Syncros was never the same after Ritchey bought it. It was a shadow of it's former glory. Now it will go the way of Bontrager. Just another boring house brand of components. More opportunity for the hardcore component brands (Chromag, Straitline, Race Face, Deity, etc) to get more business though. My 2 cents.

You must be a big dude to feel flex in the Atlas FR arms! I can't tell the diff in flex between them and Saint and I'm no small fry. I know some huge guys who go big on them with no complaints either. Different strokes for different folks though. Still a beautiful bike!

Great review. Looks like a lot of great improvements to an already great frame. You seem to like Noth American manufacturing yet no RF Atlas cranks (made in Canada with US aluminum)? Shame ;-)

RF changed their interface design in the past 2 years (on all but the Atlas cranks) to EXI so the wobbly issue was no more. Also, if you install the Atlas cranks properly (read the instructions, use enough torque and crank to a hard stop) you won't have this issue. I have 3 sets of Atlas and never had a prob. The newer Deus, Turbine, Next, Evolve, Ride and Respond cranks that use the EXI interface are solid. On the other hand I've bent a set of Truvativ's and stripped pedal threads out of a set of XT's, so every crank has issues from time to time. For me RF has been nothing but solid.

These seem OK, but the new Easton Havoc wheels are wider and lighter (1750g) and are rated for FR use...These are a bit cheaper but miss the mark a little...

Lol. You're going to paint all RF empoyees with the same brush for decisions made by a very few, if not one person at the top? Also, selling to MEC probaby far outweighed the negatives of a few shops boycotting them. All the shops I dealt with still happily did business with RF. Again, this was obviously mismanagement at the top, and is a bit more complex than your simplistic assesment of the situation. A RF employee posted in the last thread that most shops in Canada still dealt with them after understanding the MEC situation (low end parts vs high end parts), but also that Canada was a very small part of their overall business. Again, MEC had nothing to do with it. Let's move on now.

Give it a rest already. MEC had nothing to do with it. A lot of good people lost their jobs and an iconic brand is no more. Grow up.

LOL Shred. You obviously have not looked at RF in years. e13 better? Have you tried thie chainrings? Look at the carbon product and tell me who has better, stronger and lighter stuff. Their installation has also changed a few years ago, but you obviously didn't know that either. Don't post if you don't know.

Re read my post. Go into almost any shop on the shore and there are a lot of RF parts under the glass. Some shops moved on for sure but many stayed and the financial benefits of moving the low end product to MEC prob FAR out weighed the negatives. Again, Canada is a tiny market compared to the US and Europe, so any negatives from MEC were just a drop in the bucket. It had nothing to do with it, and prob only helped them.

MEC had nothing to do with it Recklessness. You are obviously a disgruntled bike shop employee. MOST shops overlooked the MEC thing (carying clothing and low end parts) and moved on. The shops that did not never carried much RF anyway so it was not a big deal. Most shops on the shore and in the rest of Canada still carried RF with pride. To think that the MEC move killed the company is very naive. RF was a globally distributed company and Canada was just a small piece of that pie. Stop posting your personal BS over an over. You said your piece and now just sound like an ass. Fact is that a kickass company is closing shop, a lot of good people are losing their jobs and many will miss the cutting edge products. For those saying that the stuff was not good, their carbon cranks were unmatched in strength and weight by ANYONE. The new SIXC cranks are the first carbon crank made for FR use AND they were still made in BC. Many who have not used the products in a while are just spewing BS and didn't educate themselves on recent changes/improvements. It's a sad, sad day.

The Atlas cranks, chainrings and carbon crnaks were all still made in BC. Their carbon cranks are industry leading in strength and weight. If you don't know what you are talking about please do not post