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Wow that’s a weird brake/shifter angle.
Cool looking bike, though it’s not clear to me why anyone needs a bike to make trails even easier than they already are in this era of shitty flow trails.
My hot take is if Brage wasn’t attached to this bike, the response would be much less positive.
Looking at the other image of the fork, some of the details appear similar to current Fox & Marzocchi products: the style of the serial number on the rear of the crown, the style of the driveside dropout and rebound (?) adjuster.
For reference, a photo of the Bomber Z2 dropout (from https://www.experiencedgear.net/home/marzocchi-z2)
enhance that serial code!
What makes you say that? I think similar bikes have been super well received lately. The two that come to mind are the bottle rocket and the marin quake. Both bikes are similar basic and people are hype.
Good spot.
Mike Curiak looks to have a Marzocchi on his Lenz 32". Different looking casting arch, however –– and his looks to have basically no tire clearance?
In a comment on the press release, Lenz said the fork is a prototype they can't discuss. The rear of the arch certainly looks like a prototype rather than a finished product.
As for Curiak's fork... could that just be a 32" wheel stuffed into an existing 29" fork? The position of the dust wipers relative to the tire/rim suggests maybe.
I think both those bikes are more race oriented and have more adjustments. This bike seems more in line with budget park bikes like the status park despite being full 200mm. Nobody talks about those bikes.
The serial number on the pic can be read as "1270890-0002-T" which translates to
Description: Bomber Z2, 29in, Marzocchi, 130, RAIL 2.0, Sweep-Adj, Shiny Blk, Neutral/Gloss Blk Logo, 15QRx110, 1.5 T, 58HT, 44mm Rake, YG, AM
I suppose the lowers might be from something else.
Not trying to be argumentative but I do completely disagree with that first point. Quake... MAYBE, but anybody wanting to race I think will look elsewhere. The bottlerocket is blatantly marketed as not a race bike.
I guess the status DH isn't talked about but I think its a sleeper sick bike. Maybe because there's one at my LBS that's for sale for 3k out the door. The industry needs as many cheap aluminum double crown bikes as it can handle. Bike park laps on these types of bikes is in my opinion the purest form of the sport. Just having as much fun as possible all day long with bikes that don't financially ruin you.
Neither of those bikes are race-oriented. The bottlerocket is a freeride bike 27.5 front/rear. And the other is a Marin.
"The industry needs as many cheap aluminum double crown bikes as it can handle. Bike park laps on these types of bikes is in my opinion the purest form of the sport. Just having as much fun as possible all day long with bikes that don't financially ruin you."
A super fun bike sold today means a super fun bike designed to be ridden a little more safely sold tomorrow. For sports like mtb, I think the hard part is getting people to try it. As soon as someone's in, they're in for a while and for at least a few bikes.
I think there's a business case to be made for lower-cost park bikes now that many peoples' primary bikes are eMTBs.
Back in the day, my cohort of friends had a trail bike and a DH bike. Later, I feel like it became an enduro bike and a lighter trail bike (aka downcountry). Now, I imagine a lot of mountain bikers' pairings will either be a park bike and an eMTB, or a XC bike and an eMTB.
This is basically me. Just converted my HP Range to a downhill bike, and I also have a Range VLT. I still want a third bike though. Actually have my eye on an aggressive hard tail. If not that, an Optic…
I have to admit, I do not love the side profile of some of the 32" bikes that are coming out. They end up looking like XS bikes with cramped triangles and kinked bottom/top tubes. Hopefully more progressive geo will enable these things to look like something other than a 2010-2012 era niner.
Optic, DH Range, and Rerun here.
First thing I thought is I'll see these all over the lifts as rental bikes
The only thing that any of these bikes have attached to them that make them actually cool is marketing. Especially from a brand like transition. Norco actually does some pretty cool outside the box stuff but brands like marin or transition make cheaply made bikes that’s survive only off marketing hype.
That's a hot take on things. A lot of us don't care if a bike is inside the box or outside it, we just want it to be a good time.
Oh, and pretty much all mountain bikers are uncool. That's fine with me, I don't really like the cool people anyway.
Extremely hot take in the bad way lol.
Marin makes awesome bikes, I regularly check them out. Transition as well, albeit a little spendier but also more dialed (imo).
The only reason I don’t buy either is because I already own a 6 year old Norco that has given me zero reasons to spend money on a new bike,
I will probably get flamed for this, and will offer the caveat that I have only been skimming this page, but I feel like these bikes are great propositions and are in my eyes cool bikes because they’re made to be cheap and practical workhorses for younger demographics that don’t have as much disposable income and want a playful park bike that they can maintain themselves.
Maybe I’m just haven’t been following the thread well enough, but I don’t see why the ebike bit is necessary to explain the appeal. Not everyone can afford bougie boutique racing machines, or ebikes, nor do many want the complexity of either one. These bikes would make a great second bike regardless of what your first bike is, or a good only bike, if all you’re interested in is a certain type of riding. In addition, if you don’t go to the bike park every week, all the more reason to not break the bank. All of this said, we’re still talking about bikes that cost well in excess of $2k when not on sale. I feel like we can hardly call them cheap.
Mountain biking is a privileged and expensive hobby. Bikes like these make it a tiny bit more accessible to many, which from what I have read, was much of what Brage wanted in the torrent, which I commend him for.
From the downtime podcast, apparently when Loic crashed he was wearing an alpinestars airbag system.
The tech MX system is on the market already (Barcia was wearing it during is insane supercross crash ealier this year), but it would be fantastic to see mtb-focused versions as well.
I agree with the hot take because the Status you’re talking about is a complete bike where the Torrent frame only is $3k. The TR11 frame is $400 cheaper with much more adjustment and a spot for a water bottle. (Which any non-race, park bike should have) Im not falling for Norco trying to gaslight us with no adjustability as a feature, especially if they’re charging more than the competition. Many people have flip chips and headset cups they never touch, and that’s fine they don’t subtract anything from the ride experience for them. For us nerds (target market of the Torrent, other than rental fleets) the Torrent seems like a step backwards. All this would be fine if it was $1k cheaper.
Yeah, it’s definitely really cool tech! Alpinestar has a huge advantage as they’ve been working with systems like that in other disciplines for a long, long time. Thankfully, the transfer over is more about the fine tuning of the algorithm.
I agree that more of this general type of tech would be awesome to see from others as well.
I think Alpinestar will have an algorithm set up for MTB soon for public- I also wouldn’t be hesitant of running the MX one right now for MTB
The Torrent isn't for bike nerds. It's for people that set it and forget it and spend their day lapping A-Line and Dirt Merchant. And for that purpose, the Torrent sounds like a perfect bike. Simple, reliable (hopefully) and affordable.
Most geometry adjustments are flaw not a feature to some people.
I have ridden enough bikes over the years that I can adjust to a few mm or a degree here or there quickly.
What I want is the simplest, easiest, most reliable frame. Adding in flip chips and adjustable headset cups just adds more places for tolerance stack-up to fail and creaks (or worse) to show up. Based on the shear volume of warranty experiences I’ve had to deal with, no thanks.
I’d probably pay the extra ~$400 for the Norco over a Transition to NOT have flip chips.
If you don’t like the torrent DH, the bottle rocket and the Marin quake you might not have kids who are regularly sending their carcasses— emulating Everything they see on YouTube—
I do have kids. They don’t quite send yet….
but my fellow parents that have high school aged kids that send ( like what the fuck!! These “kids” are sending seriously raw lines, maybe not heavy af but the youth are currently charging hard everywhere and always ) are always pleased to see much cheaper, and aluminum frames that aren’t going to break
the demographic for these “ not halo-not crap” and “ modern geo rides well make it tough” products is way larger than any of the forum nerds would realize
I used to be all about flip chips and adjustments but now I see them as a great way to lose half you season trying to find “the perfect setting” instead of just learning to ride the bike.
Torrent is clean.
Bottle rocket is adjustable freeride.
Quake is a capable race geo. (Iirc)
Different bikes for different folks .
I freeride and park my race bikes - and xc ride my enduro bike.
But the world does seem to want FUN 27.5 park bikes and the racers do seem to want FAST DH WEAPONS.
Why can’t we have both?
The marketing isn’t even for us.
There are literally armies of 15 year old boys AND GIRLS! Getting really into modern freeride, just riding down shit and off shit and being park rats in jnco jeans where I live.
Status is relevant af here.
Clapped park bikes are still getting scooped up and tuned and sent the next season.
Torrent is gonna be a hit in a world where all the supremes broke and all the race bikes are priced out
Now back to the tech, who’s running mass dampers and chains in Leogang?
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