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What was the biggest advancement in mountain biking this decade?

Andy Mink

Everyone loves spring skiing but not in January
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Things that will make e-bikes lighter and more nimble than they are now.
I saw this morning that Specialized has a E-road bike that tips the scales at 26.2#. It's amazing what $13.5K will get you!:eek:
 

Rod9301

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I would say electric bikes.

Not there is no reason to get a bike with less than 180 mm travel front and rear. You will go faster Downhill even if it's not very rocky, and you will go uphill on anything.

You can still get plenty of exercise, but twice the downhill on any ride.

And the weight, 50 lbs, so what? It goes Downhill faster, i can still get air, manual it, rolls better over rock gardens with a 65 degree head angle.

Now you can have your cake and eat it too.

I was in France for two years and 80 percent of serious mountain bikers were on e bikes. The only ones on non e were the casual riders.

Since i got my e bike, I'm riding 12+hours a week instead of 8, twice the downhill, same average and Max heart rate.
 

Ross Biff

The older I get, the faster I was....
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Have no use for 1X gearing with stupid large pie plate cogs on the rear to get the required gear range!
Make mine a double anytime...
Absolutely! One- by may allow you to remove that pesky front mech, possibly freeing up that area for other uses but it does introduce other issues. $100 chainrings and $300 cassettes anyone? Mind you, it does open up the race for who has the smallest chainring, largest rear cog and widest bars in your crew! For me, the best innovation has been RELIABLE tubeless set ups that don't cost a fortune or require numerous secret tricks to keep functional. Who doesn't like more traction and no pinch flats!
 

Primoz

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I was in France for two years and 80 percent of serious mountain bikers were on e bikes. The only ones on non e were the casual riders.
Not sure I really want to even reply to this, but it's complete BS.... or maybe France is 100% different then any other European country where I'm riding. Based on this, how successful they are lately in any bike discipline, this might actually be true ;) Everywhere else (Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland, Czech...) majority of people are on mopeds, and maybe 10% of people are on real mountain bikes. And most of those on real bikes are serious mountain bikers, those on mopeds are people, who would otherwise lay on sofa drink beer and never go out. You can see this from far on their riding style, their pedaling style, their position on bike etc.
I wanted to write something about "same effort same HR" stuff but no, I'm not going into this. If someone wants to fool himself he's cycling when 250+W motor is dragging him around, it's all cool. Nice dreams make life easier.
 

Josh Matta

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Can't even remember the last time I threw a chain on a front shift. The 90's maybe...
I never would throw while shifting I would always throw while going just riding. Shifting was fine.
 
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TS
Philpug

Philpug

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The prices reflect what the market is willing to spend. When people stop buying $20K bikes or $2M cars, the builders will stop building them. Until then...
 

Tom K.

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I saw this morning that Specialized has a E-road bike that tips the scales at 26.2#. It's amazing what $13.5K will get you!:eek:

My wife has a lovely Orbea Gain e road bike that weighs 26 pounds, and cost a bit more than half that.

Mind you, it does open up the race for who has the smallest chainring, largest rear cog and widest bars in your crew!

Dude....you forgot the most important "shortest stem" contest!!!
 

Ross Biff

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My wife has a lovely Orbea Gain e road bike that weighs 26 pounds, and cost a bit more than half that.



Dude....you forgot the most important "shortest stem" contest!!!
Darn! I knew I'd forgotten something!
 

Ski&ride

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Advancement of this decade? More people mountain biking!

Some may say that’s a drawback. But for now, that’s more positive. (The negative may come later, I don’t know)

More trails, more technology for us mere mortals. I made my own dropper post way back when. You know, magic marker mark on the post, quick release seat collar, step off to drop the post at the top of the climb. ;)Ok, e-assist will help me when I get older to need it too.

When I first started mountain biking, I couldn’t find anyone to ride (slow enough) with. So I rode hard to keep up, and raced to find other to ride with on their recovery days... It was far from ideal, but it beats riding alone, which I had to do a lot of too.

I enjoyed it a lot but not many to share with that enthusiasm last decade. Now, I can do a work buddy ride because there’re enough of us who ride!

Sure, the trails get crowded. But I’m not complaining, not at the moment.
 
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scott43

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It's kinda funny reading this. I can remember a time when we thought we'd never stock another road bike. Now we're back to what...50/50? Funny how things go..
 

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