MortenBodil

Bulletproof is not the first thing that comes to my mind, when thinking of Crankbrothers. I've owned both a set of the newer version Candy 3 pedals (with better bearings and more reliable, they said) and a set of Cobalt 3 29er wheels. The needle bearing in one of the pedals chose to explode during a fast descent during a mtb holiday on Gran Canaria, when they were one year old. They were well maintained and the grease were still looking good when I pulled them apart, but the axle was busted, since I had to ride them home from the mountains, approx 20km. Sent them back to the CB wholeseller who said that they haven't seen that on the better 3 and 11 models. They replaced the needle bearing and sent them back. Apparently they didn't consider replacing the axle, so it felt like shit afterwards, you could easily feel which pedal was the busted one. Sent them back again and this time they just sent a new pair - good service! But they broke after another year of riding, so I sent them back, they said that they have never had any issues with the 3 and 11 models (sounds familiar, right?) but sent me a new pair. I gave the new pair away and switched to Look, who uses real bearings! And don't even get me started on the wheels! All the bearings in the rear wheel were rubbish after less than 500km/6 weeks, the spokes flexed so badly when ridden hard, that they creaked and wore on each other, both when pushing uphill, in sprints or going down... They felt heavy, slow to accelerate and soft when cornering, and they are the only wheels I have ever experienced a burbing tire on. Needless to say that I sold them pretty quickly again.

Mike Levy, that's exactly the case, and if you're not a racer yourself or know people who race XC, you most likely won't understand it. Every time Pinkbike writes about xc stuff there's a lot of comments about lycra clothing, dropper posts and so on, and no they probably wouldn't loose a second on uphills with a dropper post, and the same goes if they were wearing baggy shorts and shirts, but marginal gains helps the athletes getting the right racing mindset. The less things they have to be concerned about the better. Last season I was racing on a Spec Epic, and even though that's a pretty fast bike in the first place, I tuned it in every possible way, just to be sure that the guy next to me on the starting line didn't have a better shot at winning than I had. And we are talking about trimming your SRAM 1X groupset with carbon plates for the rear mech, 700$ ceramic titanium pulleys, lighter bars, seatpost, saddle, seatpost clamp, and replacing all bolts on the whole bike with alloy bolts(rear mech, crankset, suspension, gear hanger, brakes and rotor bolts). Basically every bit possible.

Marselis ved Århus :) Det første er et uofficielt spor, mens det sidste af videoen (inkl. det store drop) er officielt spor :)