William42

This is it right here. The perfect pinkbike comment.

@mhoshal: Not to mention some of them are super nice with pretty progressive geo and generally high build quality. Gone are the days of the only available gearbox bikes being shitty bodge jobs with mediocre geometry and suspension performance. There's some high quality shit out there at this point. Donno. I broke considerably more derailleurs back when I had my old 9-10 speed stuff than I do now, and the shifting and range is better now by far. I go through a chain once every 1500-1800 miles, which is about what I did back then, and replace the cassette every third chain. Stuffs gone up in price, but so has performance and baseline inflation. The bike industry does some pretty stupid shit sometimes, but its time to acknowledge that the current 12 speed setups are fairly decent for their intended enduro/trail/XC purposes. And SRAM and Shimano both make a DH dedicated group with tighter setups. This TRP drivetrain looks really good, and they've been around for long enough that I expect them to have the data to make sure they have the small details taken care of and actually put together something really good. Another competitor making high performance stuff is only a good thing. Especially since Shimano still out here convinced everybody wants 2x setup in the front after losing that battle 12-15 years ago.

@Explodo: a choice was definitely made. in the end, after much nail biting and tough deliberation, Pinkbike eventually came to the painful conclusion that the victor was gonna be money and they were willing to do whatever it takes to get the most they can.

@Muckal: Sounds ideal

Just to be clear, Kitsuma is using toolless adjustments.

@Solorider13: That's not really how suspension works - not just on this bike, but on all bikes. It's a fairly complex relationship, but the basics are this: An air spring by nature is pretty easy to push through until you get towards the bottom, where it ramps up quick and hard. This can have the crappy effect of making it so that you simultaneously blow through travel too easily, and have your bike feel harsh because you're riding a narrow range of the bottom of the travel. Frame manufacturers working from the bike kinemetics angle, and suspension manufacturers building out the dampers/springs themselves have gotten pretty clever at mitigating this and so the reality is your modern air shock is pretty fucking good, and brings all sorts of tuning options that just aren't available on a coil. But, most of them still have some sag in the midstroke. More powerfully built riders tend to notice this more because they're pushing through the natural friction from the damper and working the spring harder and so they're more likely to notice these shortcomings. The advantage of a coil is that its a linear spring. Meaning that there is no saggy middle spot, and the force required to push it from 0-1" is x, and it requires another x to go from 1"-2". This can lead to a more plush overall feeling, because the spring is less inclined to pack up and keeps the bike riding higher in it's travel. Frame kinemetics plays a huge role though, and for a lot of bikes, and air spring is just the flat out better choice. But as far as "it'll feel harsh" far from it. A 170lb rider is going to use a different spring rate than a 240lb rider - regardless of if it's air or coil. So as long as the 240lb rider is using a coil spring thats appropriate for their weight and riding style, it shouldn't feel drastically different - other than giving a bit more support in that mid layer and making the overall feel a bit softer and ground huggier.

So the issue there is the shock tunnel has clearance issues with the spring - and they haven't changed the spring to the best of my knowledge. As it's one of the narrower diameter springs out there, it's probably a no go. From what I've seen, lighter weight riders using lighter weight springs have better odds on making it work. But as the wire diameter gets thicker on the heavier spring rates, the greater the chances of getting rub are. Seems like it works for some people and not others, but since the official recommendation from both CC and Santa Cruz is "don't do it, it'll void warranty" probably best to avoid. YMMV.

@roxtar: Right but isn't that exactly the point? This group isn't trying to exclude or create any divisiveness whatsoever. They're going out to the people without exposure who have experienced some marginalization and being pushed to the edges by society at large and saying "hey, this is a cool place to be and you'll be welcome here." Are you upset that you didn't get exposure and they will? What's the contention and problem?

@roxtar: I agree, lack of representation does not necessarily mean lack of inclusion, and they're important distinctions in a lot of situations But they don't really apply here. You can't seriously mean to look me in the eye and tell me that the reason minority representation is low is geographical. I drive 3 hours each way every weekend to go mountain biking because thats where the closest trails I like to ride are. The biggest mountain biking hotspots I've ever lived in where *heavily* populated areas, and the further away I've moved, the fewer bikers and trails there are. Go up to Seattle or Vancouver and tell me there isn't a shitload of trails up there. Great, want to handwave "well minorities don't live there so that's why they don't show up on the trails there but that's not a related circumstance of its own" away? We shouldn't - because our sport should be on the leading edge of inviting people to to these places they don't have a lot of representation by making them feel included. We should be the reason that minorities who haven't felt included want to move to a place like Seattle, or any number of places in Colorado etc. But lets do it anyway and focus on just mountain biking. Go check out the parking lot at Northstar or Big Bear or China Peak, and see how many people drove in from the bay or from LA or Fresno? Demographics trends clearly show minorities living there, so why aren't they showing up at the trails? The thing that's so baffling about this entire conversation and argument is that the nonprofit group in question is just out there with a message of "hey we don't think that these groups have been reached out to before, we want to reach out to them and provide them with a more familiar space to their own that they can feel comfortable in and we can act as a bridge so that they can come and check out how cool this sport is and feel the welcome." It's literally just a message of "we want to include these people so we're gonna reach out to them." It won't effect in any way shape or form your own mountain biking experience. But there's still this weird attitude of "give em an inch and they'll take a mile" or some shit. Weird, and definitely a bummer.

This is a pretty hilarious lack of self awareness. "This community is great for me! If other groups of people don't feel welcome, that's their problem! Fuck anybody that tries to make inroads to communities that don't haven't felt welcomed!" Its always so interesting to see the people in positions of power and "in group" start quoting MLK when they try to justify why things shouldn't change. I genuinely can't figure out how it's possible to get so far from the spirit of the guy you're quoting and think that its justified. That's an aspirational quote. We're pretty far away from that as a matter of 'current state of things.' It'd be awesome to get there. I hope the non-profit we're talking about makes some inroads towards putting us there - despite opposition from some white guy who apparently think his riding enjoyment is going to be reduced because some black person or LGBTQ+ person or woman shows up at their public trail system and ruins things with their 'divisive' presence. Seriously. Step back from the bullshit culture war shit you've been sucked into and take a look around the trailhead next time you go. See how many different groups of people you spot. If you look closely, you'll notice about 2-3 woman for every 7-8 guys, and that'll be about it. Our sport is fuckin cool. Let's help share it with groups of people who don't know that and make them feel pumped to come ride bikes with us.