Mudstud

Thumbs up to the Disciples of Dirt. Probably been riding some of their trails last April when lapping some miles around Westfir and Oakridge. Highly recommendable.

We actually put a Big.Trail in 19" frame size on the scales in Albstadt. Official weight acc. to Merida should be 12.7kg/28lbs without pedals. Turned out to be 100grams/0.2lbs heavier. And yes: There were some reports of calf banging from various riders. Did not experience that myself, though.

Whoa, Tippie is mountain biking's Chuck Norris. That dude does not crash, he body-slams those poor rocks. Such a legend.

@zoomzoomchicken What defines ""freeride mountain biking"? As far as events are concerned, in my opinion it's the fact that it's not racing, neither head-to-head nor against the clock. But it's trying to impress judges to score a lot of points. So this event fits into the FMB World Tour just nicely. Freeriding is not just hucking yer arse off.

@mattsavage Even though Suntour does have some factories in the PRC (mainly for low end trekking parts, cranks and the stuff), it is a mixed Japanese / Taiwanese company. The management of the company still is mainly Japanese (the senior boss being called Daisuke Kobayashi), and as for the design, they also have some people in Europe working on that. So "China" is a very misleading word to use as for the origin of that forks. The only guys who would happily agree with that is some nationalist boneheads in Beijing, really, as TAIWAN IS NOT CHINA. Thanks for taking notice.

The middle of both - like in 12mmx142mm axles? These pups are pretty common on new bikes indeed, so your sarcasm seems to backfire a bit here. 650B does make an awful lot of sense to me: It might be just the right step for all those that never came to like 29ers and the way they ride. I am looking forward to testing the 650B models (which is still a challenge even for journalists at the moment), and I might well replace my ten-year old 26-inch trail bike with a 650B bike after all.

The boxy, square-edged shape ruins the cornering handling on harder surfaces - as all riders know who have been biking long enough to have ridden Panaracer's Smoke up front (before the Dart came out). But as the studs on the shoulders are flexible (which is a pain on tarmac, see postong above), the tire does not simply fall over once it reaches a certain lean. I'd rather go for a KOT up front and a Wet Scream (which looks pretty toothless next to a KOT) in the back. As for the width and why there's no 2.5 inch version: Mud clearance is the key here, folks

I've been using Kenda's KOT (2.35 foldable) during the last two years - mainly in winter and spring, when the trails get really muddy in Switzerland or are covered with snow. In the mud, these puppies excel and make the difference between sliding out of control and carving turns with precision. As soon as there's some hardpack or rooty stuff as well (or even paved roads on the way to the trails), they do get really annoying, though: Do NOT try to take your hands off the handlebar when you've got a KOT mounted up front (yes, I do that), the front wheel is going to go anywhere but in a straight line. But in soft snow and mud, I absolutely love their performance. And yes, no other mud tire looks as mean as these - but then again, the others are likely to be better all-round performers.

I'm a wee bit surprised to see people from Northern America and Australia reacting with anger to this decision and expanding their hatred from the UCI to the iXS. For the last ten years, iXS has been building first national downhill series in Switzerland and Germany, than a "European" one. The fact that the European series is now officially embraced by the UCI as "UCI European DH Cup" has no influence on the race calendar. And it surely has no influence on races in either Northern America or Australia, so chill the f*** down, will ya? This decision has nothing to do with races outside Europe, and it may well be seen and understood as a reward for a careful growing of this series over the years by iXS and the folks at Racement GmbH. Once the complete gravity race calendar for 2012 is being published, some people are going to realize that all their hatred and their fears have had little foundation. Still remarkable that a posting saying merely "F*** the UCI" gets 20 props - well-founded criticism, anyone?

Slalom my ass - 13 men and 8 women competed at the US champs. Yeah right, that sounds like a much bigger and healthier sport than 4cross. For yer info: The UCI decided to eliminate the 2nd gravity sport from the calendar. No matter if that is dual or 4cross, they are both out. All those 4cross-haters that now feel they got it right are simply terribly wrong: They have lost just as much. Less intimidating? Is that a synonym for "more boring"? Seriously, have a look at the worldcup's overall, it's not dirty t-boning riders in the top5, it's top dogs who do without unfair riding. Most of the concerns of the UCI were not in the hand of either teams or riders - it was up to the venues to stop building 4cross courses from scratch for every single race, which is a waste of time, ressources and money. And it's stupid as well because you give away the chance of gradually improving a course based on competition experiences.