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2022 Racing/Team Rumors

buckoW

Turbo Monkey
Mar 1, 2007
3,838
4,876
Champery, Switzerland
Nah, those are OG Spooky stays, legit 25 years old. Same stuff the Smutok-proof’d DNA’s and R9’s used for chainstays.
When i owned spooky, i got the tubing mill that cannondale abandoned re-opened for a while, but all those tubes were sold to Zen for use in Turners, Ellsworths and a few other weird projects.
I wish we’d managed to keep that facility open, boeing bought the draw benches, they are probably making toilet parts somewhere now…
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!
 

slyfink

Turbo Monkey
Sep 16, 2008
9,752
5,555
Ottawa, Canada
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!
 

gonefirefightin

free wieners
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!
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.
 

fwp

Monkey
Jun 5, 2013
415
410
Connor Fearon finishing 2nd at the Cannonball DH ahead of some WC guys on a trailbike is mental.
 

fwp

Monkey
Jun 5, 2013
415
410
Looked pretty fast and rough in the videos, I know he's Connor Fearon but its still tough to wrap you're head around?
155mm trailbike putting 8 seconds into a top 20 WC guy.
Priceless marketing for Forbidden.
 

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
88,180
26,517
media blackout
Looked pretty fast and rough in the videos, I know he's Connor Fearon but its still tough to wrap you're head around?
155mm trailbike putting 8 seconds into a top 20 WC guy.
Priceless marketing for Forbidden.
to be fair, forbidden markets the dreadnaught as an enduro bike, and the druid as a trail bike.
 
Feb 21, 2020
928
1,290
SoCo Western Slope
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.
 

Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,669
6,886
borcester rhymes
Better views on the Intense Session in here.

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.
 

gonefirefightin

free wieners
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.
 

canadmos

Cake Tease
May 29, 2011
21,770
21,269
Canaderp
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.
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. :busted:
 

FlipSide

Turbo Monkey
Sep 24, 2001
1,427
875
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. :)
 
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toodles

ridiculously corgi proportioned
Aug 24, 2004
5,794
5,177
Australia
no bullshit or secrecy about geometry and design
"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.
 

Avy

Turbo Monkey
Jan 24, 2006
1,381
456
Better views on the Intense Session in here.

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
 

shelteringsky

Monkey
May 21, 2010
323
269
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.
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.
 

gonefirefightin

free wieners
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.

Neko can basically just walk away if this custom frame thing doesn't work out.
This is privateer common sense and self explanatory


dude has poured a lot of money into Intense and so has a lot of skin in the game.
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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shelteringsky

Monkey
May 21, 2010
323
269
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
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.

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?
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.

Now you tell me who has more to lose. Any one with half a brain cant tell the innovator apart from the corporate puppet
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.
 

sethimus

neu bizutch
Feb 5, 2006
5,268
2,387
not in Whistler anymore :/
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.
do you believe in jesus?
 

gonefirefightin

free wieners
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.
 

Gary

my pronouns are hag/gis
Aug 27, 2002
8,425
6,314
UK
Neko has 82 podiums?
Dafuq?

It's quite a while back now but Gwins winning streak and dominance actually did step up the game in WC racing and cause quite a few riders to rethink their fitness strategy.
 

Avy

Turbo Monkey
Jan 24, 2006
1,381
456
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.
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
 

gonefirefightin

free wieners
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
 

fwp

Monkey
Jun 5, 2013
415
410
I can't believe you guys even respond to such a clown. Gonefirefighting is a troll with zero knowledge, just looking for an argument.
Not 1 thing he typed is factually correct. Greg and Gee have the most wins out of any U.S riders?? Really? :fancy: