schmalzy

It has become apparent that Unno relentlessly tests and deliberates and experiments. They leave no stone unturned in their pursuit of performance. Cesar Rojo was just on the PB Podcast being praised for his diligent pursuit of performance for both his brand Unno and other brands - some of which are large, mainstream brands that hide the fact that he designed bikes for them that they're still selling today. 435mm chainstay across all sizes on this bike. I'd be curious about how Cesar came to that measurement. I ride a medium 120mm downcountry (gasp about words!) bike with a 437mm chainstay. I really like a chainstay length in that ballpark but I know a bunch of other folks don't. I'd be curious about the thought process and what they saw in performance changes in the XC discipline going up and down from there.

Words evolve out of a need to communicate something. No one thought of the word "purple" and then sought out a new color. "Red" and "blue" existed, got blended, and then needed a word to easily differentiate the result from the other colors. People didn't "invent" a category of riding with a new word. They needed a word to describe that category of riding. The understanding of "all mountain" at some point skewed toward something that seemed to not represent what some people were doing. There's a big difference between a 120mm trail bike and a 150mm trail bike and the 120mm trail bike weren't being used for the same thing as what the 100mm XC bikes were doing. We can observe that people got tired of saying "trail bike but with lighter parts to help make the pedaling experience better because the rides tend to have a lot of varied climbing and traverses but more burly and capable than an XC bike...almost like XC Evo but not really" and just sought out a short descriptor to describe the experience of down hill trail riding with an equal dose of cross country riding. Down Country. I don't care about categories of riding (or many things, to be honest). I like my bike rides to have a few sends and a heavy dose of pedaling and I like my music to have some heavy moments, some spacey moments, some fast, some slow, and varied vocal techniques. I didn't start out "downcountry" riding but the term pretty accurately describes what I do. I definitely don't go "all mountain" riding in the American midwestern plains where there are no mountains and using the term "all mountain" or saying something like "trail riding" puts what I do and my bike setup into the same group as people riding Finale Ligure when the equipment and the riding are very different.

No thank you on that 2x4 to wooden rut in Jack's video. Yipes. I puckered at that one, for sure!

That sounds like an awesome time! Congrats on the big ride, unbroken spirit, and unbroken egg!

Just bought the Super Fan Pass. I'm stoked to watch and I'm stoked to put money into the rider prize pool rather than my money being exchanged for powder and put up broadcast megacorp shareholder noses.

@letstossgrenades: Those look sick and seem to be really killer bikes. If I'd have had one within arm's reach when I bought my short travel trail bike, I'd have gone for the 2030 for sure!

This seems sick. I now have a next frame in mind for whenever mine is no longer functioning. I anticipate that will be a while but - you know - stuff happens and eventualities become reality at some point.

@thingswelike: I think the jump is a metal construction, too. I wonder if they did that so they could move it depending on how the speeds and weather play out.

I still have my Swobo Sanchez fixed gear commuter from 2008. It's so sick! It didn't get any use this year after a knee injury but I'm looking forward to bringing it back into use in about 6 months when the weather doesn't make 23c tires a deathwish.