Damien Oton Height – 5'7" / 170cm
Weight – 68kg / 150lbs
Riding Style (according to Theo) – Fast and precise but collects soil samples too often.
• Frame Size – Medium
• Tire choice/size –
Front: Maxxis Minion DHR2 2.4 3C DH casing.
Rear: Aggressor 2.3 TR DD casing
• Tire pressures – Front ~21psi / Rear ~25psi
Suspension • Travel – Front 170mm / Rear 165mm
• Pressures/Coil – Front: Air w/ 66psi, 3 tokens / Rear: 135psi, 6 bands
• Damper settings – Front: Compression open / Rebound 7 clicks out
• Rear: Rebound – Slower than usual
Cockpit • Bar height – 20mm under the stem, 20mm rise bars
• Roll – Neutral
• Bar width – 750mm
• Stem length – 40mm
• Saddle position – Centred/Neutral on rails
• Tilt – Pretty neutral for trail riding
• Dropper – 125mm
• Brake lever position – Flat, very flat.
• Lever throw – Quick bite
• Lever extension – Closer to the grip
• Rotor size – 180mm front and rear
• Chainring/Cranks – 36t ring on 170mm cranks
Any customizations or peculiarities? • Levers are among the flattest in the EWS
• Prototype Foam/Rubber grips
• Grip tape on levers and triggers
• Tubeless front and rear
• Prefers to stash spare tube in jersey
• Runs his rebound in the fork 1–2 clicks slower in the wet
Theo Galy Height – 5'8" / 173cm
Weight – 72kg / 159lbs
Riding Style (according to Damien ) – Fast and smooth. Way better at memorizing stages than me
• Frame Size – Medium
• Tire choice/size –
Front: Minion DHF 2.5 3C DD casing.
Rear: Aggressor 2.3 TR DD casing
• Tire pressures – Front ~23psi / Rear ~25psi
Suspension • Travel – Front 170mm / Rear 165mm
• Pressures/Coil – Front: Air w/ 68psi, 2 tokens / Rear: 140psi, 6 bands
• Damper settings – Front: Compression open / Rebound 7 clicks out
• Rear: Rebound – Slow but little faster than Damien
Cockpit • Bar height – 15mm under the stem, 20mm rise bars
• Roll – Neutral
• Bar width – 750mm
• Stem length – 50mm
• Saddle position – Little back on rails
• Tilt – Neutral for trail riding
• Dropper – 150mm
• Brake lever position – A touch flatter than average
• Lever throw – More modulation with a bite fairly far the grip
• Lever extension – Neutral not too close not too far
• Rotor size – 200mm front and rear
• Chainring/Cranks – 34t ring on 170mm cranks
Any customizations or peculiarities? • ODI Ruffian grips
• Grip tape on levers and triggers.
• Tubeless front and rear
• Prefers to stash spare tube in jersey
• Both Theo and Damien are running the OneUp EDC in the steerer tube
Andy Schleck won the Tour at 6'1".
Martin Soderstrom was exceptional at slopestyle despite his size.
Lebron James is huge and strong, but also more athletic. That is why he's one of the GOAT.
Why am I getting neg'd?
yes ... jockeys are a good counterargument but the horses are kind of the athletes just like rowers to coxswain.
It all comes back to the physics concepts of power, and moments. When a guy with short arms benches 200 pounds, he only has to move the weight half of the distance as a long armed guy, and he won't have such large moments acting on his joints either. Big guys have it tougher in that sense, in all sports. When they adapt to that - if they are more like larger scale models of smaller guys, then they are pretty much unstoppable. There are of course freakish exceptions - (I mean Kevin Durant's in basketball are useful for specific reasons to that sport as well), but he is undeniably better/faster laterally than anybody else at his height in the NBA right now, which is a huge part of why he is so good.
Not sure what you disagree about what ryan said though. You both said that for tall people in enduro, 29'ers and new technology are the answer.
With all that sheer athleticism in mind, there can't be too much talk about wheel size. There just can't. It's far down the list of priorities. It's a tiny help making these guys get the edge. In Downhill as in no other discipline of MTB, suspension will always play a major role in performance. Obstacles are so big that at some point the wheel has to get out of the way. Now people spend way too much time pondering the wheel size thing from performance perspective, and have completely missed the suspension development since like 2010. It's just ridiculous. The first moment I landed my latest bike to flat off a drop at speed and bike just glued to the ground as if it had too much rebound, and then it launched off a root as if it had too little of it, and then stayed stable through a rock garden, I knew I was in another world of bike technology. It was almost like installing disc brakes or the dropper post from the first time. I rode through a set of whoops in a bike park, and the bike just freaking went through it. On third run I was affraid if I have enough respect to this section because if I go over the bars it will be catastrophical. None of my previous bikes could do that.
heh
I guess I'm comparing to DH racer setups, where the WC guys seem to often be running really low sag to deal with the force they're putting through the bike.
Mainly interesting to note that maybe EWS racers don't do the same (perhaps due to the long days on the bike) - that might mean that EWS racer setup is actually a lot more useful for normal riders to learn from, whereas DH pro setup is generally pretty meaningless for those of us who aren't hitting things at those speeds.
I'm not debating the manufacturers recommended settings, rather the use of sag strictly to find the correct spring rate. As for using air or compression, at the first EWS Rototua round, PB did a bike check on Nico Vouilloz, and found that he uses a lower than normal spring rate, yet relies heavily on compression to keep his suspension in the manufactures' "butter zone", compare this to Aaron Gwin who used to, but has since softened a little, run a famously and incredibly high spring rate, and obviously with little compression dampening to keep his suspension in the recommended zone. There is always more than one way to skin a cat.
Saying that, I always ride with a vernier in my pocket.
That said their setups are pretty similar really as you'd expect what with them both being about the same weight/size
I don't think 10mm here or there is the "key" to making someone faster, but having a bike that is set up specifically for that rider goes a long way. There's also something to be said for knowing your set up so you can compare it/transcribe it to another bike.
Have progressed from an alloy to carbon Spartan this year. Also large to XL. Running a 150 dropper I have had 20mm trimmed from the seat tube of the carbon XL so I have XL reach and large frame seat position. Stem has come down from 75mm with rise to 60mm flat.
Burgtec RideWide 800bars.
6'2" 185lbs
Lyrik 170 three spacers. 19%sag
Vivid Air zero spacers. 32% sag
2FO
Spartan is such a solid no-nonsense bike. Never lets me down.
Agreed, Spartan is an absolutely awesome bike.
I'll get my forks up to 70 psi, but after taking the shock pump off i lose a few psi sometimes more , so i can never get an exact number.
All makes sense now
If you are running over 300psi in your shock, there is a possibility that some air could escape while disconnecting but it is unlikely and at those pressures, irrelevant.
www.amazon.com/Airchecker-Digital-Presta-Schrader-Pressure/dp/B001OMQK6Q/ref=sr_1_1?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1495664441&sr=1-1&keywords=sks+guage
www.amazon.com/Topeak-60100005-D2-SmartGauge/dp/B0051LQ0X4/ref=pd_sim_468_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B0051LQ0X4&pd_rd_r=FRMSRFCD7Z213BJVWB53&pd_rd_w=nGVzC&pd_rd_wg=zezZj&psc=1&refRID=FRMSRFCD7Z213BJVWB53
I've played with pressure in my fork enough to tell you that digital accuracy is worth it. just recently, I bled off some pressure, without checking it, while out on a ride because the fork felt harsh. got it feeling alright, get back home, check it to record the new pressure? all I bled off was 2 PSI. If you're spending 1000s on a bike, but not $30 on a device to make sure you're getting accurate tire/shock pressure, you're screwing yourself.