Andeh profile

Just a heads up, my buddy put this bar on his Turbo Levo.  The groove for the controller is too shallow for the fat wire housing on the Specialized bikes.  Even with greasing the wire housing, you still have a good chance of tearing the housing with the inner lockring of a grip.

To be clear, I'm not complaining about the silicon durability - that's on me.  I wash them very often, like every ride or every other ride.  And I dry them.  I know both are not recommended by any pad manufacturer, but I'd rather get a new pair of pads once a year than have stinky gear.

I had the AirFlex years ago.  They didn't fit my knee/shin very well (rubbed the upper shin bloody repeatedly).  In terms of breathability going from memory, AirFlex was probably slightly better than the Stage, both a grade or two better than the Rift.

I've had a pair of these for about a year and a half.  They're my second favorite pads (behind TLD Stage).  I've basically stopped using them due to the upper silicon grippers getting worn down, so they don't stay up as well as they used to.  Compared to the Stage, they offer more lateral coverage, less vertical coverage (the Stage goes about 2" lower on the shin), and breathe quite a bit less well.  Note that the 2 side-most pads on the Rift are not Rheon, just normal foam.  It feels like behind the Rheon impact gel that there's a secondary layer of normal foam padding.  This makes them feel very well padded overall (and I'd prefer to hit a rock with these over the Stage), but blocks airflow through the pad.  The tough outer material & the rubber Chromag logo coupled with the slightly thicker padding make them hang up a little bit more on the inside of pants compared to the Stage.  Overall, they're a pretty good set of pads, but when both my first set of Stages and the Rifts had the silicon grippers start to lose grip, I bought a second set of Stages and mostly just rotate between those.

I've had it for over a month now, lots of riding on my local trails that I'm very familiar with.  It was very noticeable right from the start (like within 30sec of descending).  The rear end is remarkably calmer on small bumps, providing much less feedback to my feet.  I run flat pedals, the default 6 degree elastomer, and have a frame with a pretty high level of pedal kickback (like 13 degrees).

One of my friends got one too after my experiences (he'd been looking at getting one without knowing I was too), and he noticed the same things on a different frame also with lots of pedal kick.

Only downsides as far as I'm concerned are cost, weight (if you care about that), and techy climbing ability - ratcheting is harder (I personally don't need this).

I was actually thinking a lot about vibration absorption yesterday, before reading this article, after a day trip to Northstar bike park this weekend.  My biggest difficulty with riding the whole day there was that on most trails, there's a kind of resonant high frequency vibration from the brake bumps that is so small and fast that my fork can't absorb it.  The whole bars end up vibrating so much it becomes difficult to hold on.

Now, I'm riding a high end bike with a lot of blingy bits that already take care of a lot of this.  I've got an EXT Storia for the rear, and coupled with an O-Chain, my feet actually felt amazing and had very little fatigue.  I was running an EXT Era fork up front, with the HSC all the way open and the rebound a bit faster than suggested, OneUp handlebars, Tubolight HD inserts in DH/DD casings, and RevGrips with the softest inserts.  I wasn't getting any hand pain, just had a hard time holding onto the bars through the vibrations.

I'm not entirely sure that something like the FasstFlexx bars would help.  It kind of seemed like the vibration was coming from the high speed brake bumps in such a way that the fork was flexing forward/backward rather than up/down.  The bars seemed to be moving forward/backward in my hands more than up/down.

Anyways, for this particular vibration, I'm not sure there really is a technical solution, and it might just be that I need to improve my grip strength (more pushups and pullups).

Preach it brother!  The lack of that option has had me roll my eyes at new offerings from others (Schwalbe, Conti, etc.) and stick with my EXO+ MG Assegai front and DD MT DHR (or EXO+ with insert) rear.  Yeah they're pricey, but that's the best setup for my trails.

I've been using mini-GPS computers for the last couple years, and currently have the Roam v2.  The v2 is basically the same as the v1, but with a color screen and slightly smaller form factor while maintaining the same screen size.  It's small enough that you can use it with a K-Edge stem spacer mount without blocking a steerer tube mounted OneUp EDC.  It charges via USB-C.

A few other nice things about using a mini computer like this that weren't mentioned in the article:

* if you're running it in the backcountry as a map, you can keep your phone shut off or in airplane mode, preserving your phone's batteries for emergencies.  (You can pre-cache a map before leaving home.)

* you can see text message previews on the screen.  Nice for knowing when your late buddy finally arrived, or when your wife is wondering when the hell you're coming home to take over watching the kid.

* you can go full nerd mode and see what gear your AXS is in, or your current heart rate if you're someone with a medical condition

Also, it doesn't matter if the location tracking isn't super accurate in terms of emergencies, as long as they can tell what trail you're on and rough location.  I know a guy who knocked himself out a few years back but thankfully was running Strava Beacon.  His wife noticed he was a half hour late and hadn't moved in an hour, so she called one of his friends who knew the trails.  They hiked up and found him with a bad concussion.

Haha, yeah, I told my boy, "I wish my bike shoes had velcro like yours!"  I've noticed that once I got these for him, his feet started staying planted on the Radar pedals a lot better compared to his normal running shoes.

At the advice of the local kids' bike coach, I removed all but the corner pins on the pedals for now, and put double washers on the remaining pins.  He said for early riders (mine is 5), it's important to allow them to be able to reposition their foot, more than having absolute grip.  When they're just starting out, they will seldom get their foot in the right position first try.  This seems to be working pretty well so far.  He can move his foot around to the right spot when he wants, but once he's there his foot stays put.

Shortly after I started riding (several years ago), I grabbed one of the first convertible helmets (Bell Super 2R) for all the reasons you listed.  I then upgraded to the Leatt because it fit my head better.  But I got sick of dealing with the removable chinbar, and when the TLD Stage came out, I got that to replace them.  The Stage is lighter than the convertibles, and breathes well.  I only wear a pack (and even then, just a Camelbak Chase vest) for very long rides, so stashing a chinbar is just an awkward chore.  If I've brought the Stage and am climbing, I just hang it off the handlebar since 98% of climbing I do is on fire roads.

But I also own a Fox Speedframe Pro and now a TLD A3.  I wear them for most of my rides.  Like many have said, it's about risk assessment.  If I'm riding flow trails that I've ridden hundreds of times before, I judge the A3 to be plenty protective.  If I'm riding rocky chunk, progressing on jumps, or doing anything shuttled, I wear the Stage.  Hell, even riding pumptrack I take the Stage.  When I'm regaining confidence after having a rough crash, I wear the Stage more.  The risk assessment of which helmet to wear does seem to have a little bit of an affect on my riding:  I might focus more on doing lots of laps and goofing around with the half shell, and more inclined to go as fast as possible or try newer jumps with the full face.  But on the flip side, I can also wear down mental blocks on certain features by consciously choosing the half shell - I know it's really safe enough to ride with it, so just commit and ride!

FWIW, I also bought my son a Fox Proframe XS at age 4 (the swappable pads allow it to grow with the kid) as his only helmet.  I'll probably make him wear light full faces until he gets much older and I feel confident in his own risk assessment.