natewarner

So rad, but clean those lenses boys!

@ranke: Exactly correct. My experience: I had an hour to ride Monday/Tuesday. On Monday, rode one lap on a local loop, finished in 45 minutes. Had fun. On Tuesday, rode a Levo, did two laps, had more fun. I had a HR monitor on for both days. Monday, had more anaerobic HR, with some time spent around 160bpm to recover from some steep sections. With the Levo, was steady at 172 the whole ride, rode twice as far, and actually burned more calories (based on HR and ability to ride the full 60 minutes). Depending on what your training is focused on, Tuesday might even be considered a better training ride...

This is great, love seeing innovation + acquisition in the bike industry! Gives motivation for other garage engineers with new ideas!

@ThomDawson: I'm just letting you know, some people don't have issues. There are plenty of cheap 26" bikes that still rip and have external routing. You should be fired up to get gear that suits your needs for so cheap!

@ThomDawson: Old internal routing could be brutal, new stuff is much better with bigger ports and routing tubes, not just holes, I like how clean/protected it is, much preferred IMO vs the old routing under the BB. I self mechanic, and have no issues or excessive time when changing them out as needed.

Three things from someone who moved to Marin about 18 months ago: 1) Most of the open land in Marin was set aside by equestrians, so horses being allowed is totally understandable- without those endowments there wouldn't be the plethora of open space in Marin. 2) The amount of rules and legal ass covering is incredible here. There are almost zero trails where you can trail run (let alone bike) with your dog off leash. 3) There is a push in the Marin Headlands with their new management program to close trails, and funnel more traffic and usage to adequately maintained and managed trails. They've closed local/neighborhood hiking trails that are 10-20 years old because they don't have the budget to ensure maintenance or "safety" of the trail. That being said, there isn't any sense that there are new/better plans coming for bikes, making a new trail plans don't seem to exist, probably due to the high cost of environmental studies needed to open up any new areas. The focus on closing trails is very frustrating, and treating the forest as if it needs to be as safe as walking on a sidewalk is absurd. My great hope is that the "gatekeepers" of land have kids that get into biking and realize that things need to improve.

Three points: In the US, either your protect/defend your IP/Trademarks, or future cases can cite that the lack of defense, which can make it difficult for you to win future challenges. (overly simplified obviously) This case is also from 2008, has anyone actually read the documents to figure out if their current wheels are still infringing? I'd guess they changed the wheels long ago to a conforming design. It bums me out to read all the hate for "big" companies in biking - a lot of the things that making biking a community are financed by Trek, Spesh, Giant, etc. Get rid of those guys, and you can count on a serious decline in world cup racing, live streams, video edits, and technological advancements. Buy some other brand if you want, but in the grand scheme of things, these companies do way more good than bad for biking.

The new short travel bikes are rad (Hightower, Camber, 5051), but I feel like the Fox and Rockshox aren't getting enough credit - these bikes wouldn't feel so burly with out the new generation of rear shocks! I ride the Monarch, which is insane, supple but doesn't bottom out!

It's easy to criticize the US wholesale/dealer/consumer model, but if you're a large company at scale like Specialized, Giant, or Trek your success is directly tied to the shop model. Get rid of the shops, and you can kiss all of your walk in and non-core sales goodbye (beginner & intermediate road and mtn riders + city bikes) I'd guess that's about 70-80% of revenue. Conversely, start selling direct to consumers in parallel to your established dealers and your shops will drop you and you'll end up in the same spot. Drop revenue 70%, consumers will see the market constrict, less videos, less WC teams, less availability of product, etc. and ultimately less riders. Don't forget that the retailer based model has benefits for consumers, it creates a lot of local bike shop jobs, while making it easier for consumers to access to parts and people with experience on your bike. In a lot of communities, the bike shop crews are also the trail and community advocates too... I like all the direct to consumer brands, they're pushing racing and high end bikes forward, and will hopefully drive US companies to get scrappier, but it's more complex than just cheaper for me = best thing ever.

Di2/electronic shifting is a game changer, I've run it on my road bike for 3 years and NEVER had to adjust it once. Just like on road a few years back, the frame design needs to catch up to Di2 routing and battery needs, but it's going to be so great once it does. I hope SRAM can get their shit together and get something released soon- one-by electronic shifting with the XX sized cassette is the holy grail for me. Also, side note, seems like powered shifting could be a way for a new component company to come to market with a mid priced offering and make a very big splash. It might also be easier to get a powered shifting setup working great than it would be to get a cable system working as well as the SRAM/Shimano - the incumbents have so many years of engineering tweaks and patents for a new company to overcome, just to get to "normal" shifting quality. Cost would be a big driver especially since Di2 has pretty large margins for Shimano, and is going to be slow to trickle down the product line.