cpt-cool

Thanks for that. I was precsely going to ask that question before doing an hourlong research which countries in the world are possibly not named in that geoblocked youtube list. Would have been easier if they would just list the countried that are not geoblocked instead of pointing out that the majority of the planet is geoblocked.

Ahhh, you almost had me here: - I can use my brilliant OneUp dropper - I'm in the 150-170 dropper camp (and always will be), so never mind the additional insert length - No awkward looking black boxes hanging below your saddle - Remote looks good and is easily swappable from one bike to another - Plus it's Canadian made and we support Canada here, not the US of A (anymore) But then having to run an additional cable through the whole bike unfortunately ruins my whole purpose which is to be able to easily install, run and swap one dropper on various bikes. Bummer.

£30 is ridiculous indeed. VPN might help. Had to consider it myself. Not that I necessarily wanted to. When Eurosport first aired the Cup, I played it fair and square. Went really well and I didn't mind doing so. But when they stopped their broadcast abruptly mid-season last year, it appeared nobody had thought about offering an alternative for where I live. I wrote to all the suckers somehow involved. Didn't even get a response from anybody why there's no broadcast anymore right in the middle of Europe. So I found the solution myself (not without thinking "go **** yourself"). Happens to be cheaper too.

I've watched every Rampage since 2010. So yes, I'm just becoming an old geezer complaining, but this year's Rampage has been the worst of them all. I think I just witnessed the funeral of Rampage's freeride spirit. It's officially dead! It has unfortunately been an ongoing trend in the past years, but man, this year's lines, with a few (or only one) exceptions, were so utterly boring. That poor mountain just looked like a well prepared bikepark with jumplines for the very brave. Only thing missing was a chairlift to get riders up there. Same goes for the unprofessional, pro-northamerican judges, sitting comfortably in their chairs each year like a bunch of despots, facing the same criticism each year, yet firmly holding on to their methods. Don't get me wrong, what I saw was a firework of well executed tricks in a big-mountain environment by the most talented riders of the planet. And the run with the most technical tricks has (probably) won. Although if you throw in "amplitude", the results would most likely need to be revised. It's all diffuse on how these criteria add up and I don't even want to waste my time on that. What's not diffuse at all though and what's really gutting me is that the only run deserving to be called "free-ride" ends up in 11th! position. I'm not saying Brendog's run was a winning run. But by scoring it that low, the judges and Rampage have made a clear statement about what they think this event is about and in what direction they want to head. What made my day was when I saw that over 50% of the fans, including myself, strongly disapproved and seem to have a different opinion of what they want Rampage to be. That was probably my favorite moment of the broadcast: realizing that there seems to be a common feeling of "ras-le-bol" as to what Rampage is turning into. So go figure it out Redbull Rampage. Bring back the FREEride or bust!

Knee/shin protectors going down to the ankle? Haven't seen those around in DH racing for a while. They will look funny though, when worn under those speedsuits. Oh wait, it says "should be worn" in the UCI rulebook. What exactly is the purpose again of using a "should" in a rulebook? Maybe UCI can explain this? Oh wait, it's UCI we are talking about! Sorry, but the precision with which those rules are formulated is a joke. Basically you can race in anything that's not a Speedo or Bikini, as long as you are putting it to sale it and claim that you've designed it for DH racing. Come on!

That fork is certainly nice but jeeez, the silhouette of that privateer frame is just a pain to the eye.

That sure looks like a 26/27.5 müllet :-) Nice one Tommy.

@m3hl: Yeah, I knew I had seen this before and was astonished that they somehow know that it's 755mm but nobody's really sure if that's with or without grips. Since it seems to be quite common on EWS that they chose narrower bars because of tree clearance rather than ergonomics that's quite a deal though. Because I'd guess a bar with counterpunch grips for example turns out easily 2cm wider then what it was cut to. So that's 770 between trees for a 750 bar, quite a huge difference if we see what size differences we are talking about here between riders. Or it's a 750 bar that's actually cut to 730, which I would somehow doubt. Anyway, taking this into account, plus the fact we don't know anything about wingspan, spacers, handlebar roll makes the width information quite pointless. What I might take away from it is that they might run their bars a little narrower than the norm to avoid clipping the bars. That's it mainly.

Before we start discussing about CMs or even MMs, it would be interesting to know how these widths are measured? With grips or the nude handlebar? Even low profile grips easily add 1 cm overall width to what the bar was initially cut at.

The first race will show how the broadcast experience really is. Doing so before that is just speculation and a waste of time. Sure, Rob will be impossible to match, but let's wait and see. However guys, all these "it's not free anymore", "I won't pay a cent" comments really make me giggle. Are you serious? That thing costs 6,99 € per month. You need 4 months and can watch 8 DH races + the World Champs. Now I won't calculate it for you, but if you get excited about that amount, I think you are in the wrong sport. Good things don't always come for free, especially not in cycling. If it turns out to be good, I will be absolutely glad to support DH Mountainbiking by subscribing rather than being targeted and marketed by a soda seller whose energy drink I don't like.