The reason manufactures stopped fitting boots is that we are all victims to fashion. sure somewhere like sunny eastern US where mud and rain is little more than myth they don't make scene and look silly, here in the wet, muddy, sandy station eating uk the really do.

Again, correct me if i am wrong but yes, at high speed a slack head angle would give stability, i.e. turn the bars left, the wheel presents its right face forward to the right of the fulcrum around the head tube, resultant force at the contact patch between wheel and ground pushes bars straight - negative feedback .'. stable, but at low speed a slack head angle would have the opposite effect, i.e. turn bars left, contact patch moved to the right of fulcrum, resultant force at contact patch straight up and irrelevant, resultant force around the fulcrum tries to turn the bars left more - positive feedback .'. unstable, in both cases effects exasperated by slacker head angles but decreased by increased offset. without doing science i cant say whether increasing offset would be a good or bad thing overall but yeah, i agree offset is something oft overlooked and something i think it would be interesting to experiment with.

If you increase the rake in the suspension (lower head angle) you want to increase the offset, as apposed to decreasing it as indicated in the article (look at the offset on a pair of fox 40s designed for slack angles relative to a pair of 32s designed for much sharper angels). what they probably have done was move the offset form the foot to the crown, resulting in better loading of the suspension with less twist in the stantions, therefore less friction at the bushes and, theoretically better suspension performance.

Why does this have to be in Pemberton BC, not Pemberton (middle class commuter ghetto, just west of Manchester, just off the M58 ) UK. You disappoint me Pinkbike, more British events please.

Sam Pilgrim is from essex. They don't have hillbillys in essex, they have things much worse (to all y'all yanks out there think jersy shore with more syphilis).

whyte did the duolever long before bmw with the preston

@Kamba6, dont get me wrong, in no way am i agreeing with brad on the issue with hanges, i am a firm advocate of snap tastic hangers after seeing the rear triangle of an old yeti 303 getting written off thanks to an integrated hanger, that doesn't detract from the fact i believe they should integrate dropouts as well considering the little ones on commencal bikes manage to be only to be a few quid a pop, integrate the dropouts and snap long before bits of mech or frame, (not that i am a big fan of commencal any more given that their frames snap in the middle anyway). For the pro rider solid hangers make sense because no one wants to loose the world champs thanks to a snapped hanger and if the mech gets wrecked mr shimano or whoever will hand over a new one asap. For the rest of us snap tastic hangers make sense