Yeah, as always I feel like the UCI has managed to successfully stifle development, but ultimately not for long.
I'm surprised there aren't any clever brands looking at making 650B/26" mullet bikes in smaller sizes, as that's actually a more appropriate choice up until the med/small sizes for some setups.
For my part, I'm thinking a strange enabler has been eMTB stuff - for better or worse, the availability of parts that are relatively devoid of gram-counting mentality has resulted in the ability to create FreerideNouveau setups that might weigh 2\# more, but could drop the curtains on any DH bike from more than 5 years ago, and actually pedal with a dropper post.
In some ways, I feel like this is actually the real death of the DH bike as a dedicated tool, there will still be some that exist, but having dual-crown capable mullet sleds are a better answer for anybody not between the tape, and for others, that also applies. The adjustability is a real major help and why Paul could really make that work, but I could see a brand like Knolly going in this direction to make that truly work.
The side project I wish I could follow up on would be seeing if new RM Altitude with aBomber59 could still be the omnibike answer... I just lack the lift-serviced terrain or skills to fully iron that out. I may still wind up trying to find a used Slayer (from back when it was a dedicated 650B bike with really high anti-squat) and running that as a mullet bike in the High Ride4 setting, because that would be another unit way ahead of its time.
Sept. 18, 2020, 4:08 p.m. - Tehllama42
Yeah, as always I feel like the UCI has managed to successfully stifle development, but ultimately not for long. I'm surprised there aren't any clever brands looking at making 650B/26" mullet bikes in smaller sizes, as that's actually a more appropriate choice up until the med/small sizes for some setups. For my part, I'm thinking a strange enabler has been eMTB stuff - for better or worse, the availability of parts that are relatively devoid of gram-counting mentality has resulted in the ability to create FreerideNouveau setups that might weigh 2\# more, but could drop the curtains on any DH bike from more than 5 years ago, and actually pedal with a dropper post. In some ways, I feel like this is actually the real death of the DH bike as a dedicated tool, there will still be some that exist, but having dual-crown capable mullet sleds are a better answer for anybody not between the tape, and for others, that also applies. The adjustability is a real major help and why Paul could really make that work, but I could see a brand like Knolly going in this direction to make that truly work. The side project I wish I could follow up on would be seeing if new RM Altitude with aBomber59 could still be the omnibike answer... I just lack the lift-serviced terrain or skills to fully iron that out. I may still wind up trying to find a used Slayer (from back when it was a dedicated 650B bike with really high anti-squat) and running that as a mullet bike in the High Ride4 setting, because that would be another unit way ahead of its time.