NealWood profile

I must admit that I like to ride close on a faster buddy's wheel down hill.  That being said it's good if you develop that relationship a bit first.  The same goes for when someone is following me close.  If its a person I am comfortable with then fine but if not then it wigs me out a bit.  One time I had a guy riding right behind me that I didn't know well and he skidded all the time.  I kept thinking he was going to hit me so I let him in front and he wasn't actually that fast when he had to lead.

The good thing about stopping once in a while is that it lets the Natural order sort it's self out. In my experience if one person thinks they are holding another up then they offer the faster rider the next spot up the line.

Neal

Not that much testing.  This is all known art. It's not like they would need to save every gram. I would think that instead of the shim solution it would be cheaper and easier to re-purpose an old crown forging tool with the correct sized steer tube hole to be m/c'd for a 1 1/8" steer tube.  That's assuming that the hole is even forged in.

Bang.  Done.

I have no issue with exercising my right to spend my money where I want and on what I want.  You can easily extend that to spending it in shops that sell the things I do or do not approve of. If MEC and others decide that they are better off not selling products from one company or another then that's the free market.  I can tell you that I will not be purchasing any of these brands, so a good shop will find other things to sell me.

We looked into it in the 90's at Syncros.  What we found is that needle bearings are much more sensitive to contamination than a ball bearing and BB's are likely to have some contamination.  You also still need to consider what is going to support the axial load.  As noted bellow there were some old xtr BB's that used needles for a while.

Just looking at the drawings on their web site it kind of looks like they could have just run the top tub straight to the seat tube.

Skills aren't a barrier but it is a notable point.  For example, my girlfriend lives in Comox and there is a huge mountain bike scene there because of the accessibility of the trails in Cumberland. There is a large range of trails from really beginner to advanced and you can make pretty good loops for beginners without having to do huge climbs or walking long sections. I'm quite convinced this has lead to the large number of riders there.  

Now my girl asks where I could take her riding around Vancouver.  Let me tell you there isn't much here at her level.  We as experienced riders have little concept how hard it is for beginners. If you want to know how hard what we think of as beginner trails are just go out with a brand new rider and see how hard it is for them to deal with some roots or a short climb.

Spent a night out in the bush semi lost once.  I would have killed for a lighter.  Carried one ever since.

I'm generally on the same page as drop32table up there in that I tend to think about where my money is going.  In my case I ride a Rocky with Raceface kit.  Most of it may be made overseas but at least the companies are local and I know people who are employed by them.

As far as * I am more likely to blame suspension.  My background on this, is that I worked in engineering at Syncros for most of the 90's.  When I started there was no front suspension much less rear suspension.  Back then the material and tuning of your handle bar, stem and seatpost really mattered.  The same could be said for the ride quality of the frame.  Then came front suspension and then rear and these things were dominated by suspension related math as well as the advancement in geometry that was then allowed. The feel of the frame or components is much less important than the spring and damping rates once you introduce them into the overall system.  Now we all get nostalgic for hardtails and again the frame feel and quality gets important.  I'd say the same about wheels.  You are going to notice a real nice set of wheel way more on a hard tail than a bike with 5" of suspension.

My two cents.

NW

There aren't many excuses for skidding other than not knowing how to ride.  Skidding should be avoided.  On that trail in the video there is no need to skid.  If you ride where there is very little traffic or if you ride in a bike park where are staff payed to maintain the trails punched out by skidders then fine.  Otherwise don't skid.