Let's offroad / mountain bike / mtb / ride dirt

unless it's going to have a motor in it

Yeah I feel the same. Slowly starting admit that e-bikes might be good.

I keep making the mistake of trying to climb as quick as my mates on eebs, and then I'm fucked twice as quickly, and end up doing a quarter of the runs they do.

And I'm nearly 40. It's time.

Massive frame failure for Bernard Kerr today during his race run at Crankworx Rotorua- snapped completely in half just behind the head tube when he cased a jump toward the bottom of the run.

Looks like the glued joint failed and the tubes pulled out:

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I don't think I could ever trust a lugged mountain bike frame. I can't imagine the production version is going to be lugged.
I wonder if thats the original prototype he was riding or the same one from hardline?

I’d guess it’s the same one from Hardline- that’s speculation, but given the pace that Pivot are handing out the prototype frames and what we could see in Kerrs’ LSD’s I don’t think he had a fresh frame to build up for Crankworx.

Also interesting is that Atherton have a double metal wall in their joints that sandwiches the carbon tube on either side- Kerrs’ frame appears to only bond to the external face of the tube.

Also Thibault Daprella (sp?) appears to have been abruptly sacked by Canyon.

Yeh my pal was telling me this, sudden parting of ways, all claiming it’s mutual. So either they sacked him or he hated the bike? Surely he’d have tried the bike before signing.

Other news, big fan of the new specialised factory race kit, bit like the old trinity kit I liked. If I was lean and bronzed I’d look like Chris Blevins in it

Been enjoying the Cape Epic coverage. Bitter sweet as it makes me want to ride but I can't right now.
Mitterwallner looked pretty shelled yesterday.

Or there's someone on the team more senior or more valuable than Thibault who he fell out with and could not/did not want to reconcile, which might fit (just about) with the "mutual" thing.

Although do we know why he left Commencal?

Or there's a PR disaster around the corner and they dropped him like a hot potato?

True. My assumption was that Amaury Pierron was always going to be the focus of the Commencal team so Diprella left for Canyon to be a bigger fish, but maybe he kept giving Max wedgies and this lead to him being shown the door, then Fabien Barel got the same treatment vis-a-vis the under-pantalon?

The Vital forum has some wild discussions about it. It's either something to do with a sponsor, or he's actually done something quite serious...

https://www.vitalmtb.com/forums/hub/2024-team-rumors?page=140#comment-435411

https://www.vojomag.com/news/thibaut-daprela-sexprime-on-a-clairement-essaye-de-me-detruire/

interesting is that Atherton have a double metal wall in their joints

Yeah, I was reading up on single wall versus double wall lugs last night before I fell asleep.
Seems like a bit of an engineering oversight going with single wall lugs.
One would assume that Pivot had tested the bonded single wall lug to failure before letting anyone ride a frame, but maybe not.
From what I’ve read, the double lug method that Atherton use seems much less likely to fail in this way but I still don’t think I could trust a double lug bond either.

I think the prototype Demo frame has been through two seasons of WC racing now, I’m wondering if it uses single or double wall lugs.

I think I’d prefer a failure mode that gives more warning and isn’t as total- I’m hoping that my aluminium bikes will display cracks before the whole front end breaks away.

One chap in the Pinkbike comments section said that carbon tubes and alloy lugs have a very different expansion/contraction rate and that flying the bike in the hold then landing in a warm country is going to test the elasticity of the bonds - may of course be bollocks but sounded plausible

You'd like to think that but separated welds at the headtube is still a very common failure mode for aluminium bikes.

If there was an engineer involved in the project then they should be able to calculate this difference and spec an adhesive which can cope with it. For sure that looks like an adhesive failure but I don't think anyone can say why the adhesive failed without a much more detailed look at the bike.

thibaut-dap­rela-sexprime

You're all clutching at rumours. It's hidden in the URL...

Not wanting to move us away from the scandalous chat but..
Has anyone used any fold up jump ramps and if so are these Mtb hopper ones the best/ is it worth going to any cheaper alternative?
https://www.stifmtb.com/products/mtb-hopper-intro?variant=41059275243631&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=display&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwzN-vBhAkEiwAYiO7oGhp74r-FA_1e60u32AkaT5wDBlyzatuwqOpccOiyMn_KHDzT4twChoCGY0QAvD_BwE

As to leave the ground? Are you ok? Sounds dangerous.

spade and soil

Doing plenty of spade and soil too but sometimes a quick ramp onto the lawn or in the park onto the grass is ideal for tiring the kids out! Not for me..

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I wish I learnt to jump as a kid. Alas it's the one skill I don't possess on a bike. :(

I learnt to crash as a kid and it's a skill I've transfered to my middle age...