Anyone have anything they'd like to rant about?

[Boissal]

The new shock seems to be designed to work as a coil with a pneumatic bottom out function. Linear until end of stroke then a steep ramp up. It might be easier to balance decent small bump sensitivity with mid strike support in this large air can compared to a regular air can full of tokens but it's not going to be a huge step up from a coil, and barely more tunable. Sure, you can play with 0.5 psi increments vs 25 lbs increments on a coil, but the pressure is the same in both chambers so you don't control the end-stroke ramp up separately (the way you can in the EXT air shock or all the double positive air chamber forks). Maybe weight's the main benefit? Or novelty which will certainly sell to certain segment of the population...

[Andeh]

It seems like every 10 years or so, the industry waffles back and forth on creating the perfect suspension via linkage placement vs. shock fuckery. The last decade had certainly been dominated by linkage placement. Specialized seems to be betting on shock fuckery for the next decade (although specialized has mostly erred towards shock fuckery over linkage placement through the years).

If history contains any lessons, shock fuckery results in a brief period of bliss, followed by significant frustration, maintenance headaches, and the conclusion that weird shocks are usually tuned for gapers, and they tend to be difficult to tune for competent riders.

I predict that most decent riders with the new stumpy will ultimately end up mounting a traditional shock on it, and they'll make excuses about how a more linear leverage ratio is actually good because [insert bullshit here].

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This.

I had a Levo with a similar LR curve (actually slightly more progressive), and it was awful to tune for. It took a Cascade link plus a Super Deluxe Ultimate packed full of tokens AND HBO in order to not have hard bottom outs off mild step downs.

I have a buddy who used to work for Spec (so owns a couple of their bikes) who drinks their Kool-Aid and claims that their linear LR makes the bikes "poppy". I want to scream every time he says that, and ask when was the last time he rode a bike with modern, linearly progressive LR curve. Yet somehow he can't clear doubles on his linear "poppy" Spec bikes but I can on my ~28% progression bikes.

[toast2266]

^^^ cascades's gonna laugh all the way to the bank with this new stumpy.

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[jackstraw]

Get yourself some Theraband Flexbars. I have red, yellow, green, and blue. Pretty much just use green and sometimes blue now. Yellow/red during acute phase. Eccentric twisty exercise that relieves pain and strengthens forearm muscles.

I used to suffer from mtb-induced seasonal Tennis Elbow. No more. Game changer.

Interesting. I definitely tweaked it with weights and drove it into the ground mtn biking. Massage gun seems to be helping.

[BigHerm]

Massage has its place, but I've found that PT style eccentric exercises are the most effective at healing and prevention.

I suffered with seasonal mtb/tennis elbow for years until I moved somewhere with year-round biking. Got worse and tore something in the forearm. Flexbars were instrumental to my recovery and as I've said, I no longer suffer from tennis elbow with semi-regular usage. Cheap and effective.

[Touring_Sedan]

Labor rates at my local shop have gone up 33% in one year. Looks like I'll be looking for a new "local" shop after 15 years. None of my old mechs work there any more and the institutional knowledge is gone. It's a shame.

[beaterdit]

Krispy still running the shop? He's the only one I knew down there but Go-Ride up here is the same. Don't know anyone, no one seems to know anything, don't go there anymore.

Salt Cycles is my go-to these days if I have to. They're awesome over there.

[Touring_Sedan]

Krispy still running the shop? He's the only one I knew down there but Go-Ride up here is the same. Don't know anyone, no one seems to know anything, don't go there anymore.

Salt Cycles is my go-to these days if I have to. They're awesome over there.

I think that's where I'll be heading. I haven't seen Krispy in months, the Draper store is full of toddlers. Seems like they're just interested in selling me an eBike. It's unfortunate, I always used them when I needed some service, and even though I didn't buy a whole bike from them, I made it a point to support them by buying overpriced consumables, (brake pads, tires, etc) when I needed them. I even dropped by pretty regularly with whiskey.

[XXX-er]

Post covid they aren't selling bikes so gotta make the $ in the shop

or soon they won't be here shop bro tells me

[XXX-er]

Shop bro went on a 2 hr rant about why they aren't selling bikes post covid, how everything in the industry is fuct since 2018 and everybody from bike brands to the LBS is in big trouble

so the LBS has gotta make the $ in the shop or soon they won't be a shop sez bro

[beaterdit]

I think that's where I'll be heading. I haven't seen Krispy in months, the Draper store is full of toddlers. Seems like they're just interested in selling me an eBike. It's unfortunate, I always used them when I needed some service, and even though I didn't buy a whole bike from them, I made it a point to support them by buying overpriced consumables, (brake pads, tires, etc) when I needed them. I even dropped by pretty regularly with whiskey.

Man, yeah, that's a bummer. Krispy's doing his race team/coaching thing, maybe that's full time for him these days? Awesome if so. Either way it's race season and he's prolly not setting labor costs at the shop anyway.

For suspension service of any sort I do Suspension Syndicate, you know Cody, former service manager of Go-Ride Salt Lake. They're not cheap either but they do good work. You can schedule your service and bring your shit in that day for pretty quick turnaround, usually. I order brake pads from MTX, cheaper and way better than stock, and they're local too.

Hate to say it but tires are expensive and I get those wherever has them cheapest on the internet.

[beaterdit]

Shop bro went on a 2 hr rant about why they aren't selling bikes post covid, how everything in the industry is fuct since 2018 and everybody from bike brands to the LBS is in big trouble

so the LBS has gotta make the $ in the shop or soon they won't be a shop sez bro

This is true too but this particular pair of local shops seems to have weathered it all pretty well and I got a feeling they're still raking it in.

[Touring_Sedan]

Shop bro went on a 2 hr rant about why they aren't selling bikes post covid, how everything in the industry is fuct since 2018 and everybody from bike brands to the LBS is in big trouble

so the LBS has gotta make the $ in the shop or soon they won't be a shop sez bro

33% YTY is a bit excessive. Especially without an explanation.

[XXX-er]

I'm just repeating what shop owner bro said about this time 2023 and he was pretty specific about whats fuct everything from margins to courier costs, i asked when will it happen ? and he said this year

so who will survive ? the LBS who can make $$$ out of the shop

notice since then there is no more CRC and Kona went under i mean mutherfucking Kona went under

I don't think shops " rake it in " shop bro hopes to operate for 20-25 yrs at which point the mortgage will be paid and he will own the Realestate, there is a name for that model I can't remember but macdonalds also uses it

[beaterdit]

This guy owns two shops in a very high end and growing market. I'm sure he's making money and good for him but that service price increase seems over the top.

[smmokan]

I think the bigger question here is why do you still have a receipt from last year?

[Yukonrider]

Labor rates at my local shop have gone up 33% in one year.

I went to this shop once and essentially begged them to rebuild my seat-post that day. They pulled through and got it done for some obscene quoted price, I tipped the mechanic 20 bucks for the hustle and went on my way.
The post was broken again in a week, but got me through most of my spring trip. Went to find the receipt to see if they would try again and saw they only charged me 20 bucks for the rebuild, decided that was a fair price and took it somewhere better to get it fixed again.

[toast2266]

33% YTY is a bit excessive. Especially without an explanation.

33% increase year over year is excessive if the shop has been doing a good job at revising their labor rates annually. But if they're like a lot of shops, their rates hadn't changed since like 2018 and when they finally decided to review rates, it turns out that a pretty big bump was warranted.

*no idea if that's the case for this shop, nor do I know if the rate for that particular service was appropriate. It seems high to me, but I guess it depends on exactly what they did.

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[XXX-er]

Often shops will advertise service rates on-line so you can do compro's on what the going rate is for a job to see if you got hosed so i checked local prices AND my LBS has pretty cheap shop rates in general and in fact the guy doing some wrenching only working out of his garage is actualy charging more which is backwards to what I would have thot

I assume cuz LBS guy is the only game in town selling a LOT of bikes, he has been there forever, I am certain he owns the RE , does XC skis/ running gear so diversifyed products and so I assume he really hasn't looked at what current shop prices are cuz he doesnt have to

IMO shop work was the poor cousin of the LBS, staff did not pay attention to what they took in to make sure it was a money maker but I think thats changed

[Bunion 2020]

If you are getting some guy to tighten cables on a Huffy that is one thing. Suspension work on a $7K+ bike is totally another.

[XXX-er]

Yes but its usually about time spent & materials or are you ranting against huffys ?

[evdog]

33% YTY is a bit excessive. Especially without an explanation.

The auto mechanic I've used for years upped his rate from $85 to $175/hr a year or two ago. Not sure all at once or in a couple bumps, but I definitely noticed when it hit $175. It's finally got me doing more stuff myself. Checked out a different mechanic recently, and their quoted rate is $171. But they also quoted me $250 less than the previous guy ($750) to do rear brakes.

[jm2e]

Shit’s getting more expensive boys. Get over it.
Bike shops “raking it in”? I doubt it. Some bike shops Turing a prophet? I hope so. Good for them. I’ll bet running a business to support stingy dentists is tricky. Raise rates, make more money. Lose business, make less money.
What are the odds that a shop in a bougie area charging higher labor rates also has higher rent? And more shitty petty self absorbed customers?


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[SchralphMacchio]

Transmission chains cost $100+ MSRP and the PowerLock links only seem to come in 4 packs! And they say the PowerLocks are only single use now? I hope this chain lasts a long ass time, also hope we don’t regret springing for a bling X0 Transmission build on my wife’s new ride.

[Touring_Sedan]

Shit’s getting more expensive boys. Get over it.
Bike shops “raking it in”? I doubt it. Some bike shops Turing a prophet? I hope so. Good for them. I’ll bet running a business to support stingy dentists is tricky. Raise rates, make more money. Lose business, make less money.
What are the odds that a shop in a bougie area charging higher labor rates also has higher rent? And more shitty petty self absorbed customers?


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The shop owner in question owns both his properties. This is the intermountain west, it takes an act of congress to increase taxes. So that excuse is null.

I'm tired of the whining from an industry that made a bunch of shit decisions over the past few years and then passing on the problems to their customers.

This shop replaced all their tenured employees with 16 year olds. I had to spend 15 minutes explaining what ghetto tubeless was and why I wanted a 26 inch tube.

Where is the logic in taking the one thing you had going for you, customer experience, and completely fucking it by almost doubling your prices and not giving the toddlers the talking points?

They took a 15 year customer who dropped in every month to buy some bits with a 60% markup and told them to fuck right off.