dubod22

A request for a future podcast - Please can you discuss the future of televised mountainbiking? With the news of the RedbullTV departure and shift to Discovery, the future looks somewhat uncertain. The interview with Chris Ball recently really took a turn for the worse and only underlined how bleak the outlook is. Although it's still early days there are many questions that remain unanswered including: - Are we having to pay a subscription? - Will they be able to broadcast a race like Redbull? - What of Rob and the rest of a really solid team? - Could Redbull effectively create a breakaway league that mirrors the official one, dividing the sport in two like what's happening with golf (albeit without the big bucks)? They have the resources and financial power. - How is Pinbike effected? I'm sure there's a ton more. It would be great to get Chris Ball on as part of the episode to seek a little bit of clarity (if possible). Thanks

If you're riding more wide-open bikeparky trails with high-speeds then a long bike is going to feel stable. If you're riding technical trails where you have to be quite dynamic on the bike then that reach is going to be cumbersome. EWS trails are technical so riders need the right equipment for the job. No one's going to be winning an EWS on a long (relative to their size) bike any time soon unless the courses change to bikepark style runs (Which would be terrible for EWS).

@DRomy: Your mate said there was nothing wrong with nationalism. I was pointing out that there is a big problem with nationalism - not that conoat IS Hitler. Your mate was being xenophobic, racist and bigoted about a nation. I told them not to have kids. You then tell me I'm the one being harsh. lol

@DRomy: They just called out 70 million French people. That's not a different perspective. That's straight-up racist.

@conoat: 'absolutely nothing wrong with nationalism. nothing.' I think those same words were said by Hitler once upon a time. Please don't have kids.

Mini-pumps have been around for years.

@stumphumper92: You seem to have misunderstood me. My conclusion was based on a gathered public opinion rather than my own. Again, my attempt was to be objective and not a personal rant. Not entirely accurate by any means so maybe it needs a survey instead. I did mention to suffer can mean going up AND/OR down which qualifies XC right through to DH (shuttles/lift access). Personally, they do offer a lot of potential to a lot of people but the original commenter asked why there was a lot of hate towards ebikes. I tried to answer concisely so it wasn't meant as a whine. Apologies, you seem more riled than I do about it.

@Prt: I will try to remain objective here. I don't think it's ebikes themselves people hate, maybe more about what they represent. Of course, to a company, they are a guaranteed sell. It doesn't matter how bad or good they are, by slinging on a motor, the markup is going to be considerably higher. That's probably just good business sense and why every company is doing it. For riders themselves, I guess ebikes represent having it come too easy. Mountainbiking is usually a sport where you suffer. Whether that is up or/and down, you don't tend to have it easy. Ebikes literally raise your ability to do the fundamental aspect of riding - to pedal - to superhuman levels, and this for a lot of people doesn't sit that well. Yes, it has a lot of good causes - getting those less able to ride bikes out and about - but from one rider to another, it just looks like an unfair advantage. Either way, they're here to stay so I guess everyone just has to get used to them.