xcahole

Nicolai Bikes had the same layout a long time ago, called it the 'Trombone'. Due to proprietary stupidity, Karlheinz abandoned it. For a big Co like Trek it probably don't matter. If the design changes Trek can offer a 'upgrade' frame for a massively reduce price of 30% off retail bwaaahaa.

Humans are not evolving, we are devolving, and the attitude of so called mountain bikers not wanting to climb is further proof of it.

I've been riding a Message fork and after reviewing Mike Levy's videos over and over and thinking about what he experienced and the parameters of the test I think it was not a fair review at all. Mike was comparing and contrasting the Message with a Fox 34 at 130mm of travel. But the axle to crown on the Message is 20mm longer, AND it weighs a half pound more. So, why compare it with a scrawnier fork? Sure, the Message is only 130mm of travel, but almost every other fork on the market at this A-C and weight offers 20mm more travel AND bigger legs. So thats what I did, I changed the air rod in a friends fork and after testing the Message until I knew the harshness and un predictability (is that a hurtful impact or will fork absorb it?) could not be tuned out, I put on the 150. Now, to be as fair as possible I rode the telescopic fork with compression lever flipped into the middle position and set the low speed compression mini knob to 8 out. Combined with proper air pressure /sag this made the Fox 'feel' about as firm as the Message in the street. Not science, but reviews are not. Normally when I set up a trail bike I opt for roughly a balanced feel between front and rear, which is pretty much 20% sag in fork, 30% on the shock usually is a really good start. There was never a minute I rode the Message that it felt balanced with the rear, it was always choppered out using rec'd pressure for body weight. Next I dropped the air pressure down considerably less than suggested. Still it rode nose up.. When standing up climbing it was a scalded cat and if I ran straight into a rock or root across the trail most of the time it would suck it up in the most miraculous way. I might be standing and hammering up the hill, but the speeds are quite tame haha. Then as the trail turned down and the speed went up, hitting rocks became a guessing game.... was this a slapper or a cush impact. Sometimes the impact was so great it stung the hands, others would just disappear under the linkage. With a linkage it seems there is a very different bump feel depending on very slight changes in speed, body location and bump shape. The best way to run this set up was put the rear shock in mid position for more low speed compression to keep it from dragging ass around deep berms where the g forces would smash the bike, but only the rear suspension would respond. Now I will say that like many others have said there is a unique feel to the fork in a turn, very calm and stable as it will just set on the arc you pick with the angle of lean and amount of counter steering. The talk of 'trail' numbers has merit. The fork is also stiffer steering than a 34 which is a fork I am very familiar with, so that helps it's stability too. Then I switched to the big Fox with 20% sag, but tuned in more support like you would want on a faster jump line with a lot of G's. Checking tire pressure and rear shock pressure with digital gauge so it was exactly the same as when set up with the Message. Just getting out of my neighborhood the suspension action is infinitely superior. Holy shit, little holes, little drops, disappear like uhhh, I had suspension. Even more firmed up than I would ever have thought to run, when the front end hit something the Fox would open up and do a much much better job of eating it. On the trails the telescopic fork sure felt softer under hard pedaling efforts when standing, so I flipped it to full firm. Then came the descents, so many more of the rocks I smacked yesterday just disappear with the Fox. Maybe not as quite as good as a PIKE I have on a 29r, but the Fox was still way more confidence inspiring in the rock/roots. Now if one is running more support in a RockShox, Fox, DVO, Xfusion, MRP, CaneCreek etc, than I think the steering stability difference gets very small. As soon as I opened up the low speed compression lever on the Fox fork when descending, the handling got looser, the opposite of what the Message was actually good at. It was certainly an eye opener to me who has always gone for the plush feeling suspension. This personal test has taught me that going firmer radically stabilized the bike and allowed me to really enjoy the 65.5* head angle. Which got me thinking, maybe if the damper in the Message was as good as the other forks on the market it just wouldnt have the same advantage, that some of the cornering advantage is directly related to the way it barely absorbs bumps? What if the damper really moved as well as any 130mm fork on the market, then it certainly would be more prone to mid turn G force compression? Or would it be so amazing we would all want to spend 2-4X what we can get a PIKE or a 36 for? (PIKE RL on Cambria right now for $500 for sake of conversation)

They're all wearing proper mountain bike kit, look at all that flapping gear. Looks like the local trail riders currently. Nowadays the downhillers are tightly tailored looking almost like skin suits or something. Maybe they should just 'come out' and admit they wanna wear lycra.

I hope this doesn't have a long term impact on her use of hand as a dentist... As for this race season, this might be the forced reduction in mileage she needs to recover her form... Anika did so much world tour road racing this spring I think that knocked her down for the opening mtb races. The mindset of athletes at this level regularly push themselves into deep fatigue, some weeks on the trainer and some trips to physio will do this athlete some good. 6 weeks from now she could show up with fresh legs and smash the second half of the season.

@Luis-Sc: Well put.... a few bad apples.

Amazing that more idiots don't get that this is ALL about marketing. Notice the GT in the lower corner? How about the TShirt? Light coming on yet? How about GT just fucking PAYS a shit ton to those with the power, to get you slobs to watch their advertainment and Wyn is your pied piper tweedle de de, follow the moneeee

Ian, RedBull is Redbull, get it? No? RedBull production, RedBull hat on Finn, now get it?!

There is no reason that this has to be so fugly, in addition to the original price these janky looks killed the robotbike. If someone there had a sense they could easily bladder or mandrel mold tube stock and with additive mfg lugs mate them together, Guessing they could improve the flex and stiffness characteristics with basic tapering/shaping as well. Who knows it might be able to sell a few of these if they didn't look like a 1988 Raleigh Technium

Dam I'm old! National Champion etc etc etc Dave Wiens and Olympic medalist etc etc etc Susan DeMattei had babies and they growed up to be young adults already?! And this Cooper kid is going fast, not the first time I've read his name. If what Geoff is doing is any indication, riding hard and eating popcorn is the best defense for getting old.