Mountain biking

Morgan Taylor is once again trying to appropriate the wisdom of "the hardmen and minimalists" so he can synthesize it and spoon feed it to the average Joe, or in this case his girlfriend and slow old people. This time he's trying to convince everyone who still has a front derailleur that they'll totally be happier without it:

http://nsmb.com/all-for-one-by/

Someone needs to tell Morgan that you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink. Anyone who's still running a front derailleur is either:

1. A grainy old XC dude who legitimately needs more gears for his casual 100 mile rides.
2. Someone who sucks at going downhill and(or) thinks he's going "as fast as you can go."
3. So stuck in his rut that he religiously buys Miller Lite over Coors Light because he honestly believes "it has a smoother finish."
4. All three of the above people in one being; the "unholy trinity" if you will. You might know this person as "Your uncle," "that one guy that always comes into the shop," or "Tinker Juarez."

None of those 4 types of people could possibly give a shit about Morgan Taylor's gear-inch calculations





But first a little background into where little ROBOTs come from. I started riding because of this:

Then I started doing this:

Now I also do a lot of this:

Between dirt jumping and downhill, front derailleurs were never an option. Around 2012 when I was building up my first trail bike I called Lars Sternberg and asked if I'd be happy with a front derailleur. He said "No," and I haven't run a front derailleur since. When I meet people who still choose to run a front derailleur this is what I think about:

And when I hear people like Morgan Taylor talk about 28 tooth single rings this is what I think about:

And another thing. If you're running any of these setups:

• A 28-32 tooth chainring
• A 10-42 cassette with anything less than a 38 tooth front cog
• Any sort of "one-up" 40 or 42 tooth cassette abomination

Nothing you do can ever be referred to as "grinding" "pushing" or "turning over a hard gear." It's called "pedaling."

If somebody still knowingly chooses to run a front derailleur, your little graphs and calculations aren't going to change their mind, Morgan. That's like trying to bring actual medical research into a discussion about gluten. Ain't nobody got time for that shit.