UtahBrent

Great story, cool to see a someone work around a full time schedule to the highest level of XC. Pretty inspiring as I too am a Project Manager at a Medical Device company and race Pro XC. But I suck at it...there's a critical difference.

"...That said, once I finished testing this bike and went back to an 11-speed SRAM drivetrain, I found the closer ratios of the 10-42t suited my local trails better." Actually, Eagle has exactly the same cog sizes for 10-42... 10-50t: 10-12-14-16-18-21-24-28-32-36-42-50 10-42t: 10-12-14-16-18-21-24-28-32-36-42 One could argue that he's complaining about the 42-50 jump. But it's actually a lower percentage ratio change than many of the jumps below that. That said, I own two Eagle setups and one SRAM 11-speed. The 11-speed is solid, where the Eagle groups have proven very finicky to get working correctly. Any tweak on the der. hanger and it blows shifts in a big way. The B-Tension setting has to be just so, even chain wear over a couple hundred of miles will take it too far off to perform at it's best.

@Jubbylinseed: What you said is absolutely not true. Spoke tension does not change wheel stiffness, in any plane, as long as they are tensioned such that the spoke tension remains above zero. It does change the resonant frequency of the spokes themselves (between the hub and rim), which can have an affect on perceived ride feel, but it does not affect the tires interaction with the ground.

Every 11 sp drivetrain I've had dropped off the 42 when backpedalling to position the pedals to get restarted on a tough climb. Neither of the two Eagle drivetrains I've ridden have this problem.

Not everyone rides in the same conditions as you do. Some people pedal miles on the road to get to the trail (gasp!) and have the legs to cruise at 20mph, then head up rough, sustained climbs of greater than 20% grade. You'd need the range too.

Awesome. First time I've seen a reason to upgrade from my Garmin 500.

People talk about how it takes less time to prep for a trainer ride than a real ride. I have not found this to be true...for me it's quicker to just bundle up and head out. I have a Zwift membership, but rarely use it as I find it more time consuming to get ready to ride on Zwift, even with my bike already set up on the trainer. It takes time to sync my power meter to my phone and my phone to my computer. Add in the time to open the App, log in, and pick a ride or workout on Zwift, and I could already be a mile (or two) up the trail. Even in the dead of winter. I like Zwift, but for me, a fat bike went a lot farther toward enhancing my winter riding enjoyment than Zwift.

It's not just exercise. It's a video game that requires you to pedal to enjoy it.

I've been running a Highline for 6 months and 1,000 miles now and I agree with this review in pretty much every regard. I can add that I've been riding the post in subfreezing (and sometimes sub-zero) temps for the last two months, with lots of road slop and salt thrown into the mix. The post only slows down slightly at sub-zero temps, and it operates as well as it did when new, despite the salt and road grime thrown at it.

"Once again Salsa is answering a question nobody (on PinkBike) is asking." Fixed it for you.