Round Up: Wet Weather Setup Tricks from EWS & World Cup Racing
Every rider has their setup quirks and when it comes to tricky weather conditions each has their own solution to the problem. We decided to look through the Pinkbike bike check archives for the more wet weather setups that we have spotted at World Cup and EWS races over the years.
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![Tricks of the trade - A few riders were spotted sporting duct tape on the downtubes as mud guards. It helps keep mud from sticking too.]()
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![Kevin Miquel bike check]()
![A little extra grip for Marcelo Gutierrez. While this was needed in the mud of Les Gets we assume it will be removed for more tame track in Lenzerheide.]()
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![Yesterday s dust was a bit harder to wash off today.]()
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![Kevin Miquel bike check]()
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![Mud repellent tape-armor from an Italian bike protection company.]()
Probably one of the most talked-about wet weather setups in recent years has been the use of tape on the downtube at the Olympics and some of the World Cup XC races. Jolanda Neff has her Olympic gold medal-winning bike fitted with some wavy tape, the idea for this is to make it harder for mud to stick to the frame. If mud does end up getting stuck then you can easily just pull the tape off for a mid-race bike clean.
The Les Gets XC World Cup saw plenty of XC riders running the wavy tape including Nino Schurter and Mathias Flueckiger. We wouldn't be surprised to see this become a common sight at future XC races.
The classic wet weather setup has to be a front fender. It does a great job of keeping some mud and debris away from the downtube and depending on the size it can help keep your vision clear. While most races tend to run the shorter fenders when conditions get really bad we see some riders opt for some sizeable setups.
While more rare some riders run a fender out the back, most likely this is fitted to the frame to keep mud away from the rear suspension.
A fender isn't always the best solution for riders though, we saw plenty of racers ditching the fender at the mud infested 2020 Leogang World Champs. At this race, the mud ended up being so sticky that it would block up fenders making them more of a hindrance than providing any advantage.
An old school wet weather setup for DH racers used to be attaching an old piece of tire to your saddle to add an extra bit of grip when things get very sloppy. This setup comes from 2016 when Marcelo Gutierrez wanted a more secure saddle for the Lenzerheide World Cup.
A more modern solution is this SDG I-Fly Storm saddle with specially designed knobs on the seat for added grip. Neko Mulally was running this setup so that if he had to sit down to pull a tear-off/roll-off he wouldn't have to worry about slipping on the saddle in a crucial moment.
Another classic for muddy conditions is using foam to block up frame cavities. Using the foam allows racers to not have any areas where mud or water will collect on the bike and add unnecessary weight to their race machines.
After the incredibly wet and wild 2020 EWS race in Zermatt, Joe Barnes shared some creative hacks to battle the conditions. Joe's crafty creations include modified handguards to remove windchill, heated grips for toasted hands and more.
While not always used for wet weather many racers do add a small bit of grip tape on their levers to add some extra control and grip. The last thing you want is to slip off your brake levers during a wet and muddy race.
Tire choice for muddy races isn't always about getting the most amount of grip. During the XC World Cup this year in Nove Mesto the BMC was trying to decide between running a faster rolling tire or one that could clear the mud faster. For the BMC team, they were weighing up the decision between a Vittoria Mezcal that would be faster rolling and could clear some mud on the tarmac sections or the Peyote that would clear the mud faster on most sections of the course for more grip when the racers needed it.
Last year, Max Hartenstern was running a unique composite brake protector on his calipers to help stop any grit or mud from getting inside and keep consistent levels of braking in sloppy conditions.
No matter if racers are running flat or clipless pedals they will often extend their pins (if they have them) to give some extra grip.
While we have seen riders running wavy tape this year, Danny Hart was apparently running some stickers coated in a 'mud repellent' on his Mondraker in 2016. We aren't sure quite how they worked, but riders did face some pretty tricky conditions.
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I just can't see where the inuendo is without making a pretty big interpretive leap.
Sticking a load of crumpled up gaffer tape on a super expensive XC race whippet is a travesty and I doubt the efficacy of the endevour.
I do agree that the chances of finding a piece of tape in the bushes is low, but probably not as low as you would think. Being one of the few that maintains the trails where I live (a remote area an hour away from any city), I find tape & other garbage riders have discarded trailside on the regular. The point is, We ALL need to do our part and not litter as well as clean up trails when we see it.
Can i generalize who litters? No, but this looks like very convincing evidence.
m.pinkbike.com/photo/21660224
That is new to me. And yes, I recognize what kind of plant that is. This is dubious example at best. I'm not even sure what you are on about at this point...
just accept this fact --- Littering people come in all types --- and period.
@KeeganPelton : Yeah, that's what I would think of foodwrappers, tear-offs and CO2 cartridges too. I don't see why someone would use those on a training ride, still I'm seeing this trash. So for me this tape is no different. If it is here described as something clever and pro, seems to me the same who fall for the aforementioned stuff may be the same who fall for this "solution". If the article is wrong (as claimed elsewhere) and the tape is supposed to stay in place and never be littered then by all means secure it with loops of tape around the downtube. But your claim of racers cleaning the trail after the race, that's a beautiful one. Racers picking up transparent tear-offs, mud covered pieces of black tape in ankle deep mud, doing proper hard work to find all those small triangular pieces they tear off to open a gel or bar packaging. I think this side of their race weekend should be better documented on the PB race reports so that we as keyboard warrior get more appreciation for how they clean up the mess they make.
"An XC rider might go pick up a meter of tape they tore off"
"Spare parts!"
Same mastic I make waves with a chain stay silencer. Works great.
If you’re in CO - Ride CB mixed/moto trails in October and you’ll see what I mean (teo, drs, Reno/flag/deadman) or even summit county mixed moto trails after any rain (please don’t ride the mtb trails after a rain…)
Fwiw I don’t use this technique (yet) but… I may next time I ride those spots… the mud is terrible!
I use this trick on my bikes for years and it works great, and it also protects the seals from dirt and dust during the 4 seasons.
How much mud can a tape strip stop if a tape strip could stop mud?
How much mud can a tape strip stop if a tape strip could stop mud?
MKI2
Nino and a few others had it on during wc races this year. No one was littering.
An XC racer can't take time to fool around pulling off tape from their downtube mid race.
Either way, if it works as you say, maybe it'd be nice if frame manufacturers would design a (semi)permanent bumper (or whatever you'd call it) on the downtube just like we're seeing permanent chainstay protectors. That would eventually safe us from people going with the disposable option.
Xpel works better than rain-x in my experience on auto glass, but the applicator might not work as easily on a bike.
The consumer ceramic coatings are expensive enough, I can only imagine how much commercial-grade optical coatings are. I took a chance on Aquapel last year after I got a new windshield and it seems to have worked longer than rainx did after clay barring my old windshield.
I ride in mud a lot. It helps a lot. It also works better than the regular stuff on paint, I find,
although a good coat of wax is still more effective.
Sincerely, Arizona.
I gotta say, I feel as though this "solution" was not vetted in the engineering department. It just seems like a good way to store mud and increase wind resistance. Ok... I can pull it off mid-race, but isn't it just making things worse until that point?
Well tell us then, what made it so impressive?
Was it:
Option1: cool to see it all caked with mud, and then ripped off for the 2nd half of the race?... so the rider could start "clean" for the 2nd half? If it still got caked with mud, then it wasn't really doing its job right? And likely there was MORE mud with tape than without for half the race (and the same amount for the 2nd half). OR
Option 2: the tape flapped in the wind, preventing the mud from sticking in the first place... ok, cool, but was the drag from extra wind resistance worse than the extra weight of some mud on a downtube? I would bet $$$ that it was.
Rather than putting tape to catch extra mud, or increase drag... why not just take your glove off and run a finger down the downtube if the mud gets really bad?
Next time you are out riding I look forward to hearing about how ripping duct tape off your DT went while trying to ascend or descend at a WC pace.
The flappy tape does just that. It flaps. It loads up with mud and then flaps the mud off. It helped prevent extreme build-up before it was shed from the bike. If it is better than Pam / some other non-stick spray I don't know. But, it did work well.
With how muddy the course was wind resistance was the least of their concerns. The drag from the mud sucking their tires sort of throws any concerns over "aero" out the window.
But sure aero-drag /s