I had a look at magazine ABC figures a while back.

https://www.perpetualdisappointment.co.uk/how-long-have-mountain-bike-magazines-got-left/

Realistically, and sadly, I really don’t think there is long left for the more mainstream magazines.

The limited run coffee table books are the future of MTB in print imo.

The shape of the Vault is great. I’ve never used a pedal that goes through bearings and bushes at the rate they do. Everyone who I ride with who uses them just accepts they are rattling crap for some reason.

Have had a set of Horizons which are almost as good in shape, but I have never even touched the inside of them. The Vaults have had multiple sets of inside in the same time and the Horizons still feel better.

100% identical experience to me. I had Horizons which I never touched in years, bought Vaults, go through bushes and bearings every 4-6 months. In the same way, got fed up with constantly maintaining them so just dealt with the rattle earlier this year. Then on Sunday this happened:

The ‘bearing for ants’ on the outer end of the axle gave up life and left its race embedded in the pedal.

Bought some Burgtec Penthouses to replace, platform a tad smaller but not by much and the bearing size looks to be much bigger.

Meanwhile the Horizons are still trucking on the commuter bike, still untouched.

Mattock and a rake.

Obviously you know your mates best, but for people who are “slightly above beginner” that does sound like a big weekend !

Just had a look, Roots and Rain puts NI races under Ireland.

https://www.rootsandrain.com/event-map/filters/2018,ie,en/

Ill update the data with these!

Great stuff @Trimix I’ll add those to our list!

– What products are crap and why

Is actually the main reason we started the blog. Lack of honest harsh reviews, so in the future we aim to build up a good back catalog of honest, impartial reviews (good and bad).

An interest comparison would of been partition in grassroots vs regional vs national vs festival type events in both DH and Enduro. It’s not super easy to split them but it could be a good look at what type of event.

That’s a good idea. Quite like the idea of splitting them up by region too to see if there is anything interesting going on there.

Did want to come back to say I loved the format/layout – simple graph, followed by a paragraph of discussion is neat and informative way of discussing this level of data in my opinion.

Thanks!

You’d find that there was alot of grass roots stuff back in 2011 that never made it there I suspect

True. R&R has races going back into the 90s, and a lot of stuff from the early 2000s, but doing a little bit of research it seems like the site started in 2010/11. I assumed it was older.

Graphs are ok but to many, what about just some numbers instead

Didn’t realise people disliked graphs so much! 😂

Where did you get ‘Distinct competitors at UK enduro events’ data from? I couldn’t see it on the site.
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On your article my main comment would be the inclusion of 2018 numbers. You should have either extrapolated them or omitted them

Agreed. Updated the post to remove them from the racer numbers, but left them in for the actual races, as I doubt there will be any additional races announced from now until end of the year.

 think to some extent DH racing is killing DH Racing,

From the Roots and Rain numbers, DH racing is doing fine. There is no killing. Entries have stayed steady since 2011, with a slight dip in number of races, but nothing disastrous. Maybe it just gets less coverage now at a grass roots level, so the impression is that it’s in decline?

Why not ask some important questions and provide well researched / proven answers to these questions.

@Trimix any suggestions on things you’d like to read about?

Where? Never seen any chat that enduro is ‘over’? Oh well, at least I won’t need to get up early to enter ard rock this year, shouldn’t be a problem getting in….

In the wider context. 3 national series have failed due to lack of numbers, and there has been general doom and gloom in comments sections after each of those.

‘Ard rock is proof of the opposite.

I kind of didn’t see the point in it to be honest. I mean, everything had a graph, but I didn’t feel like there was anything revelatory really.

Totally agree! The article was started after the failure of UKGE was published and there seemed to be a general feeling that enduro was over, racing in general is in decline etc. Based on the Roots and Rain data though , it seems things are….. doing ok. Not great, but not terrible.

Site looks nice with some good images. Not sure about the name and whether it’s all a bit too snarky misery guts…

😊 true. We started it up as a bit of a joke at all the constant 5 start reviews all the big sites seem to give every product, where as our experience in general is far from this. Hopefully we can judge it right and not come over as a bunch of grumpy ****ts.

Is it still under warranty ? If so just get a refund rather than continue messing around with it. It’s clearly broken.