I think the biggest clincher here (no pun intended) is keeping tire beads seated on the rim when run tubeless. Everything you say is good, RC, and wider rims help tires stay on, better, but I still think the key is having some form of bead lock. I'm running Mavic EN521 rims, and they cannot be run tubeless, effectively, because there is no ledge for the tire bead to sit on. That's a major point of the UST format: the interlocking bead aspect. Wider rims are good, but I think rim manufacturers have been failing us in not getting that locking bead aspect down.

The low Q-factor idea seems problematic from the start, if you ask me. Am I the only person who gets crank-rub, where if I move my feet in too far, then my shoes simply rub my cranks?

Gloves: The only mountain bike specific gloves I've used were Fox's Mojave gloves back in the mid 90's. They were cute, but the emphasis was on tactile feel versus durability. Since then, I've used motorcycle specific street gloves (black, thin leather, non-gauntlet, good) and currently am on what I think is unbeatable: the mesh-backed deerskin gloves that you can get from Home Depot or Lowe's. The pair I currently have are the first pair I've tried and are going on four years old. You can throw them in the washing machine, they are incredibly tough, and while the feel is not the greatest it's sufficient. Four years. I've been down on them a good half-dozen times, too (Mojave's, one crash and they were done). Argue that. Tires: WTB was an idiot for discontinuing their old Weirwolf 2.3, which was supposedly very highly rated. This new tire sounds like a total loser, i.e., not worth considering.

ButtonPusher and swearmouth, the Beto gauge that PricePoint carries is double-headed with both a presta and a schrader side.

My Beto gauge is my favorite tool. PricePoint sells them for $12. The only thing that makes the Schwalbe design better is that the head on the Beto is large: this is not a problem for bikes, but it is for car tires. The Beto has a backlight and a spotlight, it has a bleeder button, it has two different modes, and it gives readings in four different scales. My fingers probably can't discern a five psi difference, consistently, but with my Beto gauge, I've been able to accurately get and repeatedly set my pressures down to 23 and even 21 psi. You don't know how low you can actually go unless you have a digital gauge. Unfortunately, the Beto is not rebuildable, and the rubber seal in mine has ripped after 3 years of regular use. Time to buy a new one.

Freya.

Lol, thanks! Then it becomes a toss-up whether I'm more hungry or need to actually ride back to the car.

For what it's worth, those colors Brian is wearing are hideous.

What's the method for repairing with a Fruit Rollup? Do you lick one side or both sides? Or, do you chew it a good ten seconds to make it a wet blob? And, do you lovingly pat it on the punctured area or cram it in the hole? Honestly, I'm really curious....

Just another person, who doesn't like this new standard. I think there are enough good arguments being forwarded, above, as to why Giant's decision is bothersome. For me, as I was reading this article, I immediately thought: the clincher is that Giant is stating the increased weight is "a wash." In my opinion, the problem with the 1.5 standard was that it was squarely aimed at the freeriding market: 1.5 came about so that people, who were using dual-crowns, could now use a single-crown without the steering limitations of a dual-crown, and possibly there was some weight loss compared to using a dual-crown setup. What this means is that the 1.5 standard was always going to be beefy in execution. 1.5 headsets and stems are boat-anchors. 1.5 forks are monsters. If Giant really wanted to do us all a favor, they would have done better by reviving the 1.5 standard for the all-mountain category, with weight-appropriate headsets and stems that aren't such boat-anchors. Then we would have seen tangible results in stiffness with a slight weight gain. After using a 20mm front axle, I'll never go back to a 9mm qr. After using 31.8mm handlebars and stem, I'll never go back to 25.4mm. Do the bigger axle and handlebar and stem weigh more? Certainly, and I can also tangibly feel the benefit. This new 1.25 from Giant? Something tells me that they don't want to release the actual measurements, because if they did that 30% might actually end up being less than the hypothetical 6mm.... Is it tangible? Is it real-world?

What's up with the Pivot Cycles Phoenix? Is nobody running those things? Are they too expensive/boutique? Comments...?