Randoms Round 1 - Sea Otter 2024

 Do you expect me to race, TrekFinger? No Mister Bond, I expect you to die...

 @Shannyla: LOL, 'trekfinger'!

 It's R-Dog's bike so you should all peer pressure him into racing the DH.

 @brianpark: Whoa, looks like R-Dog has modded his Y-22 for dual slalom — added a riser bar, shorter coil shock for lower BB + slacker head angle, grippier tires, chopped post, shorter stem, flat pedals, etc. He’s gonna do it, isn’t he?! If he’s waivering, please pass along Pinkbike’s collective “Dooo it, dooo it, dooo it” from all of us =)

www.pinkbike.com/photo/26529194

 @brianpark: Old bikes rip, by the way =). Here’s riding my 1999 Litespeed Tellico in recent years:
www.pinkbike.com/video/532712

I’d totally race that Tellico or my 2000 Litespeed Owl Hollow in the Sea Otter dual slalom — if they create a vintage category =P

As a side note, the last time I raced Sea Otter was in 1999 with my Fox (clothing) teammate, Travis Pastrana. He was fresh off his freestyle motocross world championship win (age 17, I think) and he finished 3rd or 4th in the stacked Jr Ex category (80 riders or so). I ended up finishing 2nd which made for a good showing for the Fox team. But too bad they weren’t paying me what they were paying Travis! Cool dude though...humble, chill, fast, crazy skills, and just crazy in general, haha.

That 99 Intense M1 was quite a rig, even in the slalom (1999 Deer Valley NORBA, pictured)...I finished second at the Sea Otter DS on the M1, as I destroyed my Rotec slalom bike wheel in practice.
www.pinkbike.com/photo/26536871

But the 97/98 Rotec dual slalom bike was perfect for dialed slalom tracks:
www.pinkbike.com/photo/20234335

I sold that aluminum Rotec and got a former-team steel Rotec frame for $50 — fillet brazed by GT’s Longmont frame shop, as it’s essentially a custom extra-long 17” slalom GT Psyclone. It’s just a stunning bike. It’s currently getting a hub upgrade (DT Hugi Hayes w/54t ratchet to the same Mavic 121 low-profile double-steel-eyeletted 28mm-external rims with silver DT Alpine 3 spokes) and NOS year-2000 Shimano XT 4-piston brakes w/sintered pads & 180mm rotors, along with some fresher (era-ish) Maxxis 50a High Roller orange-stripe tires or similar, and a slightly taller steerer + ground-to-bar height. Can’t wait to ride it!
www.pinkbike.com/photo/26536932

 No-na

 @HankHank: HEI hei its not a laughing matter

 Wo!

 Too soon. Those guys need to Process.

 I heard they packed up their Stuff.

 I did, but there was nobody there. The Operator must have been busy droppin' a Stinky

 The whole situation is just Stinky.

 unfortunately it was pretty stinky there. glad you took at stab at kona

 @Offrhodes: I think all the Kona employees are gunna be saying "Wah wah" =[

 stab back

 I'm kona miss them

 @SwampThAAng: Good one Dawg!

 @DizzyNinja: Kona’s early DH bikes were real head-Turners — I’m going to Misser them too:
www.pinkbike.com/photo/25229441

 there was just some guy there showing off his Unit

 @lunchbucket: Sounds “Hot”...psyyych!

 Don't threaten us Haole!

 With all those tools, I might Wera tool belt while riding.

 Yeah more from the wear stand please

 Wera One collaboration

 Wera makes a Christmas advent calendar with tools in it. It's amazing.

 @WRCDH: Wera do I send the check?

 Me too. Surprisingly, the most tempting thing in offer in this list.

 Wera's tools are ridiculously good. when your philips bits stick in the screw so well that they overpower the magnetic bit holding in the chuck, you've done something right.

 @groghunter: so does Bondhus that actually makes stuff for ParkTools but cost half. Bondhus, Wera and PT are so far the most precise tools I've tried

 @peterknightuk: So True! I must buy!

 I have one that's basically a t-handle version of the kit pictured. A t-handle with a bunch of easily swappable bits. It's awesome. Great for traveling too, as it's nicely packaged and pretty small.

 They make a bunch of great tools, personally love the hex plus T handle wrenches and 1/4” socket set.

 @valrock: Guess you've never tried a PB Swiss. One class above the rest!

 I bought it on amazon plus Wera torque wrench kit

 @DonaldTee: I did, fit super tight as well as my 25 bucks Bondhus alen key set , just used my hex Wera set yesterday first time, perfect fit, but again - as perfect as 25 CAD Bondhus and Wera was 60 Canadian ducks

 That's exactly what happened to the hydra. Flexing axles start to crack overtime to the point they referred to the axles as a "consumable" item

 Cable tourism is the cherry on top. Goddamnit Salsa, I trusted you!

 @rodeoknight: oh man I was already so surprised with the ebike decisions they made I didn't catch the cable tourism. Unbelievable.

 Their new ebikes start at $5k. They're making their choices to bring the price as low as possible. If you think of them from that perspective, all the component choices make more sense.

 I am a big salsa fan. I ride a salsa. I have encouraged others to buy salsa. When the ebikes were a little underwhelming I forgave them for it. But cable tourism, that is unforgivable. At least the e-Blackthorn, er moraine doesn't have it.

 any questions on ebikes is questionable.

 Were1

 Nowwe're2

 but why not VR1

 I've put about 14,000 miles on a I9 hubs (across two hubs on two bikes). They've been very reliable for me, although bearings don't last forever.

No complaints here.

DT Swiss has also been rock solid, although low engagement. Shimano required annoying service but also worked fine.

 I’d like to hear more about the stem issues you heard of/witnessed if you have the time. I had the base of one stem (31.8, 30mm) either not machined correctly or somehow developed a stress riser on the bottom side of the steer tube clamp. It had a slight high spot in it that caused the headset to constantly come loose. Plenty of headroom between top of steertube and headset cap. What did you run into?

 Proprietary spokes put me off. Just a ballache when you need one

 @Inertiatic: I think if you were clever you'd have one or two spare.

 @Inertiatic: They ship with a drive and non-drive spoke just fyi. Still not cheap or convenient at $7-8 a spoke but I’ve only managed to brake one doing a nasty stoppie on a 24 spoke front wheel in the last 10 years. I unthreaded the long end from the hub (way more convenient than a j-bend spoke unless you get really lucky) and rode it several times before replacing it. There’s definitely something to those spokes (the easiest rim swaps ever, unique ride feel, colors if you’re into that) but if Onyx made a compatible hub I’d be all over that. I think Onyx has a superior design despite the weight. Just food for thought.

 As far as I can tell, it means the pawls take turns engaging, rather than all clicking into place simultaneously. I know what each of those three words mean, but I don't know if they can really justify using them to describe this.

 Exactly. In this case for a 121 tooth drive ring paired with a 5 pawl and 0.59 degrees of engagement (per I9 specs) this means only 1 pawl is engaging at a time.

(Interesting, I'm curious if that puts more load on the bearings than engaging in symmetrical pairs)

 @grgsmith: Yes it does, and some luck customers also get too much side load on an already loaded axle.

 probably a clever marketing monicker for "only one pawl engages at a time"

 They also have a different band color than the other cross-tip bits. Maybe one is JIS and the other is Pozidriv? Although the longer ones with the black bands aren't gold... Maybe they decided to color them gold after they started making them and newer production will have all the black bands on gold metal?

 Only one thing is clear to me from your post... That you never rode a 1990’s Trek URT, hahaha =P

But 1999-2001-ish era GT iDrives were good bikes — I think they achieved the sort of performance you’re talking about with their semi-URT dogbone link + rotating floating drivetrain. But URT’s never achieved (nor will likely achieve) that level of performance =)

 I rode both in the same era - I had (still do) an orange mrXC and a my riding buddy had a trek URT much like the one pictured. The big disadvantage of URT was that you couldn't engineer anti-squat into the bike so it tended to bob a fair amount under pedalling compared to the orange. That is a true disadvantage and a good reason we don't ride them any more (which iDrive also counteracted, through a different mechanism) - its nothing to do with suspension stiffening when standing up.

in my original post I'd meant to write "fairly indistinguishable from that ride characteristic" - the stiffening doesn't make a difference, the antisquat does

 My Dad owned that exact Y22 in that colour with that spec and I am not here to defend it. Good riddance.

 @WRCDH: Yeah you're not wrong. I'm old enough to have ridden proper URT's and semi-URT's (Maverick's & I-Drives).
When standing on a proper URT the suspension is having to lift your entire weight each time the shock was compressed. On a non-URT your weight is compressing the shock, on an URT it's stopping it compressing.
Semi-URT's are still some of the best techy trail climbing bikes I've ever ridden. They still suffered from stiffening suspension when descending but the worst bit was the steepening of the HA when standing.
I think a really short link semi-URT (think Maverick) would make a great gravel frame.

 I'm with you on this, raced GF joshuas for a few years, the effect was negligible. The benefits were constant chainstay lengths (no clutches or short dh mechs back then remember) and good axle path from a long, high pivot, generally quite a strong and stiff rear ends.

 ....Also shocks blew after half a run, so your suspension never really worked anyway.

 What are you waffling on about? 3% less movement? What?

URTs are bad because your weight is on the rear triangle, which means it's unsprung weight not sprung weight, meaning the rear triangle can't react separately to where your weight is, meaning, when stood up, it almost locked the rear suspension out.

Imagine having two pieces of wood connected with a hinge, you want to lift one end of one piece while leaving the other on the ground, Which one do you stand on? The one you want to lift or the one staying on the ground?

 @inked-up-metalhead: You rode one? Its really not that noticeable, at least in the grand scheme of barely functional 90s bikes. In your analogy, i think it would be fairer to say you were stood with your feet spread over the hinge, on a proper bike you're leaning a bit away from the side you want to lift, on the URT, you're leaning slightly the wrong way... its a fairly minor difference, not black and white.

 The thing I recall about riding URT bikes is the feeling of the bike "folding" in the middle and bars rocking back and forth. The forks sucked and had 60-80mm of elastomer sprung garbage and the shocks worked ok, when the bike compressed, the bars rocked back as the frame pivoted. It felt really unsettling. Also, the pedal bob was annoying.

 @pbuser2299: I have ridden URTs, yes, and I know it felt like the cranks were solidly connected to the rear axle Vs a full sus that feels like it's not. Yes, it's not like it's a hardtail, but it was closer to a HT than a FS. Are you aware that was the point of the design? To pedal like a hardtail when stood up sprinting? As a half way house between actual suspension that people were wary of? It was intentional that it stiffened when stood up, I don't know why you're trying to deny one of the main features of URT suspension...

 Y's looked cool, rode like garbage. The whole "braking or standing up stiffens the rear suspension" was bad. Even by the standards of the time, the bottom bracket on Y bikes was too high, so they didn't ride well even seated.

And no, a "blokes in a shed" built single pivot bike doesn't count as modern,

 @BikesBoatsNJeeps: the one thing I really think of from my days on a Rocky Mountain Speed was that feeling of the bike trying to launch me over the bars if I braked while sitting. Ideally one would have been standing then anyway but in the high post days this was certainly possible.

 @inked-up-metalhead: Folks, can we take this back to the MTBR forums?

 @VtVolk: no.

 Here you go: www.pinkbike.com/news/first-look-the-new-fox-32-step-cast-and-sl-damper.html

 Will they be as good as the DMR DeathGrip though?

 @melonhead1145: Hmm, they look very similar/the same. I like my deathgrips and prefer them to the Ergon one's I'm running right now.

 But does it feel like a mushroom tip in your hands?

 Thought this too. All I see is another contact surface where there doesn't need to be one.

 Rest assured, WAO know more than you about composites engineering.

 Increased contact surface means the load is spreaded out more. And they made the edges of the sleeve thinner, so you have less of a spike there. It looks like they know what they are doing.

 If its wider than the stem clamp, then the sleeve will have a little flex, where the stem won't and would concentrate stress?... guessing.

 @pbuser2299: …yeah it is, and that also allows them to make a slightly softer 33mm bar instead of 35mm. Definitely feel they are less harsh compared to my older 35mm carbon bars.

 Pretty sure that's just a 31.8 handlebar with a spacer on it so they don't have to make 2 versions of it

 @stephenzkie: Its a 33mm bar with a 1mm thick sleeve.

 @stephenzkie: …no

 @mmcvl: They probably do and that's fine, just asking a question as someone who looks at stresses in structures for a living. Not sure why you've given such an abrasive reply to be honest but I guess because PB comments section....

 Ostrich filter: m.pinkbike.com/news/pinkbike-update-were-testing-filters-for-emtb-content-and-racing-disciplines.html

 @mikekazimer: Wow I was mostly joking. This is great!

 You don't know what you're missing until you ride one. They are just pure fun. It's hard to imagine what it's like riding an E-MTB until you put some trail time on one.

 @DaveJube: Is that the joy of buzzing past my small children as fast and close as possible because you can get one more lap in if you cut corners?