IanJF

The biggest failing of the WB deal seems to be the lack of communication to the riders. I would be fine with paying more for race coverage if it meant some of that money goes to the riders - without whom we have no event. Instead, WB seems to be creating a 'chicken-egg" problem of their own making. Many consumers are angry about being asked to pay a lot more for what they only recently didn't pay anything at all for. I would imagine the incoming budget is less than WB was hoping for or expecting. Thus they have no $ to pay riders. I don't see this situation improving until we as viewers have more of an incentive to pay. The idea of making the World Cup events more for top-tier racers is fine, but that doesn't work unless there are well established feeder series in place to support it. To implement the former without establishing the latter is a recipe for killing the sport. Unfortunately, I can see a rider-strike similar to Slopestyle happening at some point this season.

Most of my bikes are 6-bolt but that's mainly because I have a lot of pre-built Industry 9 wheelsets and while they offer normal spoke hubs with centerlock, their aluminum spoke wheels appear to be only built with 6 bolt hubs. That said, the few times I've swapped rotors on the centerlock wheels, I'll admit it's much easier/faster.

If it produces a sound to noise-cancel the sound of me hacking up a lung when climbing, I'm all in...

@yanil38: As an American as well, my WAG is she paid $5000 on top of having insurance. Most of us in the US have high deductible plans these days... I had a similar experience back in 2020. Grade 2 shoulder separation. No ambulance required. No surgery. The ER visit at my local hospital cost me about $2000 out of pocket. The bills also trickle in over a somewhat long period. I paid the last bill some 9 months after the visit. Three and a half years later, the shoulder still bothers me... eventually I would like to get it fixed, but I'm pretty sure it'll be entirely self-paid.

Considering the XC crowd tend to be weight weenies, it's surprising there is no mention of weight for the various build kits.

@briain: The Dorado Pro is not and that's before any sort of coil conversion. The Dorado Pro also has a MSRP of almost $2000, and I've not been able to find anyone who has a 29" wheel version in stock. I have a previous generation 27.5 Dorado Pro and like it, although it's actually heavier - I just weighed it: 3000g.

@jaymac10: I know a guy who works at a Specialized store in a high-money part of NJ (Wall St types). They sell enough of these that his shop will pay to send him to Specialized training classes to learn how to service these almost every year. He's told stories of parents coming in to buy e-bikes for the family and buying 4 of these. Top models. For these folks, the price is literally pocket-change. Yes. It's insane...

@RichS85: After donating, I'm actually a bit surprised they are only asking for 15K. Here in the US, that surgery would likely run into 6-figures.

The thing about insurance is the operating principle is many people pay into a pool of money with the idea that only a few of those people will make claims. The underwriting company cannot plan on every participant making a large claim or the account as a whole would not be sustainable. If the company is for-profit, that adds another layer of funding, but even a non-profit still has to have the total amount of money folks pay in be equal or less than the claims paid out. If the participant is a professional freestyle athlete, the chances of that participant making a claim is near 100% as injuries are part of the sport. This makes that person very expensive to insure as they will almost certainly require more in claims than they will pay into the pool over their time of participation paying into the pool. Is it a shitty system? Kinda. And abuse and all sorts of bookkeeping weirdness runs rampant - especially on the medical side. But that is pretty much how insurance has worked for hundreds of years.

Racing is hard. Life is hard. Future is uncertain. Ride bikes, have fun.