After a brief hiatus, the WC Downhill is back as the series heads to the classic Scottish track on the slopes of Aonoch Mor, just outside Fort William. The lengthy, rock-strewn track is a tough test for body and bike alike, and that was obvious in the pits today with teams focusing on complete rebuilds and prepping an excess of wheels and tires. We've been for a lap of the pits to get the scoop:
Team Mondraker's secret weapon: Fox's prototype remote lockout uses two buttons, presumably, the smaller one is the release lever. The bits on the shock are adapted to the stock DHX2 housing.
MENTIONS:
@davetrumpore /
@rossbellphoto
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I-Drive actually works pretty well, the old I-Drive XC bikes were notorious for sticking to climbs and just moving forwards as long as you could turn the pedals. But as a system it had no place on long travel bikes, especially now rear shocks are actually good. To get an acceptable level of chain growth you need a lot of movement in the bb position and it's just not necessary. My memory of the old I-Drive 7 was how weird it felt to have my feet move backwards and forwards relative to the bars, it didn't feel bad as such, just weird. A simple single pivot with a quality shock can achieve the same 'lot's of traction but still pedals well,' feeling I-Drive had twelve years ago with half as many moving parts, so I-Drive's not needed anymore.
Agree completely with you on the pedalling side of things... That wheel tracks the ground like white on rice and bob is minimal compared with the single pivot I had before it... On the downs I learned to live with that weird feeling at the feet by sitting a little further back than usual and it seemed to work for me... What was a complete headache was the maintenance... Those big pivots loosened themselves all the time and the bike would creak nonstop if they were even slightly loose... and the rear shock had to be tuned absolutely perfectly and have the right pressure down to the last digit... Volume spacer was essential... But when everything gelled the bike ran like a dream
In the older Fury that Gee developed, they said that the BB moves about a centimeter. The main pivot was barely higher than a traditional pivot, and the BB barely moved. It was a very small, subtle difference over a traditional suspension design.
It's an absolute garbage design of marketing over function.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BB0xjX0QNKQ
Regardless, apart from a URT, you will not find another design on the market where the sprung mass is not fully isolated from the sprung mass.
Imagine designing a steering assembly that moved the bars 10mm when the fork was fully compressed. People would think you're insane.
It's simple to see how flawed it is. I can't believe you guys are arguing about it!
I don't know why, with designs like these around, you'd want what sounds like a second-rate solution to the problem of pedal kickback.
Same with counter rotating links like SC's VPP's. Identical levels of anti-squat etc can be achieved with other designs that don't require them to jump though hoops to get a decent leverage rate etc but they carry on with it because it's a unique-ish marketing story.
tyre stirkes?
But you're VASTLY overstating the challenge of postponing the race. These people do this for a living. You think they can't change their plans by 24 hours? LOTS of other sports delay events due to weather. Heck, baseball often has teams with games the NEXT DAY & they manage somehow.
DH races have been running rain or shine for over 20 years (at all levels), and the adversity of weather has never been an issue. You put it on TV for all the Joeys to see, and now people are crying foul.
There are around 100 riders, some heavily supported by many, some by themselves and self funded. They all have plane tickets outta there after the event, as well as other travel accommodations and plans back home. That's not even mentioning the of additional volunteers and hired help that is brought in on a tight schedule, to put on the show. The DH circus is nothing like FMB or baseball.
I reckon its the opposite mate. Heaps of new tech going on with the 29er stuff. A few riders on new teams. DH is the F1 of the bike world and to me every year it looks like it gets more professional, more r&d from companies, more young guns stepping up and keeping the seasoned riders on their toes!
I love it hey............Claudio and Warner hell yeah.....
I think this 29in episode is not good for the sport. All teams invested in 27.5 as a transition from 26 relatively recently, and as the smaller teams barely caught up with the larger ones, there goes the 29in thing and everything 27.5 goes to trash. This will severely damage the smaller teams and I wouldn't be surprised that on the end of the season some of those teams pull out. This means less competitors and is this really better for the sport? Would you really like to have just couple of teams and thats it? Moreover, I think that is just unsustainable. I think UCI should have stepped in and set one wheel size and that's it. Changing wheel size requires changing almost everything (expensive) on the bike. If you want F1 analogy I think it would be like FIA saying that they don't care what kind of engine you have. It would spell disaster for the sport.
Keep MTB/DH riding/racing raw, wacky, friendly and most of all, fun.
Tolerances for all pivots and wheel alignment is what also helps it to ride great. And it is a tank.
youtu.be/myFJTO8mdtw
www.vitalmtb.com/videos/features/Why-Loic-Bruni-Wont-Race-his-Prototype-Specialized-29er-at-Fort-William,33809/sspomer,2
so what is the answer to reduce the tension? Stick with a shimano Zee setup and tune the amount of 'clutch tension' in the derailleur?
Oh, there's a trailer hitch in the way...
Now that said, you won't be finding any hackers on the WC circuit, those guys are mechanics not just component put er on ers.
And duct tape has no place on ductwork, unless you work at homedepot.
Cheers
My biggest peave is when people feel the need to start a paragraph stating that they are an engineer, or this, or that.. like it's suppose to automatically make their reply more justifiable. So I regret to even do it here. I'm a machinist by trade so I just thought wrapping lead on a rig with duct tape seemed out of the realms of typical WC fashion.
Good day!