I wish you could have kept that open too! Wow, you had draw benches? Cool.
I love hearing about where tubing went and that Neko has 25 year old stays!
2022 Racing/Team Rumors
- Thread starter Redwood Mulch Chucker
- Start date
I love hearing about where tubing went and that Neko has 25 year old stays!
not a rumor but neko won the costa rica open
so this is interesting: https://bikerumor.com/uci-world-cup-dh-track-safety-check-jorge-garcia-mondraker/
1) I'm kinda surprised it hasn't been done before
2) if he's not testing at race speed (or close to it), why bother? Les Gets comes to mind: the upper road gap, Reece's booter, the bottom wooden bridge that riders were struggling to get onto during the race. None of these things were identified as problematic until they hit them at race pace!
1) I'm kinda surprised it hasn't been done before
2) if he's not testing at race speed (or close to it), why bother? Les Gets comes to mind: the upper road gap, Reece's booter, the bottom wooden bridge that riders were struggling to get onto during the race. None of these things were identified as problematic until they hit them at race pace!
bring back safety meetings
Its always been done before but with rider feedback, at least now there is a true conduit for riders to go through that wont hamper relations. Most in the past weren't too keen to speak up since there may have been repercussions or to be labeled as a "squeaky wheel". I think the bog take away is more for the spectators rather than the athletes since so many peeps get hit with bikes and rocks when the tape is so close to the courses in problematic spots. Thats my take away anyways.
fyp
After watching the vid I can see those with older 26" wheels having a hard time on a course that is dominantly lines run by 29er fronts.
Yes, so it's possible that the bike was not stock travel.
Gwins personally designed Kendra’s we’re clearly the best. What’s this, his 19th tire sponsor since leaving YT? Time to buy a sharpie and some Minions.
So rad!
Cool that it's not a production bike, so he doesn't have to wade through the swamp of patents that is the bike industry. Free reign to do what he thinks works best.
Good argument for mounting the shock upside down, never thought all that stuff.
Cool that it's not a production bike, so he doesn't have to wade through the swamp of patents that is the bike industry. Free reign to do what he thinks works best.
Good argument for mounting the shock upside down, never thought all that stuff.
Is it just me, or does intense seem to be trying to copy exactly what neko is doing? Like exactly (aside from having two bikes). What's the angle here? Prove that the competitor doesn't work? Prove their implementation is better? I'm so confused. I feel like they should just tell gwin to git gud and just keep selling vpp bikes.
I think it's a stark comparison of privateer common sense verses convoluted corporate nonsense hype via marketing. Neko will benefit from this as most folks will see right through intense's version of jumping on the youtube bandwagon, I know I already have.
Neko mentioned in one of his videos that he designed his bike way back in June of last year - possibly earlier, with the way he explained it.
Him and Gwin were teammates and appear to be friends, so I'd wager that they at least talked about it together, while on the same team. Or maybe they were planning this and then Neko split to do his own thing?
Shooting at the sky here.
I think the Neko experiment documented on Youtube has the potential to be one of the best thing of the 2022 season.
I love the totally assumed geekiness of the project combined to the zero-fucks-given attitude (minimalistic video editing, no bullshit or secrecy about geometry and design, great transparency about the errors/difficulties/fails encountered along the way, etc.).
This is super interesting and I can't wait to see how he does at the WC races! I bet quite a few fellow racers will envy him for living the dream like that with this project.
I love the totally assumed geekiness of the project combined to the zero-fucks-given attitude (minimalistic video editing, no bullshit or secrecy about geometry and design, great transparency about the errors/difficulties/fails encountered along the way, etc.).
This is super interesting and I can't wait to see how he does at the WC races! I bet quite a few fellow racers will envy him for living the dream like that with this project.
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"yeah we pulled apart a Trek and copied their pivot idler solution cos its the best one"
Amazing haha. Seems to speak pretty freely about what products work for him, at least the ones he's buying out of his own money.
iRider,thank you for the video. I am so confused at this point. It was like yesterday that he was with Kenda. Now this. How can that be? I thought he was going into the upcoming season on Kenda. Poor Kenda.
Why is that fucking cover on his Bike? I know why,but Why?
Avy
Is it going full circle, Intense to use other mfgs frames for their WC Team? 
Not much time left to test the "new protos", season starts in a little over a month.
Not much time left to test the "new protos", season starts in a little over a month.
I've actually found that Gwin puts out some of the better MTB content on YT (along with Bernard Kerr). Think it's a bit simplistic to tar Gwin with the corporate brush - dude has poured a lot of money into Intense and so has a lot of skin in the game. Neko can basically just walk away if this custom frame thing doesn't work out. Both seem like good dudes. Be interested to see how the WC goes.
Um, hell no,
First of all you literally proved my point.
This is privateer common sense and self explanatory
This is corporate nonsense at it highest, The dude and his mechanic has zero skin in the game, they simply get a paycheck from a company that does 7.1 million in sales and hires nearly 40 people and still has to report to a chain of command all in the name of being a "team owner" of stebers co? yeah, whatev
Neko has said he has roughly 20 grand into his bikes thus far and is already building a far superior bike than intenese has ever pushed out backed by millions of cost and R&D.
Neko has been at this since or before sept of last year, building his prototypes and producing content with his own money, building his channel with no nonsense content and candid info, Gwins youtube channel has alway been a compilation of network editing of race coverages and cell phone vids of himself lifting weights, coaching tips in branded gear, at the headquarters or doing product reviews with the help of intense marketing. Gwin thinks he is a master mind for riding a bike he didnt design and is testing proven production bike and suspension with a $2k sensor suite and software and talks about tire suppliers?
Now you tell me who has more to lose. Any one with half a brain cant tell the innovator apart from the corporate puppet
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Yeah nah... Gwin is a team owner and has literally invested a lot of his own funds into the project. Being that he is the most successful US rider to date, he could've just signed up to another team and shirked all responsibility for any lacklustre results. But he's thrown his reputation and money into Intense and his team's success will directly impact Intense DH bike sales.
Oooh wow - he's been "building prototypes" for all of 6 months.. Calling him an innovator is a stretch, right? Guy literally said he reversed engineered a link from a Trek Session in a recent video.
What's Neko's best result to date? A 3rd in Cairns in 2014?? Gwin basically changed the game in terms of training and bike set up. If this Intense thing doesn't work out, he's gonna lose a shit ton of money and leave the sport on a sour note. Much more skin in the game than a dude with a middling WC career and a cool Youtube project.
Bruh, you need to lay off the marketing cool aid
As far as your fanboy comments goes, Atherton, Minnar are way ahead of Gwin of wins and finishes for US riders, Neko also has been racing longer and with more result's than Gwin and they are currently neck and neck for podiums with Gwin at 88 and Neko at 82.
Gwin is just a rider, not an innovator, he isnt making his own ride or stepping outside of his realm to improve anything he is simply using whats available and at this time and its intense, I dont fault him for it at all because this is the industry standard for pro racers.
And Gwin is hardly the game changer in the sport compared to the Goats and racers that made the industry step up the bike game.
Wise Guy.
Avy
What are you smokin? Gwin at 88 and Niko at 82. They are neck and neck? I will just let someone else handle that.
Gwin is hardly a game changer?Compared to “what Goat’s”? There is only Two,Greg and Nicolas.
Niko cant hold a candle to Gwin.
Avy
Of course he cant hold a candle to Gwin, Gwin is fully supported with a mechanic and by a manufacturer with a budget and marketing. But yet I didn't see Gwin putting in the time in Costa rica or building frames while buying his own flights.
Goats
France’s Nicolas Vouilloz, Loic Bruni, Minnaar, Sam Hill, Peat, Danny hart, Greg Herbold, Dave Cullinan, Mike King, Myles Rockwell
