BullMooose

Or you have long legs and regularly ride steep shit. I need a 240mm because I was occasionally hitting my ass riding steep stuff which is NOT a good feeling when you're trying to get further back on a sketchy section and are running into the seat...

Better to have 700g worth of stuff high up on your back than down low in the bottom bracket area amirite?

I mean it's just a question of adding a door, if stuff is rattling around inside the frame that's because you packed things poorly and that's 100% on you. There isn't really any opportunity for the little door to rattle (at least how it's implemented on Specialized bikes).

@wburnes: Stumpy evo comes with a little bladder that fits in there that can fill a full water bottle, and you can also fit a little bag that can hold a tube, co2 and levers. Plus the bottle cage holds a little multi tool (a rather shit one but it's fine for non-epic rides). It's super helpful, it's nice not having to carry a fanny pack if I don't want to, though I usually still do carry a fanny pack and just carry extra snacks. It also allows me to do longer rides that I previously would probably wear a backpack with just a fanny pack. And for longer rides where I have a backpack also, I can still carry an extra bottle's worth of water down low inside the bottom bracket rather than having that weight on my back. For me it's a game changer, it's not a dealbreaker if a bike doesn't have it, but after getting used to having it it's a major factor in new purchases. Feels like something that doesn't seem like a big deal until you have it, and then the prospect of no longer having it on a new bike kind of blows.

As others mentioned full bark buster style guards are not good if you have risks of going OTB, which is less of a thing on dirt bikes. Also they're more useful on motos since the chance of breaking a brake or clutch lever are a lot higher without them, sure you can carry spare levers but it's easier to just have the protection since if you break your clutch off good luck riding out. With an MTB it's more feasible to ride with one brake, and also you can always just walk out.

Just keep buying cliplites. They're crazy comfortable to me, and they seem to hold up quite well.

Just wanted to pile on and say that I appreciate this long-form, introspective style content. Obviously this isn't something that can be put together on a regular basis just due to the nature of it, but props to PB for publishing and massive shoutout to you Alicia for being vulnerable and putting this out there!

Woman at 1:04 seems in surprisingly good spirits for having navigated that chute face first

@eswebster: Lol you don't remember when you first started and didn't know how to do hop yet? C'mon