ANYHOW, to adress the title of this here blog.
I am a frame builder in GR MI and i am starting to get a little bogged down on the rapid changes of the cycling industry. Everyone is trying to out build or out FAT the competition. It started with FFF (surly's Fattys Fit Fine) frames and then the "snow bikes" came out. They are now simply called "Fat Bikes" which i am totally fine with. Love new bikes, I can officially have over 10 bikes of different "uses" in my coral at any time. BUT everyone is trying to make something newer and better
BB30 started out slow and was picked up in the road community and then PF30 and then 100mm Fat and blah blah. Crank companies can't keep up!
Then Oversized Headtubes.
170mm Rear Spacing
190mm Rear Spacing
142mm Front Spacing
135mm Front Spacing
182mm Rear.....
It is like the whole fight with the 1" headtubes vs the 1 1/8".
Riders have spent years building their bikes to be sweet and out of nowhere companies start saying they have the wrong thing and riders and trying to keep up with the trends.
I think it is silly. Just because XX1 came out doesn't mean it is leaps and bounds better than XO or XTR. 4" tires vs 5" tires vs 29+ 3" tires.
I had a guy tell me he would have won a race if he had XX1 on his bike..
I think that is Silly. You lost because you did not push yourself hard enough. There is No extra special gear with XX1 or a speed boost. You just did something wrong. I am not saying i don't want XX1 but I see no reason to leave 6 month old stuff in the garbage just because the new stuff goes to 11! "But ours go to 11" just a few years ago people were stoked to have 9 spd cassettes!
To sum it up I am just ranting to rant. The dust will settle with this whole battle and we will see what comes out ahead. Like any big industry game it will come down to who has the most money to promote
and who doesn't.
So, i hope to see you on the trails and i don't care what you run, and long as you ride and love your bike!
Cheers
Daniel!
