btjenki

I've been saying this for probably almost a year now. Specialized built the new prototype demo last year and Finn was so psyched on it he raced it straight away. Engineers at the big S probably also were loving it. They had a Enduro that needed to be updated/replaced to keep the market happy but not a lot of way to improve it. So they were going to launch an updated version, compatible with UDH, but held off because of pending bike glut. I bet they did one model year run of updated frames but pulled the plug wanting to launch this new bike instead. They've been feverishly trying to get this new design into an enduro bike and launched as the novelty of a lower link pull/push shock linkage like that will have a lot of boost bros stoked and sales will be really high. Much higher than the slightly updated Enduro they were about to bring out.

You're on a poor monitor phone screen and/or have brightness turned down so it looks weird.

@Muscovir: The deeply discounted frames that are being discussed are basically out of stock everywhere or will be soon. Trek is not going to price it's just newly launched framesets at the prices that Specialized is using to blow out old/overbought stock, especially when said stock will be gone soon and especially when those bikes are about to be replaced. Trek will be selling this gen 6 Slash for a number of years, they're not going to 'slash' their launch price to be competitive with a limited quantity of closeout frames from one competitor.

*Not 'bad' ... But rather a distinct lack of depth compared to men's field.

@ka-brap: This tire will be out way before spring 2025. Spring 2024 at very latest.

This morning I noticed Remy was running a new tire in his most recent video with Vanderhoek in Whistler. Clearly similar to the Shorty II but different. Link: https://youtu.be/a_o221Wh_jk?t=279

I second: "2kg and $2k? Lol"

@leon-forfar: Yes, I've been to Crankworx many times, and have been there to shoot photos for media as well. I know the grind and hours these people put in. I know what Dave was up to with shooting all day, then culling images, processing, writing captions, posting to Pinkbike site, etc. It's a brutal schedule which is also why there should always be a writer working to cover the words so the photographer can focus on only the images. But that's not how MTB media works, which was my point originally. No one is/was 'hounding' Finn. Dave said he saw him in the SRAM pits after the race and asked him what happened and he got the info. Dave was busy working on images and processing so the 'news' did not make it out until the next afternoon as a photo caption in a Photo Epic. Original point was that Pinkbike didn't have any writers/contracted writers there covering the race in their backyard and how different that is from moto, let alone larger sports. If you prefer the lack of media coverage that MTB gets compared to moto, that's fine. I was just pointing out that it was wild that there was no report after the race on Finn's situation when it was clearly as easy as someone going to the SRAM pit and asking him, then posting it. As to the links you posted... My original point stands. There was not written race report content following the race (hours after or next morning). Your links are: the page for the live feed, bike checks (not race news), a post with embedded videos to the winning runs (that Redbull put together) and the final results. No a race report. Yes, I know Pinkbike doesn't have a staff of 100's of reporters. But they're actually fairly large in terms of scale when looking at them as part of the Outside family--when we're talking non-mainstream sports media. I never said I cared they contracted photographers or writers. That's A-OK in my book. Point was they didn't contract or have anyone there to write a post-race news article. Not that big of a deal, as it's normal for MTB media, I just chose to point it out here.