hexonjuan

Have been way interested in the Cura4s, but this looks like they rehashed the El Camino master cylinder.

@groghunter: Exactly, and that's a big if.

@mtallman2: Fair, but a XG1299 is going for a bit under $500. If we're doing top tier:top tier comparison, the price gap gets a couple factors larger.

@JSTootell: They did. The market was asking for the large range but also at more affordable price points than what could be made for XD. Shimano listened to the market and made their engineering decisions on that it seems XTR may not win the weight war, but it certainly nails it out of the park on price. And I highly doubt Sram would've welcomed an application from Shimano to license their XD driver.

@mikekazimer: 8lb sledge hammer and a quad espresso. Go!

@JSTootell: Yes, but XD isn't a great design to scale down to inexpensive/OE cassettes without a good amount of pitfalls in design. MS does. There's no way to make a good XD cassette under $50, hence Sram produce a fair bit of HG units still.

They revisited Hayes' old Prime Expert & Pro poppet valve design on the MC piston and use uninsulated steel pistons at the caliper. There's a lot of interesting design features on these, but there are some pretty questionable ones too.

Rad, but it just make me wish they were available in the US all the more.

Funny bit about the Dorado air spring: You can set it to max travel and then adjust the travel with your shock pump. Just attach the pump so it registers your pressure, push down on the fork to your desired ride height/travel, and take the pump off. I got the idea when stuffing my bike in a van that needed a wee bit more clearance for it to fit. Attached the pump and pushed it down all the way and it stayed there. Light bulb moment. It doesn't rely on an equalization channel in the stanchions the way Fox, RS and near every other fork mfr does. Removed the necessary travel spacers to set it 150mm for rowdy, drop it back to 140 for most everything else, and will set it at 130 for a bikepacking trip this summer. It's worked a peach so far.

With Merida's 49% ownership stake, that could be plausible.