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When everyone knows new bikes are to be tested in Transition's parking lot

Haha, yeah that was me! I saw it again two weeks ago, it was full of telemetry devices this time. I asked when it was coming out and the guy tried to tell me it was a Pivot this time 'round. Can't imagine how it doesn't get released later this summer/fall as a '27 model considering how tidy it currently looks and the fact they are riding it at high noon on the most popular trail network in the Golden. Might need to just post up in the bushes with a camera next time...

Very true, however you can also consider the other end of that analogy. You may be the best musician in the world but alot of that goes out the window if your instrument is out of tune.

Look weirdly tall to be a new product by today’s carbon rims standard

Alan Tani used to sell grease packers that make it possible to push marine-grade grease through seals without opening them. In my experience, it doesn't seem to make much of a difference in my case

Are you prying at the seal on the inner or outer ring contact point? When it comes to mine (and my wife's) bike, I am trying to protect the main bearings like this:

This already happened... the original rims were branded Santa Cruz. They then switched to Reserve branding.

Transitions are horrible about eating bearings. When I was riding my Sentinel and Smuggler 5-6 times a week, I was finding seized bearings almost once a month. Every one of their bikes I've ever worked on post-SBG era had seized bearings within a year from the factory. Not a little gritty, flat out seized. The bearings in my gen1 Sentinel Carbon seized in less than 2 weeks. I tried everything including pressing bearings in untouched, removing/reinstalling the seal after packing them better, different greases (thin and thick), smearing grease on the face of the bearing (IMO this made it worse)...

The Mavens thing is crazy. The bike world has been gaslit into believing that massaging pistons on brand new brakes from the factory is supposed to be normal and accepted. Pre Mavens this was never done on new brakes.

Jesus, sorry I asked about a coil shock on the new Tallboy.

They weigh within 2 grams of each other (22 grams for the Shimano battery, 24 grams for the FOX). The form factor is a bit different, the FOX battery is more elongated.

In my opinion, and looking at other industries - there seems to be the exact same kind of "vitriol" with new product releases, but I feel the difference in mountian bikes is maybe a lack of balanced reporting as new products come out. We either get the copy + paste press releases of a product launch and reviews that either glaze it too hard or are too non commital to give any real insight, and at the other end the "contrarians" who act like they are the only ones "talking truth" and rage baiting the internet. I'll use PC's and...

I recently read an article by the enduro mag. They made a survey and found out that 70% of their readers that took part in the survey never changed their rebound from what the bike came with. The amount of people riding bikes that dont have a clue about basic setup is very high. For them, something like the progression rate is not relevant. We are all so far off the average user that we are not who brands have to engineer their bikes for. https://enduro-mtb.com/performance-gap-das-dilemma-moderner-bikes/