Lefty would not be considered for downhill... ^^

 @Matt-Pau: There are different ways to have single sided suspension. Telescopic is one way, a linkage is another. Linkages are not common for front suspension anymore, but that doesn't mean it can't be done. The Lefty is for front suspension, you can still have single sided rear suspension. It is being done already.

 That guy on his own old school bike + Pits review + Fabien Barel occasionally coming back + Matti Lehikoinen #longlivechainsaw .. Great article, more of them please @pinkbikeproductions

 Mold prices are determined by durability and accuracy (among others of course, like size and complexity). For prototypes durability isn't much of an issue so you can use a softer mold material which is quicker to machine and causes less tool wear. I'm not sure about the prices for 3D printing these days. One technique I used ten years ago (when 3D printing wasn't so feasible) was to machine a rough shape out of styrofoam. Then coat it with a layer of ceramic paste, let it dry and then machine the final shape. You will probably still need to finish it before you seal the mold (to make it airtight) but how much that is depends on how accurate you machine (CNC). More accurate machining is more expensive but so is manual labour so there is an optimum somewhere. And you can just use a cheap KUKA robot to do the machining. This is really soft/brittle material that is quick to work with. Which makes it cheap yet still perfectly accurate. It will only last a single product, but that's fine for prototypes or one-off products. I doubt 3D printing is cheaper, but I may be a bit behind in that field.

 @vinay: I doubt 3D printing was used although it's now fairly advanced the cost hasn't reduced much as the time it takes to print with most materials is still far to long and hand finishing is needed.

 @doek: I'd go opposite on this...3D printing has gone dirt cheap and dead easy for a simple part like this...not wanting to advertise for them, but take a look at quick parts. If your timelines aren't critical and your open to a few material options you're not more than a couple grand for something like this while small plastic bits like the shape shifter trigger are probably less than $50.

 Four small pistons (generally two smaller at the leading edge and two slightly larger at the trailing edge) are said to improve modulation and encourage even pad wear as the different sized pistons counteract pad twist in the calliper.

 @gibbon-on-an-orange: Alright, clear. So that means there is no place for a six pot caliper I suppose.

 Maybe he's testing next year's team colors.

 But please tell me, what are the big differences? Another gear, the same lever to press, I think they will be able to shift their gears.

 @probiker78: Going into a race, I'd think you'd like to be familiar with the equipment and have confidence it's going to work. If you've never used it before, it's just an uncertainty you don't want to face before a race is on the line. These guys are pros, and I'm sure they'll be fine, but at the same time, I wouldn't want to monkey with it in a race unless I've had some time to test it out.

 Unless you're Troy Brosnan

 I don't think it's a very big change from an 11-speed XX1/X01 setup. A little bit more low end, and some limit screw adjustments to make. Everything else is the same, doesn't seem like something the pros would be too concerned about.

 @tsheep: The big unknown is the chain. Will it live up to the forces that the top athletes put into the cranks? It is narrower don't forget. Graves already broke an 11-speed Sram chain in one of the round in South America.

 @TheR: ya because adding one gear all of the sudden makes it rocket science man really listen to what you said and realize how stupid it sounds seriously. If you can shift through 11 gears chances are your gonna be able to shift through 12 lol again it's not rocket science bud

 @pr3dator: Why is the chain unknown? Nino Schurter and other top XC racers are running Eagle for a while and they didn't break it (in a race at least) so I don't think these guys will break it either...

 @mhoshal: Is that the famous Canadian politeness I always hear so much about?

 @TheR: f*cken eh bud!!! Lol

 here you go: www.brembo.com/en

 They should have ran a competition to win a weekend as a team rider!

 @km79: that would've been so sweet!

 That's pretty horrible indeed. If I were Marc Maurissen, I'd get one of their bikes and have a go on the course. It's my birthday after all, better have a blast. Much better than to spend the weekend in the pits with no bikes to prep. Cool my family came over though, definitely appreciated. I'm not Marc though.

 No eagles here...still waiting to see them fly towards the land if availability.