Adolf Silva's fall at Rampage 2025 and his journey through rehabilitation deeply impressed and shook me. Since then, I've found it hard to view this event as mere entertainment.

Bosch helped the e-bike market take off and, for years, defined what a modern drive system is. But suddenly, Bosch is no longer the one setting the pace. Avinox is setting new standards for power, torque, and weight—and Bosch is responding. The intriguing question isn’t whether Avinox is better. Rather, is Bosch in the process of going from technology leader to yesterday’s market leader?

It started out like any other day at the bike shop: unpacking two new mountain bikes, assembling them, adjusting them, and taking them out for a test ride. Both came from the same production run and were identical down to the smallest detail. But after just a few meters, it was clear: the two bikes rode differently. Why?

There are questions you don’t ask to get an answer. You ask them to hear the answer you already have in mind. At the bike shop, the staff experience this as soon as the season kicks off. The workshop is overflowing. The phone is ringing. Seven bikes are lined up outside the shop, waiting to be taken in for repair. And then he arrives.

Self-bleeding disc brakes? Sounds like a major innovation. But here’s the thing: for most mountain bikers, bleeding brakes isn’t one of those problems that regularly spoils their fun. The real ongoing issue is usually already apparent as soon as you start rolling out of the parking lot: squeaky brake rotors. Whoever manages to eliminate that noise for good would probably have more fans than any automatic bleeding system.

More power, more control, more access to the sport: In its latest statement, Avinox champions the brute power of the M2S motor as a step forward for e-MTBs. But this very line of reasoning could backfire on the entire bike industry. For while Avinox speaks of innovation, fears are growing of new bans, stricter regulations, and a massive image problem for e-mountain bikes.

A commentary on the growing flood of plastic in modern bicycle manufacturing—and why this could become not only an environmental problem, but also a practical one.

The tire market has a problem. And it’s not a lack of choice—it’s exactly the opposite. Anyone who’s looked for a new tire in recent years knows the drill. Endless tables, cryptic names, models that seem identical but have only minor differences. In the end, you click your way through and are hardly any wiser than before.

The idea of operating brakes without traditional cables is currently sparking debate. "Brake-by-wire" might sound like a potential loss of control: electronics instead of a direct connection between the pedal and the brake caliper. But a quick look at the history of technology shows that almost every major innovation in automotive engineering was initially perceived as dangerous—before it became the standard.

The explanation that the current plight of the bike industry is primarily due to greed falls short. Yes, there was overconfidence. Yes, there were manufacturers who ordered "à discrétion." But anyone who reduces the pandemic years to moral failure is taking the easy way out.

The mountain bike industry has its sights set on the next diameter: 32 inches. Bigger, faster, somehow futuristic. For riders who are around 1.80 or taller, this could make a lot of sense. But it is precisely this target group that could prevent 32 inches from becoming the next big thing - just like the e-mountainbike has become.

The new "bike" has absorbed the specialist magazines "Freeride" and "EMTB". The magazine is thick, but far too versatile. It's as if you had a magazine in your hands that covered cross-country skiing, alpine skiing and snowboarding. Unfortunately, that doesn't work at all.

Imagine your device is already defective when you take it out of the package. You want a working replacement. First you submit a warranty claim to the manufacturer, who sends you to a parts supplier. And only then do you embark on an eternal marathon of nerves, which can be quite common for bike store employees in the bike industry.

Discount orgies? Yes, there are, since the demise of Signa, parts with an 80 percent discount have been popping up online. And bikes for less than half the recommended retail price or 2-for-1 promotions. The question that arises is: How long will this last? Will these companies bleed out completely?

Yes, I have cheated - quite consistently and very often. But it's not about what you think of first. We're talking about a surfboard with a foil, motor and battery. There are direct parallels to the e-bike here. And, surprisingly, this cheating has taught me a lot about the bike industry.

First the subscription payment didn't work, then the German commentary was annoying. And it goes on: the broadcasting of the Mountain Bike World Cup just doesn't want to be fun. Want some examples? The junior downhill final in Leogang has no sound at all in places and just breaks off somehow. And in the short track race, the control room constantly broadcasts images from Lenzerheide instead of Leogang.

I was so pleased that the World Cup season was finally starting again. The fact that the UCI transferred the broadcasting rights from Red Bull to Discovery made me frown a little. This skepticism mutated into anger with the World Cup in Nove Mesto. Because at first the subscription didn't work at all. And then the commentary, which is rather difficult to endure in German.

Thoughts on an analogy that is just a little far-fetched: Imagine that e-mountain biking has been around for decades. And skiing with the help of lifts has only been around since around 2015. We have collected a few fictitious statements that can show today's arguments against e-mountain bikes from a different perspective.

With Thomas Giger's latest blog, the gender issue is boiling over on Ride and Facebook. However, the editors of Ride have already addressed the gender issue in the past. Here's a repost of Tobias Gütlin's blog from June 2016 about sexism in bike stores and why it's a bad idea to take advantage of women in stores.

Yes, it looks chic. All cables disappear behind the head tube. But only until the brakes, gears or electric drive stop working. Then the fiddling starts: internally routed cables are often a nightmare in the workshop. For the mech and for the customer. The industry does it anyway.