I just got two new pairs of Lake’s mx235, wide, which fit my feet perfect, although a bit of extra volume in the uppers. Agreed on shimano wide, with the feeling of the spill over the edges. If shimano sold half sizes at my end of the scale, maybe they would be a bit better though. I hated giro HV’s in the past, just extra material.
I wish the Lake’s were more durable though, I had the sole start coming apart on me last year, after a year or so of use. To be fair though, I am tough on shoes, and broken a few shimano soles in the last few years.
Has anyone ridden the new one up clip pedals? I know they are aimed at the enduro crowd, but the descriptions align well with what I want in an XC pedal, and would be happy to cut off the cage to XCify them a bit. I’ve done this with shimano XT trail’s in the past to get a bit bigger of a support for the shoe on the left side of the pedal, and liked the result, although only a minor improvement in the shimano wobble.
That is so disappointing…I’ve been going back and forth with them working on a custom paint job and even asked for the ‘new’ version upon hearing that it was upcoming. They were happy to accommodate that, but at no point did anyone ever mention that manufacturing is no longer in the US. I’ll sleep on it before making a rash decision, but I’m thinking I’ll cancel my order and go with the Blur I was considering instead. Also made in Asia, but at least no one’s hiding that fact
Wondering if that’s also the reason they didn’t made a big deal of the price drop they made recently as well. Not sure when exactly the price came down but now we know where the cost savings came from
I took a factory tour of the Allied manufacturing facility near Bentonville. Just a public tour during a race week, no insider info. Super nice folks and it was great to see the process. That said, it was clear by looking at the operation and how many bikes going out the door ever day that the business could not be making a profit. It was too many people compared to the number of bikes, the math didn’t work. I wish it did and I know there are people willing to pay a premium for a frame made in the US, but the relationship between premium pricing and number of units sold probably wasn’t working. I haven’t looked at their recent marketing, but hopefully it’s not misleading if the frames aren’t made in US any longer. My trek has an “assembled” in USA sticker on it because it was painted and assembled here. You should still get some credit as a company trying to manufacture in the US even if parts come from other places. It’s not as if any significant components on the bike come from USA, but I guess people look at the frame as “the bike”. I hope Allied finds a way to make it work.
I respect that people appreciate a made in the US product. And I agree that Allied has made a big deal about made in the USA and if they are going to change that, they should be upfront about it.
But hearing that the new version is lighter due to a new carbon layup and hearing that they moved production offshore completely makes sense to me. Meaning - offshore expertise likely had a role here. We love to think that US products are the best. But from what I have gathered from various cycling articles, podcasts, etc. about the industry is that the best carbon manufacturers in the world are in the east. They know the material. They know how to do layups.
It is still a US owned company as far as I know. Profits stay here. Point is, these things are always cut and dry as to what is the best business model.
So is Specialized and TREK. Allied seemed to hang their hat on the bikes being hand built in the US.
A selling point to me, but now no different than the Epic Evo it was modeled after.
I saw a comment last week about the new BC40 potentially not being made in the US. I looked all over Allied’s website and couldn’t find anything about it, which is probably a sign indicating it’s true. I’m not seeing any “made here” verbiage anywhere on their website anymore either. I assume their profit margin was pretty slim and really need to outsource to stay afloat. It seems like metal frame manufacturers are the only ones who can survive as “made in the USA” companies.
“…we now partner with an external factory for the carbon layup of the BC40’s front and rear triangle” is all they say. I’m sure they rehearsed how they were going to phrase that lol
Had a look and the bonts are nearly 130g a pair heavier than the competition. That’s fine, but they really aren’t any cheaper either. The Vaypor G look ok and have a good outsole.
Still, 60g heavier than the other brands but you do get a properly robust outsole, whereas the shoes from S and Shimano both look like they lose a runnable / scrambling outsole, although at least the xc903 can take spikes.
I think 903 wides plus a custom insole (to reduce volume) will probably be the ticket, but I’d be interested if anyone knows / has seen written down the width in the forefoot of 903’s vs the recons in mm.
they are clearly not being open about it, like I said initially kudos to Ibis for being completely honest and open with its customer base on why they did what they did and the price benefit for customer that wanted a less expensive Exie frameset/bike.
My experience with the 903 wide is that it wasn’t just the width, but the overall volume was too much.
Could just be my foot. I haven’t tried Bonts, but I’d like to.
I have a 2021 Scott Spark 940 that I use for a few XC races a year and general MTB duty. Most of my riding is in Southeast/Central Texas where there’s really not much “climbing”, but its very rapidly undulating, where the biggest factor in being fast is just maintaining momentum. In the summers I’ve also been spending some time in the Rockies at downhill bike parks. I rode the Spark at bike parks a few times, but rented an Enduro bike once and decided that was a lot more fun to ride downhill and I’ve been renting Enduro bikes since, but the cost of that adds up quick.
I’m pretty much at the limit of places to store bikes, so I’m contemplating replacing the Spark with a Trail bike as a do-it-all option. I’ve been eyeing the 2023 Giant Trance X Advanced Pro 29 SE that Giant has listed at a steep discount. With that high spec and Flight Attendant, that bike is probably lighter than my current XC bike and I’d imagine FA makes the suspension pretty racy. I’ve never really ridden modern Trail bike geometry, so I’m mostly trying to understand if the geometry of the Trance would make it feel cumbersome for XC racing. I’m not a particularly fast XC racer or very great at descending.
And just for reference the races I’m doing are the TMBRA XC race series and the Austin Rattler.
