Timer profile

I’m a bit puzzled by the fact that this bike requires a lengthy setup period and a lot of getting used to its handling. Sounds like the exact opposite of what I would expect  from a freeride bike. Isn’t that supposed to be a hop-on-and-have-fun-machine?

Also: DD Maxxgrip Assegai on the rear and a 34 tooth chainring, my legs hurt just thinking about that.

One of the reasons for running heavy and sticky tyres on the shore is the variety of trails. There is both old-shool slow tech where sticky rubber is key on roots and rocks, and fast, cunky sections where heavy, tough casings and sidewall stability are most welcome.

Interesting information, thank you.

Aren't car headlights exposed to high pressure spray when driving at speed in the rain? I never had a headlight fail due to water entry, so i don't doubt their engineering, but from the description IP65 seems a little dicy for the use case.

What AJ probably forgot to mention is that gap jumps are always the best jumps. Ideal for beginner builders, you just need a ramp, a ditch and if you want to get real fancy, add a landing. Make the landing short to leave more room for the gap, that is what it's all about, right? They also need less material than tables, so you can build many more of them.

And if your new trail (see section 3) happens to have something it its way that you are too lazy to clear, just build a gap jump over it!

That might be, but sponsor brands are usually very keen on having their athletes ride their latest and greatest. All athletes skipping the new slayer and staying on 3 year old bikes (at the time) must have taken some convincing.

Wasn't an issue with Instinct and old Altitude, because they were of the same generation.

Some bike magazine did a test by strapping vibration sensors to handlebars. Sadly i can't find the link anymore. They had a Spike Vibrocore, a standard alu bar (maybe Raceface, not sure) and a Carbon bar (Syntace, i believe). All in 31.8mm.

In the end, the standard alu bar transmitted the least vibration to the grips, while Vibrocore did absolutely nothing. However, the differences between all three bars were quite minor, compared to the entire system of tyres, suspension and grips.

There is one caveat to the Vibrocore story. Vibrocore itself appearently does nothing. But the Oozy Vibrocore bar is very light for it's width and material, made of thin tubing and therefore quite flexible. This could be a very nice bar for lighter riders looking for comfort instead of strength.

Nice looking bike with sensible parts. I'm very curious how it compares to the Slayer. The EWS team have shunned the slayer and kept riding their Instinct BCs. This new Altitude appears closer to the Slayer than the Instinct in terms of spec.

But since when are 35mm aluminium bars a welcome change? For the last couple of years the entire industry and media have been advertising the comfort of carbon handlebars ("engineered flex", yadda yadda). While at the same time switching to needlessly stiff and heavy 35mm clamps. Have we come full circle now and arrived at the worst of all worlds?

I find this development really paradoxical: We made bikes out of carbon because it is lighter for a given strength. But they are fragile when exposed to impacts, so we make them heavier to cope with that. But that is still not enough, so we slap on enormous downtube protectors and cover them in frame wraps, adding even more weight. 

Could we not have skipped all that and just kept the metal?

Otherwise a good looking bike which i might try if i was in the market. The finely grained frame sizes are a nice feature.

Quite a bit off topic, but I love the anodized Chromag QR seat clamps!

Bought myself a red one, about a decade ago on my first visit to the shore. Still using it on my current bike, despite the qr part being obsolete.

Andrew, do you know what the type and durometer of the rubber is on this tyre?

My experience (backed by other people's measurements) is that rubber compound has an enormous impact on rolling speed, probably more so than knob height or casing. There is a bit of an interaction effect with knob size, though.

Posted by: XXX_er

FF helmets were an easy sell to parents, I told them it was cheap insurance  for the 6K they spent on orthodontic  work

Related to that, do any of you wear a mouth guard when riding with a half-lid? I got one made by the dentist after expensive orthodontic work. I wear it whenever i'm riding without a chin bar. But i haven't met anyone else who does.

As to the original question, FF only when shuttling/using a lift. I overheat too quickly, even in modern, well ventilated fullface helmets and the trails i ride are more mellow than those on the shore.

Posted by: JVP

I feel (somewhat) vindicated. I’ve been railing against threaded BB’s in carbon frames for years. That bonded interface for your aluminum threads is just an extra part (incredibly high-stress junction) waiting to fail and ruin your precious frame right after the warranty runs out. Or all the companies now offering really long warranties on their carbon superbikes... holy shit, threaded BB’s are going to get really expensive for you.

I’ll take pressfit every time in a carbon frame. Aluminum frame, I’m happy with threaded, but either way works. Worst case scenario you need a Wheels manufacturing BB to solve creaking in a pressfit.

Isn't the take-away from this video that you should only take a Pressfit frame if you know that the tolerances and QC are good? And that usually means no north-american frames. Threaded BBs are theoretically worse, but work better than PF in the average frame.

Posted by: trumpstinyhands

Germany has over twice the population of Canada and is part of a trading group that currently has 445 million people. Plus companies have huge economies of scale. It stands to reason that they can ship product faster and cheaper than Canadian set-ups.

While this is true now, it doesn't fully explain why there aren't any decent mail-order bike shops in Canada (or more of them in the US). 10+ years ago, the German shops were quite small and didn't really ship outside the country. But they were well stocked, successful and relatively inexpensive. Even the MTB-specific ones, despite MTB as a sport being a lot less popular in Germany back then. I'm doubly puzzled by the lack of huge, cheap and thriving mail order bike businesses in the US, which could ship to Canada (due to NAFTA). They are home to f*ing Amazon, how is it possible there is nothing similar for bike parts? I suspect that it has something to do with distributors or the way their channels are set up?

Another vote for Shimano. I have a pair of low-shafted hiking style Shimano shoes that are over 10 years old by now. They were my primary cycling shoes for more than half of that time. Don't remember the model but it was nothing fancy, didn't pay much for them. By now, the shaft is showing a bit of wear and they could do with new laces. I expect them to last at least a few more years, now that they share riding duties with a lighter summer shoe.

Haven't had it, but read about it on the German forums. Doesn't have to be a crack, could also be a damaged reservoir seal, possibly from overfilling.

Posted by: velocipedestrian

I also remember a guy I worked with who'd bought a 'North Face' down jacket on his travels through Asia. He said it was from the same factory, and the North Face guys just had someone on site doing QC while their order was made. When he left the factory kept sewing...

The fabrics seemed legit, but the seams were a bit shit.

Things like that "might" have happened in the early days of offshoring, but major brands nowadays mostly succed in ensuring that knock-offs are actually knock-offs. And then there is the stuff which doesn't pass QC at brand factories but gets sold on Ali instead of being thrown away. Technically, that is from the same factory.....

I don't think Bark Busters are compatible with carbon handlebars. The stress concentration might even be dangerous for light aluminium bars. And then there could be the perception that hands would get trapped in them during a crash.

What about rear-wheel-traction? Not being as far forward on the bike might be beneficial for that purpose. Considering the kind of power pro-racers can put down, keeping the rear wheel from spinning is probably important.

Second what Hepcat said. On a modern bike, a TA fork would lower the BB so much that even with shorter cranks we would constantly pedal strike while climbing tech. They would be nice for steep non-technical climbing like in the alps but that is just too narrow a market.

And with current bikes the main limits to climbing efficiency isn't pedaling position but rather sticky tires, downhill-optimized suspension and "longlowslack".

There are thousands of posts about this issue on multiple message boards in various languages but no definitive answers. Distilled facts I could gather:

Affects multiple generations of brakes, going back at least 7 years.

Affects all generations of XT and XTR brakes, 2 and 4 piston.

Saint brakes seem to be rarely (if ever) affected. Not sure about Zee.

Not all individual units are affected and some more strongly than others.

Cold temperatures seem to make it worse.

People have been experimenting with different hydraulic oils. This has helped in some cases but not all.