Yep, your experience correlates with mine and pretty much my riding buddies that have given up on mtbs - we are all less fit and more out of shape. The ones that are still mixing it up are doing fine... I'm going to have to get back on a mtb soon.
Picked up the last set of Horizon V2 in the Wiggle sale. Very nicely presented - taped with aluminium valves, and box includes ARD inserts and sealant.
That shows there is definitely something wrong with the Trek design. My take on UDH is that it is NOT designed to break in the same way that a traditional hanger is, but instead absorb the impact by rotating (otherwise you wouldn't see Nukeproof and NS Billet making tough CNC aluminium UDH)...
This is clearly a Trek-UDH design flaw as I can't find any reports of the same carnage occurring on other brands. As such it should be covered by Trek.
The fact that Trek are now suggesting the UDH bolt torque should be reduced from 25nm to 15nm to avoid breaking the UDH shows they don't have...
I was talking to our national Yeti distrib and he said they have some more bikes in stock than they would like, but they prefer to cut costs and reduce future orders rather than discount existing stock, which makes sense to me.
Aside from using a valve suited to the rim profile (I find Stans round valves are less compatible with more rims these days); I use a soldering iron with a round tip to make a perfect hole in the tape which helps with sealing quite a bit.
Did you get the caliper mounts faced? Any good bike shop should have a facing tool and the skills to use it… often cures the howling due to resonant vibrations caused by misalignment
You're right, 12sp isn't really needed. Arguably even the 50T is excessive. 11-48 would be better in my book. My current 51/34 low ratio is too slow to be useful.
Good to hear your MS experience thanks. Yes, starting off in 12th is a recipe for damaging things. I've avoided 12sp until now because of the tiny 10T, and also because my thumb doesn't need the workout.
I feel like we are being forced away from HG purely for the 10T cog, which seems like a bad move for ebikes with less chain wrap but more power and weight, worse chainlines, and much higher wear rates. Can still get SunRace 12sp HG cassettes for a reasonable price.
MicroSpline seems fragile...