earleb profile

If they wait that long there will be many many more nails in their coffin for the trail bike market. They need a GXeagle competitor like 12 months ago. Waiting to open up the freehub and waiting to trickle down to XT and SLX will not help them.

Boom.

I have no issue with the new standard. I can see why they have decided to not use the SRAM XD Driver. Every major hub manufacture should have had CAD files to this new design in their inbox weeks ago and Shimano encouraging them to get them into production.

If they don't open up that new freehub body asap it will be their biggest blunder in decades.

3 aluminum rotor bolts ftw. Tons of strategic sanding on those carbon bars. Carbon bars are THE BEST spot ever to try and shave some grams. ;)

38 grams???? So heavy.

All of them.

Dat pan shot thou "insert drool emoji here".

Sign me up for this mythical 11-48 that is lighter and cheaper than the alternatives.

The opposite of an all carbon build, as much ti as you can possibly get. 

Who will make you some custom ti rims????

Posted by: awesterner

Thanks for the review. I was considering the Firebird for next year but I am so use to my Sentinel now I thought I might as well put it on a 3lb diet for next season. Those that couldn't wait until 2019 and went with the 2018 carbon----the new ones have moar carbon (rocker). Probably the last bike I get out of the USA if we start seeing tariffs between US and China 8-)

There will be an upside to brands that have Canadian distribution that land product directly into Canada from overseas. They'll be able to better price the product in Canada.

Posted by: nickel

pump the brakes re:wcdh. the intention would be for it to be built to uci spec with the idea being ONE DAY holding a world cup. that won't be next year.

But I think what we're excited for is that the ground work is finally being done. I recall discussions from a number of years ago when the topic would come up and at that time Whistler wasn't hosting any UCI sanctioned events so no matter how awesome they were with Crankworx it wasn't just going to happen overnight. 2020 will be perfect, my youngest boy will be big enough that I won't have to carry his ass up the mountain to some awesome viewing spot on course. :)

Posted by: ReductiMat

Is there a button I can press to make that shit watchable?

Seriously, that was f-in horrible. Just give us a standard chest cam / helmet cam of it.

Posted by: FlipFantasia

they've slowly been transforming the blackcomb base 2 trails into a decent XCO course too over the past couple years...

The Canadian Open at Crankworx is now a Class 1 UCI event, the rest of the Canada Cup DH series is only Class 2.  Canadian Open and Windrock Pro GTR are the only two Class 1 level DH races in North America. 

WC is coming....

Posted by: nickel

such modesty! that lip is a hip so don't go thinking you're supposed to end to end that sucker. it's tall as all get out to provide a bit of a speed reset though, which does make it intimidating. 

As for the gap over ezdi, there's a wooden fence to prevent anyone getting back into dm who didn't hit the drop. it's obviously not impossible to climb over it but you certainly can't just ride into the landing. 

the trail's not all the way done but will be opening for a few days to let the people have a try of the parts that are done. hope you like it! I'll be lapping it after my air dh run for sure!

Ah hip makes it better. At first I was thinking you guys were building some Fest level mega sender trail.

Whistler WC DH in 2019? Dates have been announced but not locations. 

WB has quietly hosted higher and higher level UCI ranking DH races.

https://www.pinkbike.com/news/provisional-2019-uci-world-cup-downhill-dates-unofficially-announced.html

My prediction is the Aug 3-4 dates being Whistler. 

Aug 3-4 WC DH

Aug 10-11 EWS

Aug 17-18 Slopestyle. 

Biggest mtb party ever.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BmeceKHBAy-/?taken-by=trevorjohnberg

If that's a lip then the new DM is above my pay grade. 

So cleaning Crap Apple Hits would be the filter for the new DM?

Posted by: taprider

where is it posted that tonight's Fiver was chainless?

I see nothing on NSMBA's site or facebook page

and google doesn't bring anything up for me

There was nothing official on it. 

Kinda last minute it was decided to give a chainless option for those that wanted it. 

Last night was the Officially Unofficial Fiver World Series Chainless Canadian Regional Championship Cup.

Next year we hope to make it a bigger and better special chainless night. 

There is a Facebook group where lots of chitter chatter happens about the Fivers. https://www.facebook.com/groups/244025199321774/

Group Description

A discussion group to talk about tactics and strategies* for incredibly serious racing.

*Bitching about why their time wasn't as fast as it should have been. 

**Complaining about the weather.

Book with Endless Biking. One stop shop for rental and guiding.

You gotta fit in the #NapLaps. Mom and baby go down for a mid day lap and you run out the door to squeeze in a quick ride. This is where being able to ride out your back door to trails is a life saver.