Santa Cruz Syndicate rider Luca Shaw has been riding consistently faster with finishes steadily climbing up the scoreboard. After a number of top-20 finishes last season and then starting the beginning of this season with a 2nd place at the Windrock Pro GRT race in March, he was primed for a strong season until plans changed.
Travel on hold, Luca says that it's felt obviously strange not racing World Cups and having a clear goal in mind, an adjustment to say the least. Since the Lousã race was canceled, Luca says he's ridden his DH bike once up until this weekend but has been training otherwise and working to make a new plan and be ready as possible once World Cups resume.
What does training look like? A lot of bike riding and going to the gym a couple of times a week to maintain strength. Other than that, he's been trying to ride the dirt bike as much as possible and has taken some time to work on projects around his house in Western North Carolina.
Luca says that he misses the adrenaline and buzz he gets from racing top tracks with the top riders in the world so hopefully the weekend at Windrock helps a bit with that.
This weekend at Windrock, Luca has his V10 running with a 29" wheel up front and 27.5" wheel on the back. Riding a size XL fame, he has stock links with a prototype rear end to fit the smaller rear wheel, giving the bike the same geometry as a stock V10 29'er. A lot of folks refer to this as a mullet set up but Santa Cruz calls it mixed, or "MX" for short.
He's been working with his mechanic, Tom Duncan, on getting everything set up and running as well as possible throughout the off-season.
Burgtec bars and Shimano Saint brakes.
The Fox 49 has 95psi.
Rear suspension is managed by the new Fox DHX2 and a 550lb spring.
www.bikeradar.com/news/shimano-saint-2013-unveiled
I’d have liked to see: suspension settings (not just spring rates but sag, rebound and compression too), the story behind how that rear tyre ended up on there, the reasoning behind having cooling fins on the rear rotor but not on the front, plus any quirks which really make this bike unique to him.
C’mon PB, we’re all bike geeks here, you can do better!!
I didn’t say sag was important for bike setup. I just said it’s interesting to know these things, and that was one of many things I suggested to be included. No need to get hung up on it.
I sincerely hope you don’t get that easily triggered all the time...
You haven't had any problems with bend rotors?, I have even smashed my fork lowers, I assume smash a bigger rotor should be just matter of time.
I've only bent one rotor ever and that was a 180mm rotor that hit a tree during a crash.
Ahh I was hoping this was an industry settling on the ultimate setup. Meaning, all I have to do is run my fork (no matter the type, length or rider skill) at 102psi and 5 volume spacers for life , and I am a bike savant????