gumbytex

@FuzzyL: yes it does. Internal combustion emissions are 100% unmanageable waste that are warming the planet. Batteries are solid, very manageable waste. And as the grid becomes greener, so does riding an electric bike.

I ride six days a week, am in the upper ranks of my local riding scene in terms of fitness, and love having a 30/51 gear. It's great for sustained 15-20% climbs, especially if there are technical bits that require you to redline and then recover for the next technical bit. It also lets you spin more, rather than slow-cadence grunt it out, which makes holding traction in loose climbs easier. YES that means sometimes going at hiking pace, but, uh, shouldn't a mountain biker prefer riding to walking? I'm happy to be able to fully ride a climb rather than dismount a few times. Also, someone commented below about keeping your front wheel on the ground...with a steep seat angle and longer chainstays it isn't an issue. I'm on a Nukeproof Mega 290 and struggling to keep the front wheel planted is a thing of the past, even when using my 51t, and I don't even have sit on the nose of the saddle to do it.

I'm plenty fit and there's stuff in the 15-20% range around me that I really appreciate having a 30/51 for.

@MathiasBd: the number of new electric bikes I see people riding around my city on, instead of being in a car, begs to differ with you

In my experience if you get a kid on a balance bike early, they can learn to pedal really early. Earlier than they should be given a throttle, that's for sure. Both of my kids were pedaling tiny bikes by age 3, and there's no need (and possibly no sense) in giving them a battery, motor, and throttle any earlier than that.

@hessiannate: Probably none of these athletes would be hospitalized if they contracted COVID-19. You're absolutely right. But it's never been about that. It's about containing the spread so that our grandparents don't die of it. A race like this...one infected person (who doesn't know they're infected because they're fit and healthy and asymptomatic) infects a couple more who go back to their towns and infect a few more, and eventually someone's diabetic uncle or 87 year old grandma gets it, gets intubated, and dies two weeks later. 137,000 dead so far in the USA.

Now do a projected retirement/529 account sacrifice related to buying a Yeti instead of a Commencal every few years! 7% real return after inflation and new bike every 3 years as input parameters. Thanks.

Funny that criticisms #1 and #2 are true of my Santa Cruz Hightower v1 (carbon bearing surfaces, poor tire clearance including seat tube rub at bottom-out), and criticism #3 is true of Hightower v2 rear brake routing (and possibly #1 and #2 as well, I don't remember because it was a warranty replacement and I sold it in short order). In other words, the Viathon issues seem to be common to traditional brands as well.

Let's just out the elephant in the room here...the S-Works is so expensive because there needs to be a brick-and-mortar markup. Look at what Lauf's $10k bike did when they went direct-to-consumer a few days ago...it dropped by $3500. Almost the same difference as here. I love my LBS but the $3000 price difference you're paying here is mostly for someone to put the handlebars on for you (and it would cost far less than that if you brought the Viathon to your LBS and had them put the handlebars on and do a once-over tune for ya).

"Wait he's putting goggles on that have been on his helmet in the rain?" "He's not going in the house so dirty like that. He...WAIT HE'S GOING IN THE HOUSE LIKE THAT."