I wonder how much of an improvement the IceTech Rotors make on their own matched with pre IceTech XT brakes would. Not that i'm going to go out and buy them just for that but when these rotor's wear out, you can bet it will be SLX rotors and not the XTs. a dozen grams weight difference and save $40 on the pair. No brainer. And that SLX with the shadowplus is mighty tempting too. May have to go bash the old XT out in Moab this spring

I'm so stoked on X Fusion. I ordered on of their Velour's 2 years back for my Trail bike to replace the Marzo that blew up, thinking it would be a "good enough" replacement. Totally blown away by the quality of that fork. And they seem to just keep getting better. This is awesome for us consumers. Fox, Rock Shox, Marzo, you're on notice

I should clarify, mechanically they may be similar (planetary gearing designs or what not) but the big advantage of a gearbox over an interal hub is placement: centered and unsprung and non-rotational. Clear winner on those benchmarks. Why are internal hubs more prevelant on the market then gearboxes? because Shimano and SRAM can make them for a market as is no frame mod neccesary. The penalties though are so huge that you never see them on a sprung bike, just cruisers and hybrid exercise bikes and maybe a nice hardtail (think the highend Rohloffs hubs), but you never see em on FS bikes, and i'm willing to bet its not just cuz peps can get a tensioner to take up the slack when unsprung. If we can shift gears here (pun intended) this is one of the cooler innovations in the bicycle gear box world. Way far from production viability but still, CVT on a bike, blows my mind http://ls1.pinkbike.org/185/sprt/i/kvid/kvid-rms1.10.swf?ad=0&a=0&l=0&w=640&h=480&dur=372.00&u=http://videosift.com/video/Infinitely-Variable-Gearbox-For-Bikes&uid=1811&id=758&title=Derek%20Lahr&un=spoiledgoods&i=http://lv1.pinkbike.org/vt/1/vt-758.jpg&t=1328906863

Internal hubs are not the same as gearboxes btw

I totally agree that a gearbox would be the best, the problem is that neither sram nor shimano will make it because 1) people are still weight weenies (even though the modern day world cup DH bike is 30ish lbs, look back 5-10 years and it was 40, thats a 25% reduction but we're still chasing those 10ths of a gram) 2) Gearboxs require the frames to be designed around them and Shimano and SRAM are about putting out a universal product for the industry standard that simple, too heavy and not universalizable, bummer

total snooze. This is the most well edited video of boring i've ever seen. And you guys are a team? wow

So don't get me wrong, the hydraulic actuation does seem to be better but how much better? if RockShox could offer the post at a significantly lower price point maybe 50-100 bucks lower by using a cable, then i think bang for buck would dictate that cable actuation is a better value (but i'm just speculating, i don't know how much less expensive it would be). The only thing that would make this hydraulic actuatuation a clear winner for me is if i had stealth routing which requires it. But if some other company could figure out how t make the cable actuation run to the base of the seatpost, then again, no clear winner for me.

Does anyone know of a good way to tell what the proper cleat angle should be before taking it out for a real ride? I've heard it said that if you are a little duck footed or pigeon toed then you should angle them out or in respectively but no clear formula for how much. The only method i found that worked was riding a short loop then adjust and repeat until its right. Anyone have something that works better?

Thumps up for a Ray's Indoor Mountain Bike Park in Denver

dito. looseball ceramic bearings are the lowest bang for buck upgrade you can make. they are stupid expensive save a spit of weight and add an imperceptible performance advantage that is often counteracted by the mismatched smoothness in the races as peedrama points out. Total waist of time and money

Speaking of Mechanical failures at night. I'm surprised that no one has mentioned headlight or handlebar mounted light in their 'epic' packs. I don't know about everyone else here but during the early spring and late fall months when the sun is setting early, that window of light after work gets small and if you don't have some form of illumination it is a miserable night walking blind in the backcountry. I graduated to a full 900lumen light for night riding but i still keep a headlight for backup in the pack when ever i go, day or night.