Etolier

@cool3: Yes, massive difference in initial bite.

@kleinblake: cup bleed works super well on the MT5 - a Shimano cup is easy to adapt with the right fitting. Shimano mineral oil is lighter than the Magura "Blood" and helps to lighten up the action too. Pentosin CHF is lightweight too.

@cool3: Same, though I did use lighter weight mineral oil and switched to 4x single piston pads instead of the connected pads that come in the MT5 as OE. Best brakes I've ever used, personally, in and out of working in shops, etc etc.

A lot of US domestic manufacturers have similar "champagne" or other pale gold color codes, often used for decades across many models. Old, faded metallics etc. Chrysler's really common code was "DT2717" I believe. Similar to 90's GMC "WA9633". Can't say it's a color that really excites me, probably because similarly it reminds me of a faded beater car color.

@frojoe: Weird that more people don't talk about the newer Maguras. Mineral oil eliminates the "yearly-or-worse" DOT bleed and stays pretty much the same whether your bike is in storage or being heat cycled on the downhills. You can use lighter weight mineral oil in them, like Pentosin or even Shimano, Magura blood feels pretty thick and slows down the lever action IMHO. The 4 piston calipers with the individual pads per piston has so much bite, power, and modulation that I wouldn't even bother trying other manufacturers until they're on mineral oil and individual pads on their quad calipers. I used to use all manner of brakesets when I worked in shops, I bought new, used, warrantied, upgraded, now my bike just has MT5s and I don't care about other brakes anymore. It's been over 5 years, I'm not looking back. Magura! It ain't cheap though - Shimano has you covered in that department but I've found the average entry-level mtb'r glazes those organic pads on the cheap sets in as little as one ride. Plenty cash saved if you are good on your pads and wear maintenance.

When I was reading the article and saw "purpose-built limit screw drivers" I immediately got excited, but that changed to disappointment as JIS designation was nowhere to be found. Boo. I don't know why they would make a fancy screwdriver just for limit adjustment or whatever and not make a JIS version. There are higher quality tools available elsewhere. Park is good for some cycling industry specific things, but for everything else I have an automotive tool cart full of more ergonomic, more durable, more precise, and sometimes less expensive tools.

Really cool interview - If I hadn't left the bike industry for automotive refinishing, I would still be building wheels. I asked a lot of these questions and took a "best possible" for a given price point approach to customer needs and typically landed around the $600-800 wheelset mark, but pretty frequently had to put something together for $160-300 that still held up. This interview makes me want to work in the Bontrager wheelhouse! I love to hear that they've taken such a familiar approach to something that a lot of riders pine for but can't always reach - a dope wheelset!

Rad write-up. I'm stoked on this - Hub flanges designed with dish and balanced tension in mind from a major player? Asymmetrical (also wider) rim profiles and straight pull spokes, too? Sign me up - I'm glad to see the attention to wheel design here. The focus on strength (see: stiffness) is definitely nice, considering these are aimed at the rough-and-tumble part of the trail. I know other companies have had similar tech in one place or another but this is one of the more intelligent designs I've seen that is utilizing more than one or two good practices to improve strength. I will say it's difficult if not impossible to spec and build a custom wheelset with optimized straight-pull flanges, both asymmetrical and wide rims, and be able to offer XX1 compatibility at the same time as coming in at weights competitive or better than Mavic offerings (don't forget the same-size spoke lengths per wheel size, that's a knowing wink to mechanics from SRAM, and a trick that almost nobody has bothered with). Naturally the price is high, I would say fairly so, just because there is clearly a lot of work behind these wheels. I'm excited to see these out in the wild. There will definitely be people interested enough in these to drop the extra cash over other (not only cheaper but some more expensive) options. Pre-built wheels from well-known brands are only getting better and better, if you wanted a custom wheel that was this well designed you'd be paying much more and probably getting a little less.