Barry

Suntour's Aion and Auron are quite well priced and well reviewed. We bought the ol' lady's ill-fated GG Trail Pistol frame bundled with an Auron, and the thing seemed like a quality fork. I really liked their through axle set-up as well. The fork certainly wasn't the reason the bike got boxed up and send back to GG on their dime. But perhaps your point is that if they are coming with a well-priced fork, the overall price should be lower? I'd really have to dig into to the specs and compare apples to apples. Ain't nobody got time for that unless I'm looking to buy...which is no time soon.

Ride or drive, 20-30 miles isn't that far to get where you want to be. No surprise that if you live inside a major city that you don't have access to endless unpaved roads right out your front door.

That's a good question. The only thing I can think of is recognition and visibility for their brand. The fastest way for them to get that is to have a pro racing their rig. That's not going to happen if their rig is trail oriented instead of race oriented.

Just a day or so after you posted the OP link, I looked up the Viathon website. At that time, they already had mountain, gravel and road bike. My first though was, "those gravel bikes look pretty good." My second thought was to check the warranty. Aaaaaaaand nope. I can't think of anyone I ride with on the reg' who has a bike contemporary with the Viathon mountain bike. Basically race geo CF hardtail.

Not even a steep learning curve. And yes Scotch, but any whisk(e)y, really. And if you can't enjoy it neat, just proof it down with a little water. I'd be a large person indeed if I drank beer like I drink whisky.

I've put together a few decent loops using: https://gravelmap.com/

The statement was "lift/shuttle." Spider Mtn is lift. Bandera is shuttle.

This is kinda exciting. I'm looking forward to trying it the other way! 2010, huh? Did those early EBs run with it in the clock-wise direction then? Anyone here other than @CBaron know the answer to that?

I assume he means this:

Right place right time photo at Brushy.

The terrain sounds like Hill Country Natural Area right next to it except with real trails and not fall-line climbs and descents. Do they also have plans to fill the north-east and north-west sides with sidetrack like the south side? Given the area, it looks like they could push upwards of 25 miles of xc trail. At that point with both DH lines and significant xc trail, they could be a real competition for Flat Rock given their location--assuming the trails are good. And someone needs to post the trails to ProjectMTB or TrailForks. I know that's how I find places, so I imagine they are still quite a bit off the radar.

They better be careful. They'l get sued for discriminating agains folks with old-school ocular prosthetics.

To get a little logical on you...the sign shows a drawing of an item that falls into the category of "motorized vehicles." But it clearly states that no items in this category are allowed. Items in this category also include one-wheels, space shuttles, motorcycles, e-pogos and remote control cars and many others. Not specificity stating each item in the category does not mean that items is allowed. Now that's a good point. My favorite signs are "Human powered traffic only."

We did discuss this joint a bit on the mojo in a few places, notably: http://www.bikemojo.com/speak/14-austin-voodoo/101243-banderabike.html I never did get down there last year. But now that it sounds like they've added more trail I image I'll give it a shot soon enough. I'm running out of new places in TX to visit anyway!

Pretty much you just continue straight like you're going to ride Windy backwards (clock-wise). But just before the trail goes into the trees, there is a 90 degree right turn. It is very well defined, but still easy to miss. The trail cuts into Windy proper just after all the muddy seeping bits.

I was there last night as well. I went into Mark's only to turn around and go the other way. The first xing had water flowing, so I didn't think it would be worthwhile to ride it. But IMO Windy is just fine, good in fact, so long as you use the alternate entrance/exit instead of the seeping mess that is the entrance/exit by the creek. That thing will be wet for a long while I bet.

They certainly are't pushing anything in the warranty department. 2 years with as many limitations as they could think of. I kind of doubt I'll ever buy a less than lifetime warranty frame again. https://www.viathonbicycles.com/pages/warranty

^^What a freakin' mess and a terrible experience @Seths Pool. While I haven't had to deal with SC on any warranty related issue (yet!), I'm glad I've gone with them given their reputation for handling issues quickly, and the supposed "not limited" lifetime warranty on the Reserve rims. I'm well over 1000 miles on them and they've been great. My only real concern is failure of the rims when I really need them, like a week-long trip. This isn't an issue if it's a road trip, I just pack extra wheels. But this may become a real pain if I'm flying since 2 wide wheelsets will be tough to pack into a box.

I'm going with Flat Rock Ranch.

~Sigh~. Would had been wittier if I'd meant that. Very nice parallel though!

Nah, I saw the notice here to not ride it, so I didn't. I was just surprised it wasn't obviously blocked.

From the article, (in case it was tldr) it seems the pricing is slightly lower than Specialized and Trek, but in line with other direct brands like Canyon.

When I came through there yesterday I was surprised that it didn't look closed at all... especially with the fresh tracks through it. Maybe some caution tape next time?

I was thinking that Yeti or similar would be fun both on Walnut group ride or a solo Brushy ride. But I'd certainly give it a split tube-tubeless setup first!

Actually no, except for once a year or so ago when the dog walker was otherwise being an ass-hat.