Loki87

@succulentsausage: What you want is an Intend fork as their travel can be easily adjusted back and forth. At least that wasd the case on the Infinity as far as i remember

The Wilson to this day remains one of the best platforms of all times and many modern frames aren´t within striking distance of its suspension performance. It is an almost perfect design. Now if someone were to find a way to put an idler on the thing...

My take on shoulder pads after over 20 years of riding downhill: They´re useless. They´re too flimsy to prevent broken bones because they can´t dissipate much energy. Just think about it. They only protect against impacts from the top. If you´re hitting the ground at an angle that´ll impact your shoulders in such a way, those flimsy shoulder pads won´t do shit because all the weight of your entire body is behind you and your entire upper body will crumble in on itself anyway. In impact scenarios from any other angle, they simply slide out of the way because there´s no reasonable way of securing them. Compare mtb pads to shoulder pads that are actually made to take an impact, like football shoulder pads and you´ll realize how useless they are. Once they make them big and sturdy enough to actually be useful, you´d not wantt to ride in them anymore.

USD designs i assume can be designed and produced rather quickly as they only comprise of rather simple components for the most part. I guess the dropout forgings are the most complex and most expensive to do. I guess if they want to, they can throw one on the market rather quickly if they´re using an existing damper. Maybe not in significant numbers, but i somehow doubt this fox fork is going to be a huge hit for them in terms of sales. My expectation though is for this Fox fork to be another step above the current factory forks, allowing Fox to spec Factory/Kashima equipped forks on more complete bikes to further distance themselves from RS. Being able to use that bling factor on competitively priced completes has got to be a huge incentive for product managers when buying parts for upcoming model years, The USD fork would ensure that Fox still has a sort of top end product in their lineup and not water down their brand by selling their former premium products on the cheap. Doing this would certainly help them keep their numbers up through what promises to be a few challenging years ahead of them. If RS wants to keep up, they have to bring something equal to the table. Not necessarily a USD fork, but something comparable. They could do something like the Intend 1 1/2 crown fork for example. Or something like an external piggy back for added air volume, like on the old BOS forks.

@joni0001984: He´s not a prick per se. He´s however very opinionated and he doesn´t hold back when talking to customers. Basically, you either agree with him and his approach to suspension, or you can take your business elsewhere. As long as you´re looking for someone to tell you what to do, it´ll all be fine. Just don´t ask him to do anything that goes against his philosophy. Great mind, horrible businessman. Just your typical mad scientist type. The homepage design tells you all you need to know.

@kleinblake: Imho this is because the industry moves periodically. First we got enduro bikes and they were all the rage because they can do everything well. Now they´re on the decline, because apparently they can´t do everything well enough. When the first RS Pyke arrived, it was praised as the next step in fork evolution and considered an Enduro fork. Then we got Totems and everything below was suddenly an unrideable noodle. Totem got canceled and somehow everyone was fine on the 36mm stanchions again. 38mm arrived and suddenly 36mm forks are noodles. Few years after, people are reconsidering 36mm forks for the added comfort. Or the Booxer as another example. RS always claimed it was stiff enough and they didn´t want to make it stiffer. Then stiffness became all the rage, largely by Fox 40s becoming overwehlmingly popular, and suddenly the Boxxer got thicker stanchions. This is most likely just another iteration of the same theme. Intend started the boutique single crown inverted fork trend. Other boutique manufacturers like Push jumped on the wagon because the niche offered a good way to differentiate themselves from the big players and it offers some manufacturing advantages. Now the big players follow the trend because they see a chance to offer boutique prestige in a mass produced product. They either sell a boatlaod because people wanna match their buddies with the Intends and Pushs, or it´s going to be a sort of technology demonstrator where few people will actually buy it, but it will inevitably establish Fox as on par with the boutique brands in the eyes of the average customer. In about 5 years they´ll scrap the design and claim standard forks have somehow caught up and there´s no reason for inverted designs anymore. With inverted designs requiring less tooling for lower castings, this is basically a quick and dirty project for them. If anything, it´ll grab some attention. They also seem to seek ever growing diversity in their lineups, for whatever reason. I´ve noticed that the factory forks have somewhat fallen out of favor recently, because most people simply go for the performance elite option instead and Kashima doesn´t appear to cut it anymore as an incentive to spend more money on factory suspension. So it would make sense to establish an even higher tier above the kashima equipped factory forks, which would allow them to put factory forks on more complete bikes and grab an even bigger market share, without watering down their brand in the process.

Commencal being very quiet in the corner.

Finally we get this technology applied in its most useful way. Full aluminium bonded makes so much sense when it allows you to use higher grade alu tubes. Sure, carbon is a great option as well, but for everyone looking for an aluminium frame, this is the next evolutionary stage. More strength, longer fatigue life, custom frame options. I wish more manufacturers would go that route.

That´s the most telling thing imho. I´d have understood them betting on him for the future while saving some bucks, but letting the young prospect go as well? That´s not a good look at all.

It sure is. That said, the Rage really is more than up to date still. Personally i think this is a good thing for consumers on many levels. First, depreciation of older frames is kept in check, keeping resale value higher. It creates less FOMO for current owners. Overall i wish more bike companies were brave enough to go with this approach instead of pushing out entirely new designs just to stay relevant in the market, despite the new design being only marginally better or even worse than the old one. New designs always mean new first gen issues that come along with it, so if a company stays with a proven design and incrementally improves on it until it´s a hassle free design, i see that as a win for the consumer.