What Is The Future Of MTB Suspension? | GMBN Tech Show 336

In this week’s GMBN Tech Show, Owen Coutts is joined by Anna Cipullo to talk about electric suspension and determine whether or not it’s really the future of mountain biking. In the rest of the show, we look at a ‘light shirt’ made by PRADA which recently appeared on Red Bull’s Kriss Kyle’s videos and your usual favourites including this week’s Quiz question, Top Mods and much more!

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⏱️ Timestamps ⏱️
00:00 – Welcome To Another GMBN Tech Show!
00:26 – Is Electronic Suspension The Future Of Mountain Biking?
08:52 – News | Sour Bikes New Bikes | SRAM Pod Rocker / Range Extender | Deity Super Villain | Canyon CLLCTV Clothing | Topeak Sustainable Bottle Cage & New Tools | Prada High Vis Light Shirt
16:52 – Quiz
18:07 – Top Mods
18:56 – Comments

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hello and welcome to the tech show coming up this week we’ve got a Duo of jeweles or Jewel suspensions from sour bikes nness from stram and there’s a 20th anniversary in the industry and some really cool clothing from not one brand but two humongous Brands cool I’ll let them be the judge of that no it is officially cool genuinely yeah so we had the Leo gang world cup and we’ve seen more of that flight attendant under Valley hle and we’ve also seen the veil lift slightly more on that oland’s electronic suspension uh underneath lock and the two of them absolutely dominated didn’t they so the question is is electric suspension the future yeah I mean I guess we have to talk about future because mountain biking has had futures for a while and we can kind of do a brief kind of Time Time Warp back to well the very first future which was like a carbon full suspension bike so Paul Turner who was famous for other stuff Keith bontreger famous for other stuff they weren’t famous at all at the time but they collabed to create castal full suspension mountain bike and I guess that’s where like future started that was quite a while ago um well arguably was the future because we all are on jeweles now exactly this is true so I guess m bking had lots of these moments where we thought this is a future sometimes it sort of run out and the ’90s had lots of wild Innovation where there was lots of things where we thought oh this is going to be a future and I guess one TouchDown for me is is the sun bikes that Oliver bosard worked on so niiko bike like niiko volio and Caroline Shon were racing these and grassia and loads of others and they were well just wildly Cutting Edge they were really ahead of the sort of like the curve on lots and lots of things and even now you could maybe race one of those bikes I mean that would be a video itself outside of the kind of outside of the tapes of racing K2 was already dabbling with future technology so this is sort of late ’90s uh they worked with Nolan to develop a well it was a coil shock but with electronic damping I know it had a cute little 9volt battery I never r one remember what era this was it is late ’90s um a couple of years after that so early 2000s if canadel also had its ELO system which used again electronic damping it was really really clever it was going to have like just like a push button switch you can still get service instructions for them but the sort of reviews and general themes I heard about them it didn’t last that long it didn’t didn’t live bit glitchy a bit glitchy yeah I mean Electronics it’s it’s always tricky um I guess in terms of innovation we go then back to the racetrack and a sort of development of electronics as well so Honda who had a massive budget and I guess also had a really big impact but didn’t really last that long a bit like K2 and off-road Pro prolex back in the day um they launched a a bike with Greg Minar and lots of races and we heard from a very good source Neil that Greg had an electronic lockout it was on a timer so he pressed a button and it locked out for 30 seconds and it came back on so I guess you’ve got to be really sensible when you press that button um canadell had a second go Electronics so this Electronics thing is not new canell did another go at it um and yeah it was called Simon and again it sort of fizzled a bit lapier did a system with rock shot and I think that was the first moment where Rock shock started to and the bigger players start to feed into this electronic system where they realized that actually maybe there is something in this um then Fox launched its live valve reviews were kind of okay on it yeah did look like a data capture setup there was a lot of wires it wasn’t that refined it looked fairly complicated I think that was part of the trouble with that one there wasn’t it is that it did work really well but much like di2 you kind of needed qus and holes in the frame to get your wires in so kind of wasn’t a bad idea but maybe the execution was a little to be designed yeah yeah I mean that’s really true and it’s only two years ago that um flight attendant was first launched by samam and that was this sort of multiart group we’ve had a kind of relaunch recently where it’s not just a shock it’s not just a fork but a whole sort of like system where it all works together including a crank so it’s getting feedback all the time um and then yeah looping back to this this weekend just passed we’ve now got oens have got an electronic system we’ve seen Sr Suntour have got a system Fox have got a newer system so it just makes me think like is this now the future this electronic control well I mean you’ve just highlighted that it isn’t the future it’s nothing new we’ve seen it before it’s come and gone is this going to be another gimmick um I’ll play Devil’s Advocate a little bit here because it is great that they’re now going to wireless and maybe that opens it up a little bit more because obviously fox live valve was a bit tricky in that yeah um previously so Wireless is definitely helping I think but is it complicating things or uncomplicating things because obviously the whole point of this automatic suspension system is that it uses sensors to make microscopic or real sorry realtime decisions to make these sort of microscopic changes on the tracks and you don’t have to set it up it’s just doing this constantly as you ride um but you do have the complexity of now having to charge up batteries all the time which a lot of viewers are not on board with when it comes to that’s sort of a technological advance that might be a little bit too far and also let’s not forget you know you’ve held son and boss in really high regard um for bringing suspension on and all that was was um you know shim stacks and you know taking stuff from the motor world and the Motocross world and bringing it over over to mountain bike suspension having great setup and using lockouts and things like that and actually maybe is it that we’ve just re reached Peak suspension development and all of this sort of Automation and wireless tech is just the icing on the cap but it’s not actually the future it’s just a little sum summing that we might see for the elites and then we might see it come and go I mean well as we’ve seen it come and go before so I think you’re right to flag that it could be I think I feel like it’s a future and put my neck out here it’s bold but I think it’s because really grudgingly I think it’s a future because but just to argue C to argue is again like we’ve seen all the developments come from Motorsport and Motocross but they’re not running electronic they’re not running automated stuff they’re still on on non electronic very true why do we need it on rally they don’t have it it’s been banned so I think that’s a always a good thing it shows it must be good whether it’s a cost saving or it is too good I’m not sure in terms of why it’s been banned but it it isn’t allowed in in rally cars but yeah I think for me one of the reasons why we’ve talked about the complexity and setting up suspension can be complicated and I think that’s what I really like about this system is that it actually simplifies it so you know it sort of the other reason of why is suspension really important and I guess you’ve compared to Power Sports and motor sports and that’s a really really good good example because with Motorsport well if the suspension is a bit mushy yeah okay you’re not going to get the best acceleration you’re not going to get the best traction but you can just put your foot down a bit more and with push bikes yeah we can put a foot down a bit more but there’s an advantage to playing around with lockouts or changing the compression tune and I think what seems to be happening especially at the downhill races where there’s quite a few tracks where there’s big sections where there’s either pedaling sections or bigger jumps where you you don’t necessarily want the plusher suspension you want something that you can get more energy out of so these two tracks for William and Le gang where the bikes with these suspension systems have done really well so yeah grudgingly I don’t want it to be the future but it feels like it’s actually lesses more with it I’m on the fence with this one and for years of reading your comments in our videos I know that a lot of people don’t like the faf of charging batteries but I also know that one of our biggest questions is how to set up suspension so this could alleviate that so what you know which outweighs which so maybe let us know down in the comments below would you be happy to charge things up on a regular basis if it means getting rid of that um headache of setting up your suspension correctly uh let us know down in the comments below so sour bikes are an independent frame Builder out of Dresden in Germany and I actually saw a prototype for one of the bikes that they’ve released uh this week and that was back in the bespoked show last year um they’ve released two frame sets now so they’ve got the double chalk which is a 160 up front one for 8 mm rear travel so it’s a big Bruiser uh steel bike for all those chunder trails and you can actually dial it down if you want to to a 140 up front and a 136 if you want the options of a dital trail as well uh but my favorite is what I saw the Prototype of in Dresden at bespoked which is the cowboy cookie um great name uh it is basically a 120 rear suspension with 130 up front so it is cross country down country but this has been developed for Ultra racer quind veral I’m probably pronouncing that absolutely wrong but she’s responsible for doing things like 94 km mile races kilometer mile kilometer races um over in Greece and it looks stunning it’s got a steel front triangle and a aluminum CNC machined seats day which act5 have actually made for them um I believe they made The Rocker but don’t quote me on that as well um and also I think Nikolai are responsible for the chain state so there’s a good amalgamation of German Tech here uh they both be retailing from 3,400 99 and I will be heading to bespoked again at the end of the month so do keep an eye out um for that show so Shram newness very exciting two things one is a little pod rocker which sounds like something from Star Wars uh the pod racers but it’s not effectively it’s like a little cover which fits over your fancy axis T type two button shifter to make it back into a rocker paddle shifter they’ve been seen on Nino’s bike at world ups and yeah now it’s out it seems really good I like it um and the other thing briefly on samam is they’ve got a new range extender it’s not for regular people so it’s not like a sports drink it’s actually a little battery but it only weighs 1.5 kilos and it’s got 250 wat hours so it’s like 40% booster riding if you like your boosted riding of course so deity is celebrating their 20th anniversary this year in this current climate it’s nice to see some 20-year-old uh industry types and to Mark the occasion they’re re-releasing a new version of the super villain pedal uh which they are hailing as their concave Revolution so basically they trademarked their shape this sort of symmetrical shape that’s not um uh offset like most pedals are it’s just flat it’s symmetrical and it has this 2 and a half mil deep concave pattern to it on both sides um it’s a large 113 mil by 105 mil platform 14 pins on either side and you’re looking at $169.99 for that uh and seven colors in that CNC machined and a matte nice finish as well there a lot of colors keeping on with the cool stuff canyon Collective ridable Street Wear clothing collection which is a bit of a mouthful uh maybe that’s why Collective doesn’t have vowels um to be fair though I think this is really cool it’s got a real ’90s vibe to it there’s a whole selection you’ve got pants AKA trousers for UK people t-shirts hoodies jackets hats multiple hats actually including one called the Dad hat which I think is quite cool uh chunky fleece as well I like it so there’s a core collection and there’s a limited edition which is called the concrete College collection and the limited edition collection is high-end materials throughout and it’s made in Europe um but I think the key thing is that whil it’s probably a bit too cool for a nerd like me to wear it is actually designed to be ride so it’s kind of like functional fun street wear or Street Wear I’m not sure what the hand signal should be for street wear but you can ride in it makes me think of the days when we used to have hoes and you us to have riding jeans think they’re still going um over in top peak now there’s the classic shuttle H cage which we’ve seen you know Nino Shir to use for many many years and received podiums for but now they’ve revamped the shuttle this year to make it more well sustainable environmentally friendly so 50% of that carbon cage is now made from recycled carbon and it is 100% recyclable going forward as well um but it’s still the same same look same weight um at 18 grams and price is yet to be confirmed but I believe it is in the same region as the 3K original nice uh now this is one where we’ve had a couple of comments about uh which is what tool of I been using from uh on photo shoots where I’ve been you know fiddling with bikes for one of a better more descriptive word um and yeah I don’t think it’s actually new new it is new actually your one is new so I I always get comments on mine as well which is the ratchet light CU it has the chain breaker in it which is pretty good your one is like um a nice little pattern on the case it’s bit more of an Essentials um but they have got a bunch of new stuff out there yeah yeah they have essentially it’s it’s the torque rocket mini ex X it’s a bit of a long title but essentially it’s a really cool ratchet multitool you’ve got all the kind of essential bits that you’ll need in there but the thing I really like about it is that it’s got a torque wrench built in and it’s really easy to use and really easy to adjust so it’s not one of the ones that just clicks so you kind of is it is it done do you go for another second click you physically see it so it’s really nice yeah they’ve also brought out a new tool bar in aluminium so you can upgrade your kit or you can buy the new ratchet rocket Essentials which already has the aluminum tool bar in there and it’s basically the same as mine um but it’s about half the weight now so it’s only 107 grams for all of those little bits very very good uh and finally we talked about two big clothing brands uh and we’ve had one and the second one oh this is officially cool so we spy this really wild jacket on one of uh Chris Kyle’s videos um he’s a Red Bull athlete so it’s a Red Bull video um and we saw the jacket and we had to do a bit of research it is that’s like a cape well it’s it’s a hive is orange so I was like this is good good for our us fans because in hunting season you want to be seen conversely obviously it’s probably not that great to be wearing If you’re sort of riding cheeky Trails because you’re not going to go missing um if you’re not down which I wasn’t with the coolness of house Fashions and these huge like fashion brands uh the little red stripe that’s on there is a Prada logo and that’s their symbol yeah so it’s not any any jacket that he’s wearing it is a Prada jacket so it’s windproof waterproof breathable two- layer fabric uh oversized fit hooded very oversized fit it looks like a parachute on him why do Prada hate sleeves what’s wrong with sleeves what’s the point of a raincoat that doesn’t this is the short sleeve extreme text light shirt and how much is that well it’s decorated with the iconic Prada linear Rosa logo as well of course and how much you need more oh you want the price do you really want the price I mean this is such a good jacket you just oh uh 1,840 you can get matching trousers too for um ,700 as well that’s a bargain okay quiz time and last week I asked you where does e13 get their name from this was a tough one because John Pentecost set this company up with Dave wagal so John is now looking after pivot um and Dave Weagle you should know the name as he’s like suspension Guru and the two of them came up with this idea now uh the brand name came from exit 13 on the I95 Highway because they were constantly going up and down this and commuting and coming off the exit to Boston exit 13 they like the East Coast thing because there was a bit of the East Coast West Coast thing going on in the downhill world at the time um but the word exit seemed a little bit negative because it might seem like you’re exiting the bike and people use that word for crashing so it became e13 and that was the end of that story go and there’s all of the winners on the screen well done to you guys and we have a new question today yeah we do uh what companies so it’s two really I guess uh or more actually um what companies did Paul Turner go on to build after working with Keith um Castrol on that wild Nitro show bike okay we’ve got top mod here this is from Apex 1302 and I love this not only because I I’m a super fan of canals especially like these killer V’s or super vs can profit had a similar front end I’ve got my this is starting to look like a rewind not a top mod no but it is a top mod because he’s got a sort of should we say vintage 6 in hard tail he’s turned it into a gravel bike which is awesome and it’s top mod because he’s got some really cool components on there including the 13 or 12-speed or 11speed Ingrid rear Mech which is super cool um yeah what are your thoughts on that bike I think the colorway is awesome the colorway is awesome the matching helmet gets me and yeah in Grid love it love a CNC machined [Music] derailer okay last week uh we tried to virtually build a bike with as minimal tools as possible or at least I did you very much disagree you need a whole pile uh the comments were um so the maximalist approach um rot dog just says Owen wins he is obviously a maximalist man I my rot dog is non-gendered so s that is true maximist winning on the tools uh creative fish design Charlotte uh he is right but the wrong approach uh so oh and she’s correct most people use a five and a six so I think that’s a good one oh we both won there I think we both wrong so we both both wrong exactly uh uh Jeff MTB in VA says I’m slowly building my tour collection as I learned as you should well done um what is the answer for bike shops my fave shop is over an hour away uh the servicing is topnotch but I can’t get there very easily so yeah that is that is why we try and help with our videos and um teach you how to service stuff but yeah yeah uh chel bany we’ll go with that uh says yeah he’s torn between your quest for the minimalist and mine for beautiful tools um I do love can we have minimal beautiful tools then instead yeah but You’ need a maximum number of them which is why he then goes on to say his therapist thanks us already so yeah you’re welcome jb2 call says maximum tools always I even lost after tools that I don’t really need yet but uh might one day buy uh like a pad spreader oh I love a pad spreader always useful buy one of those you do need it honestly get them all more tools thanks very much for all the comments and yeah do comment below it’s really useful we read them all um so yeah more is better on the comments just like tools and before we go Owen what are we looking forward to this we really interesting video that covers well it’s quite a simple change and it’s often over look but it can make a really big difference to how you ride and that is stem length yeah yeah I know I’m actually really forward to this because uh you’re talking about balance and all sorts and how it changes reach which is super important um so do check that out on Sunday but for now thank you very much for watching and we’ll see you again next week