Oh you're a clever one
Trust me...
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yeah, the trails around here are often so terribly designed that a cheater line makes them more fun to ride. I shouldn't need to do a 180 to get around a rock, but that's what we've got. Excuse me if I bypass the trials-esque stunts every 20 feet so I can just ride my bike.
As for JK's comments about speed vs. comfort- I do wonder what the timed sections were like. I know that speed=/= comfort, but in my mind for this to be worth its cost of entry, it needs to be equally fast, but more comfortable, moar fast with equal comfort, or lots moar fast with less comfort. I think any other combo doesn't work. It also needs to be overall fast, not just in steep and rocky sections. Does it shave time in corners? Provide a firmer platform for sprints? not bob during uphills? There's little mention of the overall ramifications, and more focus on drops and rocky sections.
I was thinking about getting one (a used one, of course) but decided to spend my fundage elsewhere. I'm not confident I can fit my 20mm hub on it, and I'm just fine with my outdated RC2 36.
As for JK's comments about speed vs. comfort- I do wonder what the timed sections were like. I know that speed=/= comfort, but in my mind for this to be worth its cost of entry, it needs to be equally fast, but more comfortable, moar fast with equal comfort, or lots moar fast with less comfort. I think any other combo doesn't work. It also needs to be overall fast, not just in steep and rocky sections. Does it shave time in corners? Provide a firmer platform for sprints? not bob during uphills? There's little mention of the overall ramifications, and more focus on drops and rocky sections.
I was thinking about getting one (a used one, of course) but decided to spend my fundage elsewhere. I'm not confident I can fit my 20mm hub on it, and I'm just fine with my outdated RC2 36.
From what I've read they keep selling out of the forks. Your assessment is a little.... untrustworthy
walmart slings a lot of mongooses and schwinns too....
One of our OG DH lines got "made sustainable" by a bunch of mouth-breathers who turned a 100 metres fall-line rock section into a series of switchbacks that will make you want to punch yourself for riding them. Now the local Facebook trail forum is full of n00bs who never rode the OG line bitching and whinging about "Stravassholes" who are "cutting the trail" when they ride the OG line down the middle. The organize little working bees and circle jerks where they go out and lay sticks across the OG trail and put up little signs on stakes about cutting corners causing erosion.
Don't like a line? Don't ride it. Don't like Strava? Don't use it.
Seriously fuck people who modify trail sections they can't ride, but half the "Strava lines" that people are bitching about are either improvements to the flow or speed of a trail, or part of a trails natural evolution. No one is forcing you to ride them unless they're closing down your preferred line. I can think of a couple of trails that go from a relatively tame blue, to a solid double black by incorporating a transfer step down Strava line from the berm of one turn to a lower section of trail.
My practice is that if I'm not part of the crew that built a trail, I don't change it.
Some of the trails in Brisbane are 30 years old now. That means everything from XC trails from when 600mm bars were a thing to DH lines Kovarik kicked in when he was riding for Azonic and GT. Full respect to the original builders but yeah - I can see why nowadays people might wanna straight-line a few drops now that they can rather than do a series of nose turn switchbacks to avoid them.
i build fun sections right next to the actual boring parts of the trail. they eventually become the way...
Funny how one person's cutting off a technical section in the name of "flow" is another person's dumbing down of a trail.
See I think it's dumbing down if you remove or modify technical features, or build easier go-arounds. But some of the new lines people put in are actually more technical, super difficult to do right but slightly faster. I don't think many of the Stravassholes are actually to blame for stuff getting dumbed down. That's more likely self-important dentists that are new to the sport that can't figure out how to get their e-fatbike through a trail all the guys at the country club are talking about.
i totally get this. i'll often build a side line with huge drops or stepdows so i don't have to ride half a dozen stupid switchbacks...
“Strava Lines”. I’m copywriting that.
Yeah it's very much situation-specific, and also open to interpretation. There are tons of stupid switchbacks on a lot of the trails I ride, many of which are flat or back-sloped. They're stupid but there's no question that they're also challenging to ride fast - and that's the point, to control speed on a multi-use trail. You can argue that an alternate line is just fixing a bad trail design, or you can argue that it's cheating (akin to going outside the tape).
It'd be cheating if you were racing it and it was bunted but cheating on Strava? Meh. Strava is so glitchy and GPS recorders vary so much it's hardly a life or death thing which line someone wants to ride. Half the fun is trying to pass your buddies down a trail and maybe colliding with them when the two lines remerge again.
So I'm just going to say this about the fork. Look at the axle path. Consider the slope of a curve at any point. Now look at the path at 0 travel to say sag. Consider what the slope and angle looks like in comparison to the head angle/angle of a standard fork.....is everyone following? Good.
So now imagine that mountain bikes might perhaps be off the ground a lot. Especially if you ride reasonably hard with a gravity focus. In these instances bump absorption is different than approaching an obstacle. In these cases consider the force vectors at 0 travel about the axle. Ft and Fn.
It's really no surprise that reviews are discussing the unpredictable nature and increased feedback/soreness. This is inherent in the design.
I'm not saying the product is dumb, but it seems like the application of the 'technology' is perhaps a little misguided. It would seem a more planted setting is maybe wear this could have some relevance.
So now imagine that mountain bikes might perhaps be off the ground a lot. Especially if you ride reasonably hard with a gravity focus. In these instances bump absorption is different than approaching an obstacle. In these cases consider the force vectors at 0 travel about the axle. Ft and Fn.
It's really no surprise that reviews are discussing the unpredictable nature and increased feedback/soreness. This is inherent in the design.
I'm not saying the product is dumb, but it seems like the application of the 'technology' is perhaps a little misguided. It would seem a more planted setting is maybe wear this could have some relevance.
ENGAGE IT NAO
And still no one in MotoGP is using linkage forks.
And even BMW has a telescopic fork on their S1000 RR Superbike and not the linkage abomination found on their GS, their best selling bike, which is mainly ridden by 50+ men.
I actually never did, I was supposed to and they just kinda stopped replying to emails...
A non dentist industry'ish friend of mine does have one on an ibis ripley, he seems to really like it. He echos a similar message to the PB reviews, it's just different...I'll admit I don't like the look of it in photos but in person it's very substantial and pretty cool looking. Personally I've only done some parking lot loops on it and a short trail section...
Haha, you confuse me with someone who gives a fuck about strava (except for the negative effects of it). I was talking about cheating in a more general sense, i.e., avoiding the challenges of a trail by creating "cheater lines". Anyway, derail complete...
if there were a venn diagram or stravassholes and cheaters, it'd be a single overlapping circle.
I was looking for this the other day. (but not very hard). I was trying to figure out exactly what you are describing. were you able to find it?
dunno how accurate this is:
I’ll demo one for a week on my Shuttle if a LBS has such a BYOB deal, and then will provide an unbiased-by-what-I-spent opinion.
fromy my inebriated conditions and limited understanding of mechanics (c's gets degrees babyyyyyyyy)
My takeaway is that this thing is built for gnarly nose manuals thru rock gardens!
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No wonder it locks up when preloading a jump face.dunno how accurate this is:
whelp I'm sold
Now I'm definitely super duper for sure without question never buying one