Velocipedestrian wrote:

AgrAde wrote:Yeah. Investors pulled out cos of the whole covid thing. Shame I reckon, I wouldn't have bought one myself but I did like it, and it definitely had benefits that others would gel with enough to buy.

Enough to buy at twice the price of Fox / RS? I understand there are compromises with telescoping forks, but that price jump was big.

A factory 36 is $2k RRP, and with, for example, a Smashpot coil conversion it's almost $3k. that's the sort of buyer that I think Trust were aiming at with their $3k RRP.

Dougal wrote:

AgrAde wrote:Yeah. Investors pulled out cos of the whole covid thing. Shame I reckon, I wouldn't have bought one myself but I did like it, and it definitely had benefits that others would gel with enough to buy.

I don't think Wuhan Flu was the problem here. Selling just over 1000 forks total was the bigger deal. That's probably $1.5M total sales income.
Their tooling costs alone (two fork designs) possibly ate that. Let alone salaries, facilities, production costs, shipping, marketing etc etc.

If they'd been selling like hot cakes then the virus wouldn't have caused investors to pull the plug, of course. I would have loved to see how it would've played out in a good market. Probably still end in tears, but I would have liked for them to find their stride. I think a refined Message from what they learned from the Shout would have been really interesting.

As wonderful as these techno front ends might feel box fresh, I wonder how sketchy they feel once there's a bit of play in the system?

Rik wrote:As wonderful as these techno front ends might feel box fresh, I wonder how sketchy they feel once there's a bit of play in the system?

I think (irrelevant now) they had a lifetime bearing warranty. A telescopic fork past due for service doesn't feel great.

AgrAde wrote:If they'd been selling like hot cakes then the virus wouldn't have caused investors to pull the plug, of course. I would have loved to see how it would've played out in a good market. Probably still end in tears, but I would have liked for them to find their stride. I think a refined Message from what they learned from the Shout would have been really interesting.

Until a month ago it was a roaring market. Probably the best time ever to introduce the fork.

Without the covid, and with a bunch of sales, eventually wouldn't their price have maybe been able to come down?

Too late now. I'd love to have given one a try.

swtchbckr wrote:Without the covid, and with a bunch of sales, eventually wouldn't their price have maybe been able to come down?

Too late now. I'd love to have given one a try.

I think if they had released an aluminium version they could have sold far more for a palatable price and saved probably $1M on tooling and design of carbon fibre moulds.
Then used that to fund the more expensive carbon version.

But anyway. They're around second hand if you wanted to buy one. Looks like there were several demo sets in this country.

From the weirdest to the most conservative bike I've ever owned. Short reach, steep head angle, front derailleur, and I even took the dropper off it.

It got a little weirder. And dropped 2.5kg.

So you'll be spending some quality time at bottle lake then?
Or moving south to hang out at sandy point?

Wash your mouth out.

I want to do some bikepacking stuff, and I also want a mountain/gravel bike that I can strap to a pack and climb over a mountain with. Hence trying to drop some weight - I'm not typically concerned with bike weight but once it's on my back in a hiking context then I know what I can carry and grams really matter. Got a few more lighter bits coming too, its backpack-ready weight will be about 10.5kg, which will get me under 20kg for multi-day hikeabikes and well under that for a really particularly stupid day mission that I want to do.

I just need to figure out a footwear solution. At 20kg pack weight I'd normally take my heavy carry alpine boots, but they're too single-use and I don't want to carry an extra pair of shoes. Going to have to buy a lightweight pair of boots with a stiff sole and combine them with ankle support I think.

At the moment the bike seeing a lot of road, rapaki, traverse, and 4wd tracks. It goes pretty good!

Maybe the Adidas trail shoes with the 5.10 sole?
Don't know how stiff they are, or if they can actually be found in the real world.

Got some Arcteryx Konseal approach shoes on the way so if they're suitable I'll use them. I reckon they'd be pretty good on the bike but we'll see. If they're a bit too av hiking with that much weight on, also waiting to try on some Scarpa Zodiac Plus boots once they come into the country. Which will be shit on the bike but meh, they'll work for a day.

My boot preference changed with my last pair - taller ankle and softer shank.
I tried on everything I could in the tramping shops, then went to the hunting and fishing place, winning.
Hunters boots keep my feet much happier doing multi day 20kg carries. And they'd probably be better on the bike than my old stiff tramping boots.

Im not totally sure this is in the right spot, but Im too pumped on this bike not to share. Hopefully you can see the image attached. Have had this bike for a couple of months now, and thanks to lockdown havent ridden it as much as I would have liked, but holy moly it is amazing! By far the most super bike Ive owned.

RRevel Rascal T1000 XL
Spank Oozy 350 wheelset
Spank Oozy stem 50mm
Spank Oozy bars 780mm
Onza tyres - Aquila 29x2.4 front; Ibex 29x2.4 rear
KS LEV dropper
Burgtec The Cloud saddle
Burgtec Minnnaar grips (these are a revelation!)
Shimano XT drivetrain 1x12spd
Shimano XT 4 piston brakes
Rockshox shock and Pike Ultimate fork.

Basically the stock Off Road Bikes Online (ORBO) XT build.

Where it really shine is in descending, the bike feels so good and balanced I can push really hard - I am going fast than ever on anything flat or downhill. Uphill Im still winching lol. The weight is really low (I normally run pretty heavy bikes), at around mid 13kg's. Pedalling also is very efficient - the suspension feels active, but the bike wants to move forward with each pedal. Most reviews talk about how poppy and playful it is, and I would agree, but the defining character is how it feels like it has a lot more travel on the back end - its really noticeable.

Nice Russ, looks like fun.