vinay

Avoiding spoilers is such a challenge these days. I remember when I'd only receive Dirt Magazine every other month to then read the race report and see who won what. Good to see Pinkbike is giving us options now (without resorting to a strict diet of a single Pinkbike visit every other month).

@dissend: You did read the post or only that particular sentence? The context was on whether a battery could easily and quickly be removed from the bike. If the battery can easily be removed from the bike then the enclosure doesn't need to be big. If it can't be removed that easily the enclosure will be more of a hassle if it has to contain the entire bike and people live in a small home. I didn't say it is "prohibitive". That's an absolute term. I said it is "more" of a hassle. That's relative. Easiest approach obviously is to forego the pedal assistance altogether but that's a different story.

@gmiller720: Minutes to set up a ring and get someone back up? That's insane. These bands may be bigger and more popular than those I have been attending (the likes of Bolt Thrower, Death, For I Am King etc) but getting someone back up was pretty much instant. So see someone go down, you shield her or him with your arms stretched sideways and whoever notices joins in as the ring grows from the inside out. Someone pulls the the concertgoer back up, there may be a hug and the ring dissolves and everyone is back happily moshing. Where I grew up (The Hague, The Netherlands) there was this short, old Indonesian (I assume) lady who would just step into a mosh pit with her handbag and just went enjoying herself as everyone would try to shield her as otherwise she'd surely be crushed. I noticed her at a Golden Earring concert (a big local rock band, we'd mosh to anything indeed) as well as at a show by Blo.Torch (a smaller local death metal band). Both times it went perfectly fine. Not sure whether things are different over there but the "code of the pit" (if any) isn't just "if you venture to go in there be ready to take a beating". More than that, it is "keep an eye on each other". A few years ago I visited a show by For I Am King (a death metal band from Amsterdam) with my youngest daughter who was eleven years old at the time. Yes she did keep an eye on the moshers behind her but never got hurt or even badly pushed. She just soon enough joined the (also eleven years old) daughter of the bass player and found a good spot next to the stage rather than in front of it. So no, you may have a different experience but that isn't universal. I'd say be it at a concert or a sports event, the spots that make for good viewing shouldn't be reserved for those willing to take a beating. And it is the crowd responsibility to take a little care of each other. Just like in real life really.

Are batteries still easy and quick enough to remove from modern assisted bicycles? It was obvious on the earlier ones and also on the current one from Cotic, but the other more modern versions seem to have them integrated inside the downtube and removing the battery seems a bit more involved. But yeah, so it is for electric cars and nearly all electric motorcycles. Getting a fire-proof case for the entire bike seems more of a hassle though of course they should be allowed to park and charge there were electric cars are allowed to do so as well.

Would these have been low quality e-bikes though? I doubt as it is getting more common for the lower end stuff to be sold customer-direct rather than through a retailer in the historic center of Vancouver. So if this is actually some higher end gear, it could basically happen to anyone charging high end bicycle batteries at home. Makes me wonder with all the high end tech we have around these days, wouldn't it be possible to build/program a system in your house that only powers a socket (the one you use for charging the battery) when you're at home. For instance through a motion sensor, when the television is on or when kitchen appliances (not the dishwasher, obviously) are running and switches the power off when none of these is a positive. I can imagine people may forget charging or disconnecting them so this may make things a little easier. I suppose these batteries aren't too bothered by intermittent charging as long as it isn't too unstable. I'm sure some kid clever enough with an Arduino or Raspberry PI could make this work.

@Birmingnar: Anyone who has competed when he didn't has proven to better. Preceding those world championship and Olympic events, that have been a good lot of races. An athlete who has had a couple of good seasons and then has one or two really poor seasons hasn't proven to be good enough either. How would a rider then who just doesn't compete at those events?

Thanks (and I upvoted your post). For me (and you can verify it if you'd bother going back to my earlier posts on the subject) it never was about who he is. My disapproval was about him rocking up at high profile events (like world championship and Olympic races) where normally only those would compete who have qualified and proven to do well in WC races or other relatively lower profile events. Regardless of how well he performed at these high profile events, he took the start slot of athletes who have proven to do better at XC races. So whether it was the athlete, coach or national sports federation who made the call I don't care, I disapproved of making such a call. "Hater" is a broad term and may be more targeted at a person (the athlete) than a decision (for him to race at these events) but well, it may still make for a nice discussion. Of course, him doing well at a WC XC event means I wouldn't be so bothered if he'd rock up at the upcoming world championship or Summer Olympics as I was the previous times around. Cheers!

This is a multi-step thing. You can't just dismiss the goal by the argument that there is no instant solution to achieve it. If the goal is that the athletes, marshals and crowd should be safe (regardless of where you care in the crowd) then the next step is figure out how to identify what we want to keep, what we're willing to sacrifice and how to achieve this goal within this set of requirements. If everyone is happy enough with the ways things are going right now then sure, let's just wait and see things unfold. I'm more with Ben on this though I wouldn't so much compare it with to the Tour de France where the audience whacks down the sprinting athletes with cameras, phones and whatever merchandise they have handy. I'd rather compare it to a pop concert. My uncle once took my brother to a Janet Jackson concert (presumably "proper" music) and my brother was baffled how people would sprint to the front with zero regard for whoever was going down. Coming from the metal scene where you'd make a circle around a fallen attendee and help her or him back up, the selfish mindset felt insane. It took some serious incidents at major big pop concerts (including deaths indeed) for security to become more strict. We're more clever than this. If we can foresee this thing going out of hand (or even if we don't believe it is safe to take an eight year old kid or grandma to the front row) then it is time to define what we do want it to be like. For some "growing the sport" may be about getting "outside sponsors" like car manufacturers and whatnot involved who don't give a damn about the sport. But I'd say growing the sport is about making it a cool and welcoming place for people to go and watch. And then start to figure out how to realize this. Don't wait for the UCI. They're too busy attacking harmless shit (athletes wearing the wrong clothes on the podium, getting their buddies up the podium etc). But this is about lives, the stuff that matters. This is where we should step up.

@nicotikk: Ah sorry, the Earthed numbering confused me. Earthed 3 is from 2005, Earthed 5 is from 2007, not from 2005. It was documented in Earthed 5 ;).

@TommyNunchuck: Matti Lehikoinen won Champery 2005 on the Honda bike (even though everyone obviously remembers Sam Hill). But yeah, there must have been a few after that on Dorado forks.