Welcome back to RECON, the email delivering your MTB news every Friday.

The next time you’ll hear from us will be in 2025, so in honor of the holidays, we wrote this special edition newsletter to reminisce on the past year of MTB.

On Today’s Docket:

🏁 Breakout Athlete of 2024
🚲 Best MTB Product of the Year
💥 Top Moments In Review

Let’s close out the year with a bang—grab your hot cocoa and enjoy this short and sweet read.

NEWS UPDATES

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Rumor: Reece Wilson To Gamux Bikes

A photo surfaced in a Vital forum (with exclusive rights) of Scottish DH rider Reece Wilson on a Gamux bike. Is Reece going after the $100k Gates Bicycle prize or just testing out some new tech?

🥴 Dakotah Norton Breaks Hip Socket

After a successful first season with the Mondraker team, Dakotah Norton will be taking a break from racing in early 2025 following a serious injury. He recently shared on social media that he suffered a broken acetabulum, the socket of the hip joint, in a moto crash he described as a freak mechanical failure.

📉 Rocky Mountain / Rocky Finances

Vancouver bike maker Rocky Mountain has filed to restructure its finances under Canada's Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) in an attempt to avoid bankruptcy. It joins several other bike makers, like GT, struggling to stay afloat.

👍 Commencal Instagram Recovered

For the Andorra based bike maker, the holidays were more tumultuous than usual. Commencal’s Instagram account was hacked on Dec 21 and the perpetrator demanded a ransom. Tragically, the hacker deleted thousands of posts, but it appears now the Commencal team has recovered their account. What a ride.

RACING

🇮🇪 Breakout Rider of 2024

A lot of fairytales start on a farm, and Ronan Dunne’s storybook season is no exception.

This 22-year-old Irishman has quickly become one of MTB’s most electrifying athletes and he’s our pick for 2024’s breakout rider.

Bikes > Horses

Ronan Dunne grew up in a family of horse breeders in Ireland, but his passion leaned toward two wheels instead of four legs. Unlike fellow young star Jackson Goldstone, Ronan actually didn’t start riding until age 13.

The Rise

Ronan began racing UCI Junior World Cups as a privateer, working on the family farm to fund his racing dreams. It wouldn’t be long until the industry noticed his potential. In 2022, Ronan secured his first elite podium which earned him a spot on the Mondraker team.

The Domination

Ronan’s results this year sent shockwaves through the industry. He kicked off the year with a commanding win at Red Bull Hardline Tasmania, beating the field by nearly two seconds. He followed it up with his first World Cup victory in Poland before making history by winning Red Bull Hardline Wales. Even though the Tasmania race only started this year, he’s the only rider to win both Hardline events and to do so in the same year. The odds are high this accomplishment may stand for years.

🙋‍♂️ RECON’s Take

Ronan Dunne is exactly what the MTB world needs—a fresh face to challenge the Bruni-Pierron rivalry and bring new energy to the sport. Young, fearless athletes who push the limits and embrace social media are key to growing the sport.

Speaking of social media, Ronan collabed with RECON on a video about his life story, watch it on our Instagram.

PRODUCTS

🚨 No Brakes On Innovation

Brakes are built to hold us back, but SRAM moved the game forward this year.

Think of the offerings from SRAM and Shimano leading up to the MAVEN. Old products like the Code or XT that have been pretty much the same since the late 2010’s.

The SRAM Maven earns its place as RECON’s Best MTB Product of 2024 for delivering unmatched braking power for riders pushing the limits. SRAM pulled out all the stops to create their strongest brake ever, featuring a 4-piston caliper, mineral oil system, and an overhauled architecture designed for steep, technical descents.

Why It Stands Out

• Immense Power: Nearly 50% more braking force than Codes, with 32% less lever effort.

• Precision Control: Familiar lever feel and modulation for fine-tuned stopping power.

• Tuning Options: Swap rotors or pads to tailor performance for any trail.

🙋‍♂️ RECON’s Take

Finally—a brake that doesn’t suck. The Maven is consistent, powerful, and doesn’t weigh that much. Bad brakes have ruined too many rides, and SRAM’s nailed it with this magic formula. It’s about time these replaced Codes or Shimanos on stock bikes—everyone deserves brakes this good.

YEAR IN REVIEW

🌏 Biggest MTB Moments of 2024

🏜 Red Bull Rampage 2024

With women added to the line-up for the first time, female riders made history. So did Brandon Semenuk who won his fifth Rampage title. But the real chaos at Rampage happened after, when the internet was set ablaze by the low score awarded to Brendog’s run, sparking weeks of debate in the community over judging and the freeride discipline.

😳 Quad Backflip

Most people can only dream of backflipping a bike. But doing 4 of them in one jump is simply ludicrous. Christian Arehart made history this year when he landed a quadruple backflip, the first ever on an MTB.

🚊 Riding On A Moving Train

Somehow Red Bull is able to keep one-upping itself. To do it this year, they found their man in David Godziek who rode the first MTB line on a moving train. The flatdrop backflip at the end is mind bending.

💨 Amaury Pierron Wins Big At Les Gets

When racing at the world cup level, the podium is usually split between fractions of a second. But frenchman Amaury Pierron shocked the world when he won by 6.4s in the rain at Les Gets, solidifying his epic comeback after missing most of 2023.

❄️ Fabio’s Snow Send

Don’t think you’ve seen anything like this before. Fabio Wibmer shredded down a ski hill with spikes in his tires for his edit “The STREIF is my Playground”.

Let us know what you think! Pick your favorite or tell us your own.

RECON UPDATE

🎅 Happy Holidays From RECON

We’re so grateful everyday to be working on this brand and can’t wait to reveal the big announcement about the startup we are building next year.

We blew past 10K on Instagram last week and on Christmas eve, our sample hoodies came!

Hope you have amazing times with your family and get some riding in if it’s not too cold where you live. Happy holidays and happy new year!

🎥 Video Of The Week

🎧 Podcast Of The Week

👇 More Content

Monster Energy Pro DH Series Dates Announced

Lamborghini Made A Mountain Bike

What Was The Best Bike Of 2024

The Insane Story Of Amaury Pierron

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