Bike Check: Greg Williamson's Commencal Supreme

After two seasons on his own program with Unno, Greg Williamson has moved onto pastures new with the Commencal 100% team alongside flamboyant Frenchies Thomas Estaque and Hugo Frixtalon. A strong end to the 2019 season left Greg with several offers to choose from but after trying the different bikes on offer, it was the Commencal that took his fancy. By his own admission, Greg is at a point in his career where he can't afford to have any compromises and simply wants a bike with the right components alongside the right team environment to allow him to perform to his best ability. His sights are firmly set on ticking off that long overdue podium.

With the move, Greg has swapped from the carbon Unno Ever to the alloy Commencal Supreme but alongside the new frame there's plenty of component changes too. Perhaps the biggest and most fundamental for Greg was getting back on a Fox fork, which he says offers him reliability and peace of mind more than anything else. Aside from suspension, he's swapped a Renthal cockpit for Race Face, Formula brakes for TRP (as well as the drivetrain) and Crankbrothers wheels for e*thirteen. Conveniently though, a lot of his contact points have remained the same with Odi grips, Crankbrothers Mallet pedals, Maxxis Tires, and e*thirteen cranks carrying over from the previous two seasons.

Greg has moved from a mullet setup on the Unno to a 29” wheel front and rear on the Commencal, something he found to be one of the biggest changes. After a winter testing session in France he opted to run the large frame having done back to back tests with an extra-large frame, citing the sizing on this year's large Supreme as the perfect fit for him standing bang on 6ft tall. We spotted the Commencal teams experimenting a lot with different shock positions last season and it looks like a more refined version has come to this year's bike with 2 different options to choose from, a more linear setting and a more progressive setting. The Commencal 100% team had been testing in Portugal in the run-up to the start of the season meaning the bike in its current guise would have been Lousa spec if that first World Cup had gone ahead. Hopefully, it won't be too long before we see it in action...

A big team change over the winter with plenty to get used to, how was that transition?

It was actually super easy. I'm happy with how it's gone and it almost feels like I'd been on the team before, the guys are so easy to get on with. Through the testing we've been doing it's given me confidence having fast teammates that are a good benchmark to measure your performance against which I'm excited about as it'll help push us all to another level.

Were you testing and experimenting with a few different frame sizes?

I was in between an extra large and a large. I settled with the large as the new bike is a little bigger than last year's large and it seemed to fit perfectly. It's a longer reach than last year and a shorter rear end, they are going higher in the bottom bracket again, and steeper in the head angle but longer in the top tube so you are getting that pressure on the front wheel, which is good, and also standing a bit taller. Where they've put the idler position now, it drives so well... I felt before you lost a little power pedalling and with flex as well, now it's instant and efficient. It's so efficient in pedalling compared to the old bike.

How did that compare to the Unno you were on size wise?

It's a lot different just having 29” wheels front and rear, it's a totally different bike really. Even to the bike they'd sent me initially which was last year's race bike, when compared to this year's it was night and day different. I tried a lot of different bikes over the winter just to see what was on the market nowadays, I really wanted to just get an idea. I was talking with other teams as well so it was good to have that idea, once I got on the Commencal I knew I'd made the right decision.

So you'd tried a few different bikes over the winter and wanted to find the product that was best for you?

Yeah definitely. I had some attractive offers from other teams but for me, at this stage in my career, I just wanted to be on a bike that I knew was proven and to be on a team that could provide everything I needed so I didn't need to worry about any other factors.

It's obviously a super different bike to the Unno Ever you were on previously. How quickly did it take to get used to it?

I felt comfortable straight away. I got it right before I went to New Zealand and I planned just to ride downhill that whole month as I'd done a lot of training, I hadn't really stopped from last year leading into this year. I set off knowing the bikes were coming a little later so I got my body ready and started training pretty heavily early in the offseason. Then when I got the downhill bike I knew I needed to go somewhere decent like New Zealand, so booked that and a big thank you to Caledonian Escapes as they really helped to pull the trigger on that trip and I basically just rode every day. I think I put a race season's amount of riding in during my time there. I've heard the saying "10,000 hours of deliberate practice are needed to become world-class" so I was just trying to catch up as much as I could!

Did you follow any setup advice from Thomas and Hugo?

Yeah for sure, they've been on the bike for most of their career I think so they have got heaps of knowledge about the bike. I'll try anything they are trying as well because I know they've made the mistakes and are looking for that extra little bit. It's good to have teammates again... I missed that, just to ping ideas off and get up to speed with and talk about lines with. You're constantly learning from each other. I think it's really important to have that on a team just to get up to speed with and talk things through with. From spending last year on my own, you're just kinda left with your own thoughts a lot, and with running the team as well there was a lot of pressure to perform for sponsors. On top of that, there was the stress of a low budget so it just hits you all at once.

Did you notice a difference in terms of frame material?

Yeah for sure. I've literally gone from carbon to alloy to carbon to alloy on all the teams I've been with. I learned some really nifty things with Cube with how thin we could get the alloy to get the right amount of flex, pedal performance versus cornering, versus straight-line speed, versus stiffness and all of that. At first, I noticed a lot of weaknesses in the Commencal bike from last year, I had a list of things I wanted to improve but they'd already done it with this bike. It was pretty amazing to see that. A lot of Amaury's input had gone into making it a faster race bike so shout out to Amaury for making a good race bike and Commencal for listening.

You've got an option in shock positioning, what have you opted for?

There are two different shock mounts, a more linear one and a more progressive one. Just now I have it in the more progressive, I really like the feeling off the top where it's more supple and ramps up. It's just preference really. I'm running the air shock which is more what I'm used to more than anything. I've never actually had a coil shock that works as well as it does on this bike which is great, but whenever I do back to back the air shock comes out on top. Even if it's the same on numbers I'm more comfortable on the air.

Are you likely to play around with the shock position throughout the season?

There's definitely going to be some tracks where the more linear position is going to excel and it'll be interesting to try that on more tracks. Just now, with what I've tested, it's staying in that position.

This was the bike you were testing in Lousa, so this would have been your setup for that first World Cup if it had gone ahead?

Yeah, it would pretty much been dialled in for that race track in Lousa, we even got a little time on the World Cup track after the race had been cancelled. I'll try to get along to Fort William and try it out on some longer, rougher, and faster courses. I'll definitely get a good feel for it there and it's a true test for your bike.

You'd been on Fox for a long time before Unno, how was that going back to their suspension?

I'd missed the fork. These things are so reliable it's crazy. Last time I was on Fox I went a whole year without changing them aside from an oil change or the dust seals. That reliability and peace of mind combined with the race support is invaluable.

Was that a big thing for you, even more so than maybe the bike itself, just getting a setup where there were no compromises in components?

For sure. The Commencal 100% Team have all the good components you want from a team so it's really easy for me to get on with the parts straight away there is very little that lets this bike down.

Can you tell us much about the new fork and shock? Where are your clicks sitting?

I can't really say for now...

More generally about suspension setup, is it set up pretty neutral or do you like it to sit into its travel more on the rear?

I like to sit into the travel on the back and have a fairly hard front end, that's just how I ride. I have fairly long legs so I just like to sort of be level on the bike, I don't know how to explain it but I'll soften up the rear a little bit as I like to feel in a pretty neutral position on the bike.

Can you run us through your cockpit setup?

The stack height looks high but it's actually quite low. I'm running the 20mm rise bars at 800mm and the stem is 50mm. It remains the same throughout the season, I don't really change much. I might add a spacer underneath the stem on steeper tracks but I'd actually tend to play more with sliding the stanchions through the crowns.

Does not changing much through the season hold true throughout the bike?

It's funny how you go on trends or something that's worked towards a good result but I've always had my best results when I've got straight into it at the weekend and hit the ground running and got stuck into timed training, not really going to see the Fox guys too much and fiddling with your suspension. Just running what you have got, maybe messing with pressure and getting the balance right. But last year I didn't change my setting at all on any of the tracks, I might have changed from coil to air but I didn't actually change my settings at all on them. It's pretty cool to be that comfortable and it does help a lot in some cases. It does help as it's one less thing to worry about and you know how the bike is going to react. It might sound a bit silly because why wouldn't you want to explore and see if you could find a little more performance? But I think a lot of riders overthink it, myself included...

A change in brakes from Formula to TRP as well...

They've changed a little for this year too, they're way more powerful and have a nice new lever which is a bit thinner. It's one of your main contact points so it's good to have a nice feeling brake and power you trust with the 223mm rotors. I've got to had good feeling brakes with an even bite. I hate if it's off at all.

You're running e*thirteen carbon wheels, do you have the option to run alloy wheels?

Yeah but these carbon wheels are solid from what I've heard from the team and from riding in New Zealand, I haven't broken one yet. Carbon wheels roll so well and have such good feel.

What's your go-to tire setup?

I've got the Maxxis Assegai on the front and the DHR II on the rear. That was my choice for Lousa. I tend to run 24PSI in the front and 26PSI in the rear but that'll change depending on the track and the weather, especially if it's hot. We run Cushcores front and rear on the team as well.

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Reviews and Tech Bike Checks DH Bikes Commencal Commencal Supreme Greg Williamson