nordicMT

@brighterlights: OCLV

how bout put the spacing of photos closer to the correct person's name. Jamolies

@KK11: f off Hoser

@Aksel31: extremely funny.

Having the smarts and courage to cut underperforming employees is a sign of a well-run business. Its like a sports team. Performance. Don't suck and you probably won't ever get fired from even a poorly run business. Be a dick and be the first to lose your job when a company is no longer held hostage by your poor performance, workmanship, work ethic, ability to work with others, etc...

When I read the headline I guessed the frame broke at the intersection of the headtube and the top tube. That looks super WC XC and not very bike parky. I was the NORBA/WC mechanic for SRAM in the 90s when they came out with their carbon ESP derailleur. The first versions sold had teeny carbon knuckles and aluminum links. They seemed to break while just shifting under load, yet engineers confidently dismissed reports of failure. According to them they had been commuting in ice and snow in Chicago on the new rear mech with no problems, not to mention the testing rigs that had shifted the derailleurs through so many hundred thousand cycles. Then they finally came to a WC race the engineers cried like babies when they had to observe and deal with pissed off racers with broken rear mechs. After that they made progressively beefier knuckles until the things looked like a Big Mac compared to the original chicken bone derailleur. Each one of these new iterations required whatever CAD designing was being used in the 90s as well as a new $80K mold for the garbage truck sized injection molding machine designated for each part. I always wondered why they felt needed to reinvent the wheel so drastically. Back then the market was 99% Shimano and 1% Suntour. SRAM could have made a bomber derailleur out of aluminum and made people 100% happy. The market was thirsty for another component manufacturer. Ultimately I think SRAM did an incredible job of breaking into the market when and how they did. Hats off to them in so many ways for where they are today. I only tell this little story to illustrate how durability needs to be engineered at 210% and then backed off from there if designing a new product.

@pgm83: True story. Thumbs get cold first because the tips face forward.

Yo. The dude seemed pretty cool and smart during his pinkbike podcast interview with Levy. It takes a lot to make something different in bike industry anymore. Its pretty cool to see something that Costco or Walmart wouldn't be able to make and sell. Anyways if he grows tired of his productive endeavor he could always get a job as a teacher lol

It seems that the slack head tube angle of all the bikes contributed to some level of headtube flex and stiff/stuttered fork travel, but at normal riding forces, the angle of impact is more similar to the travel trajectory of the fork.

@Bomadics: I'm not surmising what was used on Bruni's bike, but in my business we use a ton of products from https://sculptnouveau.com/ and other vendors. Lots of patinas for bare metal as well as paints that contain actual metal in them that can react to patina applied over the dried paint to react with the embedded metal.