I'd recommend not buying MBA until the magazine is fixed.

..aka Mountain Bike Fiction magazine. Whatever they write, take it with a grain of salt.

It definitely took a mastermind criminal to come up with this plan... something you would see on an episode of Trailer Park Boys!

Let me get this straight: grub screw threaded into plastic pedal body? LOLZ is this a joke?

Also curious where the plastic bash rings are made, I assume they come from another source? Also the plastic top guide plate and roller...

That's pretty cool. Nice to see the small shops. I wonder how profitable they are and how much volume? I have to wonder if these guys have other sources of income or if chain guides alone provide a solid income?

This is so far beyond retarded I am having trouble comprehending what I just saw. I mean that in a good way.

If you stay with that mindset, we would still be riding rigid bikes. Mountain biking -- especially FR/DH -- is very new and continually evolving and being refined. At some level, yes, it sucks that there are so many different standards, but personally I am glad that there are not many components that swap between freeride and road anymore (aside from saddles and rear cassettes, and even these items could benefit from being DH/FR specific in design). Why settle at "good enough" -- let's build the best product possible. It doesn't matter what industry -- if you're not continually refining and improving, you're going to get left behind.

John Tomac started the company along with Doug Bradbury (who previously founded Manitou) but they sold it in 2006. John Tomac supposedly still plays a part in the company with designing products though but he doesn't own it anymore. Also there is Bontrager, Fisher, Lemond, etc... all owned by Trek but named after their founders. Not sure about Ritchey. There are probably some others I can't remember off hand that have been bought up.