and dirt drops are a match made by smart bike designers. A more solid connection to the road or trail starts with the front end, and specifically the hub/fork connection. Check out this rad new All City Macho Man Limited. It'll probably be sold out as soon as they're available, but being stuck with the regular Macho Man Disc and its Whiskey No. 7 full-carbon tapered steerer fork is fine too!
And earlier this month, Focus announced its own lightweight solution for more predictable handling with its RAT (Rapid Axle Technology). In addition to the front thru-axle, they've really jumped ahead and also included a 142x12 rear thru-axle, a standard very common on mountain bikes, from XC race hard-tails to DH.
Focus' technology looks very much like a quick release from afar, but uses a T-shaped pin to toggle the axle into place when you engage and turn the lever side. What results is a lever as easy to use as a QR and allows you to instantly center a wheel and rotor correctly, the first attempt.
I'm hardly a tech geek. I freak out more when I see a vintage photo of someone ripping downhill on a klunker than when new dampers are announced at Sea Otter or predicted frame weights go down 80g from last season. It's tough to ignore a technology when it is developed and adapted from hardier bikes to improve ride quality and soundness of a bike's engineering. It helps that it happens to look totally badass.
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