Jotegir profile

I certainly wasn't going to suggest custom for everyone - I've been down that road myself and I can think of literally one person I've actually recommend for considering a custom bike in my life. Moreso as a side note to the absolutely crazy amount of sizes we see Atherton actually offer. It's nice to see Trek offer literally just one of the irregular sizes you've mentioned above (M-L), and there's still companies skipping out on XS, sometimes on XL, and even on S. Tough out there being on the margin! 

It makes me glad I'm about the shortest you can get in to most XLs with. If I'm buying a bike a-la-carte I'm going XL but when it came to my own custom bike, it ended up somewhere between an XL and an L (although now it's fallen back squarely in to "L" territory seeing as we sized the bike in late 2016).

Cool bike! I can really appreciate someone who replaces stuff at this pace/mindset, even though as a shop employee I'm certainly guilty of staff-dealing parts more frequently than I need to. 

>Guerrilla Gravity makes a reasonably big XL but, as with every single bike he's ever owned, I think the first assessment was "I thought it would be bigger." 

One of the reasons that I'm excited for projects like Atherton Bikes, where they're set to offer something like 20 sizes with custom sizing available (despite the fact it's extremely unlikely I will ever own one). Plug your stuff in to the chart, see where you end up.

Right? I'd love for the folks at NSMB to get their hands on product or two. They're obviously still kicking because they have products for stuff like the 2022 Float X and other brand spankin' releases. Extremely curious about stuff like their revalve/shim stack products on stuff like the Super Deluxe Ultimate and I'd be interested to hear about how their fork dampers stack up to modern offerings like a GRIP2 36/38 or Charger 2.(something) ZEB.

It did not happen. Maybe next year!

Did the stays need to be that short? No. Was the entire bike an absolute clown fiesta when slammed in to "short as possible" chainstay mode with fast rolling balloon tires? Absolutely. Major party. Smart? No. Fun? yes.

Given what I said in the comment you're replying to, I want you to know that I respect you for being strong in your mountain bike convictions. 

.....And if they happen to ever change in the course of the future for any reason, I won't respect you any less.

>When he's up to speed riding again, Andrew is going to start tackling budget hardtail reviews.

I'd say something along the lines of "poor bastard", but we all know he's a sucker for that exact brand of punishment at this point.

I really don't envy product managers for the "entryish level hardtail that totally needs to shred" category. A lot of riders out there are going to be totally happy with a deore/sunrace drivetrain mix if it means getting up from a Rockshox 35 to a revelation or Yari, but so many others will see a similarly priced hardtail from another company that squeezed slx/xt mixed drivetrains on to the thing in exchange for a less awesome fork. Yeesh!

Great, I read this article over morning coffee and now all morning I've been thinking about how best to reintroduce a hardtail into my already burgeoning fleet (I am aware this is an extremely good problem to have as someone with no kids and free reign over my basement and garage). 

I sold my Stache in 2020 after 3 years of ownership and a knee injury which meant the elevated chainstay interfered with my new pedal/foot/ankle position. The injury happened well before I sold the bike, but I lived in denial for probably half the time I had the bike. But ultimately I couldn't ride it on all the trails I wanted to and replaced it, flying back to full suspension land. Reading your account/rave/justification-for-spending-7000USD-on-a-hardtail just brings back fond memories of time spent on my Stache. I bet a normal hardtail with normally placed chainstays would be fine for me!

Damn you Mark* Mayo. Now look what you're going to make me do.

*Edited and corrected. Damn Mike Mayo too, whoever you are.

Well, Specialized said 27.5 was stupid and then build a ton of them.

And after that, Giant said 29ers were stupid and then built a ton of them.

And Niner had a 27.5 bike in their lineup for a while.

Lots of people have said stupid platitudes about wheel size and then changed their mind. Mountain biking conversations with friends would be so much more boring if we couldn't double down on the dumb shit we say only to change our minds later.

I got 2 pairs of TREES shorts last season - neither lasted the whole season. Quite low quality stuff.