Welcome back to RECON, the email delivering your weekly MTB news in < 5 min.

Just when you were impressed with fulfilling day 3 of your new year’s resolution.

Santa Cruz Syndicate announced their 2025 goal is “to win a race across every category.”

Lol same.

On Today’s Docket:

🏁 New Racing Rosters
🔮 Our 2025 MTB Predictions
📚 Riding School

RACING NEWS

UCI Team Updates

With the upheaval of UCI regulations, it feels like the past few weeks of racing news has been team closure after team closure.

But now for the upside in all these changes.

The well-funded factory teams left standing are absolutely stacked.

🌲 Norco Race Division Announces Roster

After a huge 2024, Norco Race Division is back with a 2025 lineup led by downhill legend Greg Minnaar as Team Director. With Alan Milway managing and Kathy Sessler running operations and a larger budget unlocked for the year, the team is primed for success.

Returning stars like Lucas Cruz and Gracey Hemstreet are joined by veterans like Danny Hart and rising talents Erice van Leuven and Lina Frener. With a perfect mix of experience and fresh blood, the vibe is strong, and the team is ready to dominate the World Cup stage.

💪 Syndicate Adds Young Guns

The Syndicate is making big moves for 2025, adding junior riders Ellie Hulsebosch and Felix Griffiths to join Jackson Goldstone, Nina Hoffmann, and Laurie Greenland. With riders now covering all Junior and Elite categories, they’re setting their sights on a win in every Downhill World Cup category.

Their New Year’s resolution? “To win a race across every category.”

Stay tuned as the Syndicate takes on 2025 with serious momentum and a healthy Jackson Goldstone.

🙅‍♀️ FMD Racing Drops Canyon

After five incredible seasons, FMD Racing has announced its partnership with Canyon is coming to an end. The innovative German brand played a pivotal role in FMD’s journey, from Tahnée Seagrave’s return to the top of the World Cup podium to Junior and Elite victories across Downhill and Freeride.

The team’s next chapter is still under wraps, but with their bold style and proven success, FMD Racing is sure to make waves in 2025. The rumor is that they will be moving to Orbea Bikes, who surprisingly does not make DH bikes?

OPINION

Our MTB Predictions

As 2025 gears up, the MTB world is buzzing with innovation and big changes. Here are three of our bold predictions shaping the year ahead.

1️⃣ U.S. Racing Goes Mainstream

UCI’s new regulations have sent shockwaves through the World Cup scene, forcing top riders to seek fresh opportunities. Enter domestic racing. Series like Monster Energy Pro DH, which have added a more robust schedule for 2025, are poised to attract serious talent for the first time, making U.S. events more thrilling and relevant than ever.

2️⃣ Magnetic Cranks Could Be the Next Big Thing

Tyler McCaul stunned everyone at Rampage with his custom magnetic cranks and pedals, designed to keep his feet perfectly aligned for massive tricks. It’s only a matter of time before brands develop polished versions of this tech for the masses. Could 2025 be the year your pedals go magnetic?

3️⃣ E-Bikes Lose Wight

In 2025, we think you could be riding a full power e-bike that weighs less than 40 lbs. E-Bikes like the Levo SL already flirt with the 38 lb mark, but a full-power eMTB under 40 lbs? That’s the next frontier. With rapid advancements in battery tech, don’t be surprised if we see game-changing models this year.

RIDING SCHOOL

🍎 The cheat code to getting faster!

This section of our newsletter is written by MTB education app Mastery, founded by Justin Rausch (@OneMTB) where we bring you the advice of pro riders to sharpen your skills out there.

Have you ever wondered if there was a cheat code to get faster on your bike?

Mastering the pump track will give you a serious edge when you hit the trails. While it's not quite a cheat code, it's about as close as you can get to one. That's why we've put together 3 essential tips to help you ride the pump track like a pro and make major strides in your trail riding.

How To Pump

• Approach the roller stood up, in a neutral position

• Unweight Go light over the upslope by allowing your arms and legs to bend and your bike to come up underneath you.

• Push Once your wheels have cleared the upslope you need to pump the downslope. Extend your arms and legs and push your bike into the trail. This will generate forward speed.

Cornering

• Pump: Compress into the berm by pressing into it with your body, especially your legs. As you exit the berm, push down with your legs to "spring" out, using the berm to accelerate your momentum.

• Look at the exit: When keeping your head up and looking at the end of the berm your bike and body will naturally follow. 

What bike to ride?

• Dirtjumper: A hardtail dirtjumper is ideal for pump tracks due to its simplicity and responsiveness. A smaller frame and a low standover height makes pumping much easier.

• BMX: A BMX is another good option for pumptracks, however may feel too twitchy or small for riders who are used to only mountain bikes.

With Mastery, you can learn MTB skills from the pros. If you haven’t yet, be sure to join their waitlist—it's the perfect way to level up your riding

RECON UPDATE

📈 Building An MTB Startup From Scratch

In this section, we share a weekly update from building our MTB startup, RECON, from scratch.

Two weeks ago, we hit the 10K follower mark on our Instagram page @reconmtb.

In honor of getting to five figures of followers, we dove into the data to figure out what strategies are driving growth for new accounts on Instagram. Here are 3 major takeaways we took away.

1️⃣ Reels are the way to grow

If you want to grow on Instagram in 2025, you’ve got to post short videos.

While we post slideshows and static posts everyday, Instagram doesn’t show those posts to people who aren’t following us.

On the other hand, the majority of people who see our reels are not following us, maximizing the odds we gain new followers from them.

2️⃣ Views don’t matter that much

Just because your video gets a lot of views doesn’t mean it’ll drive a lot of followers and benefit your page.

In the current paradigm of social media, algorithms are really good. That means people now expect to see relevant content, without needing to curate their own feeds by following creators they like.

To drive followers, your content needs to be unique and bring out an emotion in the viewer to make them want to follow. For us, we’ve driven the most followers from the Vlog videos we make about building RECON, because they’re unique for the industry and drive a very personal connection.

3️⃣ Be Consistent

To win on social media, you need to genuinely enjoy creating content. Be as consistent as you can while not letting yourself get burnt out.

It’s typically just one or two videos that can be game-changing for your page and drive a ton of followers!

🎥 Video Of The Week

Tim Bringer Gets Rowdy in 'Mission: Zero Six'

🎧 Podcast Of The Week

Neko Mullaly talks racing, building a bike company, and more.

🌊 Wipeout Of The Week

Crew Turley has a wild crash in Utah. SHEESH.

👇 More Content

Are gearboxes the future of MTB?

10 year old does front flip

This e-moto company is poaching pro mountain bikers

This newsletter is written with ❤️ every week by Nic Bean, Michael Sikand, and Justin Rausch

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