chris profile

But negates all the Shimano 12s shifting goodness

I'm old enough to have rocked the triple chainrings.  The only time you were ever in the big ring was pavement or some very mellow/shallow fire road.  Conversely, I spend probably 90% of the time in the largest cassette cog.  Winch and plummet style.  I get about 2500 miles on an XO1 before having to replace the largest alloy cog and then another 2500.  I get more than 5000 miles on a GX all steel cassette.

Not debating the better performance of SLX but as you point out, that alloy cog is not ideal for longevity. I choose GX because there’s an all steel cassette option and I get 2x the life with it

"XD, firstly, it's no good for e-bikes"

Curious as to why you state this?  Plenty of XD spec on E bikes, including my Commencal MY 18 with over 6500 miles on it now with zero issues.

In fact on the topic of E bike compatibility, this Deore is the first Shimano cassette with all steel cogs which is a huge factor in service life.  Aluminum cogs have no place in a drivetrain.  Steel chainring, all steel cassette like this Deore or GX, monitor chain stretch and replace proactively and a drivetrain will last thousands of miles.

As a US citizen mired in a sea of litigious/liability concerns driving far too much I've always admired and pined for the laissez faire attitude that was prevalent on the Shore.  Hell, even trail names like served d*ck wouldn't fly in our PC world.

Sad day that ya'll are trending our way.

Yikes, I'm still running a 4 year old Duo stem.  Where did yours break?!

360 is cool but the resolution and/or frame rate sure seams to be degraded

The real GOAT - dominated his time.  Greg is merely the LOAT (longest of all time).

I can relate to Titus' conundrum as I have found myself pondering the exact same scenario many times.  Great article but it suffers big time from selection bias.  Of course all the successful proprietors are going to say go with your passion.  I'm sure you could find many times more who followed their hearts only to lose their financial stability, home, future, etc and end up with nothing but an experience.  That's not to say don't do it, just realize there are serious consequences of failure.

You do realize you can pinch flat tubeless?  The top enduro guys are pinch flatting with DH casings and cush core!  I've had my share of pinch flats when I drop the pressure too much with single ply tires.