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That bearing either gets changed seasonally or get serviced in the way that jonlafon described. The tolerance is so poor the wear happens extremely quickly and even a new free spinning bearing makes little difference to shaft longevity.

It isn't 1 in 1000 though. I've gone through several shafts on multiple sleds...it's just not something that should be happening. Bearings are wear items shafts are not.

This is essentially arguing they don't care about perceived nor actual quality....FAIL

Yes, disassemble your brand new $20k sled to apply loctite to a critical component. It might work. If it were that easy there are 2 scenarios: Cat could do it (apply green loctite) at the factory and has elected not to....FAIL Cat doesn't acknowledge the core problem at all due to cost/assembly logistics/etc....FAIL

Personally I don't care so much about the rotor... Its the inner race of the bearing wearing out the driveshaft.

What's crazy to me is this isn't some magic fix for a poor design...it's literally just tighter tolerances and Cat apparently couldn't even pull that off???

Dumbfounding that Cat did not address this

Was hoping to get out this weekend but the rain has other plans apparently.

https://www.pinkbike.com/news/sam-hill-says-hes-not-done-with-racing.html Apparently Nukeproof is being liquidated?

That's fair

I have a really hard time with ebikes. To me it defeats the purpose...exercise feels good and is good for you. If I want something motorized I'll grab my motorcycle.

My troy is a 140 rear and 150 mm up front. Some versions come with an available 160mm fork. That would be way overkill for what I typically ride. Only occasionally do I miss 27.5 wheels...the 29 is just so much faster overall in my experience, even if it doesn't feel like it. Then when riding the extremely rocky terrain of north shore upper peninsula the monster truck tires come in quite handy too. All depends what/where/how you ride though.

Been an avid mountain biker since high school (now 35). We are fortunate to have around 50 miles of singletrack within a 15 min drive of my house and many more within 45 minutes. I'm with many of you in that it has claimed a collar bone, in addition to a nose, two fingers, and two ribs. Of all the motorsports I do, somehow mountain biking has been the most dangerous for me. I do a race exhibition here and there, but I mainly ride for fun. I have a road bike as well but that mainly gets used for foundational zone2 endurance training both during and off-season on a bike trainer. Primary ride is a Devinci Troy Carbon 29.

I'm thinking the Catalyst would've won if tunnel flares were installed

What sled did they allocate the SOTY honors to then?

I'm surprised our resident forum fact fabricator doesn't have constant issues with cooling. When my young nephew rides the R-XC at a constant 15 mph it definitely gets toasty. I doubt those deflectors even do any deflecting at those speeds, let alone cooling.

Yep that's pretty much my experience. Stay as "brappy" as possible Keep the track and the water pump spinning.

Do you run studs? I have a feeling that's a big reason I never seem to have cooling issues except in extreme circumstances (like plowed seasonal roads).

It's wild to me those are over $100. I'll take an occasional snowball to the shoulder

Do you have a link to this episode? The last "Real world sled of the year" snow trax episode I can find was 2023. I do know Snowgoer gave the Catalyst SOTY honors, fwiw.

I'm dying

That's not really true in my experience. While the "auto-tensioning" clutches that Cat uses may likely mask improper belt length better than other setups, a belt that is too long will absolutely crush top speed because the primary could be full shift, but the secondary is not (and cannot). Attempting to get the secondary to fully shift in that scenario would just create belt slip, heat, and further loss of top speed.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4eEAIjP_7B/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link 8 fiddy 8 sounding a lot crispier

Did they break at the weld or is the metal too thin?