Does not compute

http://www.vitalmtb.com/community/louevilcyclist,13318/setup,20570?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=fb_connect

31.5 pounds. That's not very much. I'm sure it's something else when you pick up a 31.5 pound downhill bike for the first time. But it raises a good question. What would you rather have:

A) a 31.5 pound downhill bike, or

B) a 33 pound downhill bike that's not covered in superlight cheesedick parts



Let's just review:

• FlowEX rims
• SIXc cranks
• Tioga Tragedy saddle
• Vivid Air
• And he's replacing the Hayes Primes with XTR trails and carbon rotors. Yeah, 203mm carbon rotors are a thing. I'm sure they work great though...

AKA a complete fairy bike. Downhill bikes are still for downhilling, right? Last time I checked, things like turning and absorbing bumps and braking were kind of a big part of downhilling. I know a lot of people will say "yeah but Charlie the Vivid Air is really amazing for an air shock."

Yeah. It is really amazing for an air shock. It's phenomenal for an air shock. It's *almost* a coil shock, it's so close. But it's still a compromise. There's really no arguing that; it IS a compromise. Choosing a Vivid Air means you are compromising suspension performance to save weight. Sacrificing out and out suspension performance to shave weight makes sense in a lot of applications, but if you already have the lightest downhill frame in the history of the universe and your bike will still weigh seven pounds less than your last one, coil or no, what's the problem with running a coil?

As far as I'm concerned, if you're running a new all carbon V10, you could give two shits whether or not you're running a steel spring or ti spring, led alone putting an air shock on there. If you're running a Vivid Air on a new 7 pound carbon downhill frame, you should just wear a jersey that says

I care more about weighing my bike than riding it.

And that's what putting on SIXc cranks or FlowEX rims say about you when you put them on your downhill bike, unless you weigh 130 pounds, and then you're still probably a tool. I'm not saying that any of those parts are bad parts. Except the Tioga saddle, that thing is an atrocity. But other than the Tioga saddle, those are all good parts. I'm just pointing out that a lot of them don't belong on a bike that was made to do this:

TEAM ROBOT: fighting the fight to keep downhill bikes downhill bikes.