With the dawn of a new season comes fresh anticipation of new bikes and components. Sheltering from the dusting of snow at the top of the track we’ve compiled a selection of tasty tech from the heart of the Lourdes pits as the racers gear up for the first round of the World Cup. The onslaught of 29ers has, for now, yet to materialize… There's a whirlwind of rumors floating through the venue, though, so stay tuned.
The pits nestled at the bottom of the steep Pic du Jer track.
Brendan Fairclough is sporting a fresh Deathgrip-inspired color scheme this weekend.
Big rotors are a common theme throughout the pits this weekend.
A reach adjust headset ready for SCOTT new boy Gaetan Vige.
He's gone up to a large frame this weekend but with the bigger frame felt the need to bring the bars closer.
Any guesses as to the company behind this shock kicking around the Polygon UR Team pits? It's not who you might think...
Trick Stuff - Direttissima lever, now adjustable without needing an Allen key.
Trickstuff caliper on the back of Tracey Hannah's bike.
The new Kenda HellKat ready for its World Cup debut.
A bit of a temperature check on Tracey Hannah's shock.
Aaron Gwin's YT Tues ready to rock and roll this weekend.
No Fox 49 to be seen here.
On the back is a DHX2 primed and ready for the Lourdes gnar.
Since everyone's talking 29" wheels at the moment, Aaron Gwin's mechanic decided to whip up this "custom" 29'er specific shock just to keep people guessing.
Gwin is running an XL YT Tues.
Mechanic John Hall giving Aaron's bike a strip down.
Finn Iles' and Miranda Miller's new rides are going together.
Finn Iles has a beautifully custom painted Specialized Demo in honor of being the current Junior World Champion.
Bruni's new whip. ready to finally go after the result he deserves here on home soil.
Laurie Greenland and the MS Mondraker team have a new Summum colorway.
The World Champion's lid, featuring the one and only Ruby the bulldog.
GT are fresh off of testing in San Remo last week, giving the mechanics plenty to do.
Fresh frames for the GT boys.
Tire choice is likely to be a big talking point this weekend with the changeable weather.
Bikes have been getting complete rebuilds so they're in mint condition to do battle this weekend.
The rear triangle off Loris Vergier's V10 29er. After the initial testing on an aluminum rear end, the team are now up and running on the carbon version.
Detail of the bottom linkage complete with some dust from the South of France.
Big wheels need big tires - Santa Cruz have had a busy winter, not only producing the V10 29er, but pushing partners for new components to go with it.
Fabien Barel is here complete with bike, but only to oversee Troy and Mark. Unfortunately, Ruaridh Cunnigham is starting the season nursing his shoulder back to fitness.
Canyon are entering a milestone weekend with a fresh linkage aboard the Sender, which has given slightly more control over bottom outs, but isn't wildly different to the original.
Troy Brosnan has shown up to Lourdes with some rather monstrous 220mm disc rotors.
The fork that's caused quite the stir this week. Jordi Cortes gets to work on the Fox 49 of Luca Shaw.
The tech supports teams have had a busy few days.
The Fox boys have plenty to keep them occupied.
Trek have two new faces this year in Kade Edwards and Graeme Mudd, but when will there be a new bike to go alongside?
Norco aren't wanting to reveal anything about their new frame until, or rather if, it enters production.
Blenki's forks getting a rebuild from the SRAM tech team.
Cleaned of New Zealand dust.
Connor Fearon's shock getting some TLC. Nothing fancy, just a standard rebuild to make sure everything runs smoothly.
Although there's an air shock bolted in for the moment, it's likely that Connor will try a coil shock this weekend too, according to his mechanic.
Unlike Connor, Josh Button already has a coil on the back of his Operator.
Bikes are getting cleaned and polished, but it's not likely to last long. Rain has been falling the last two days.
Spares and bikes arriving for the Commencal squad. No 29ers just yet...
SRAM launched the new Code brakes this week and they are already plugged onto their factory team bikes.
Remi Thirion is racing the new Codes.
Dean Lucas's Intense M16 in the new IFR team colorway.
"Yep, my shock was running at 54 degrees for that bit" "Cool... what does that mean?" "... I'm not sure, but I'll give it few more clicks of low speed - should sort it out"
@yourwelcome: Those aren't listed on SRAM's website, or in the spare parts catalogue. Has anyone bought these and verified they are in fact 203 and not 200?
@tim-from-pa: I believe they have been discontinued by SRAM, but you should be able to have your local IBD source. I believe from QBP or Hawley. Have them reference the SRAM part number. I purchased a set for last summer. Hope this helps.
@Kickmehard: if you just put 1.5 mill washers under the the bike with the 200 mill rotors then u can run both sets of wheels.. its only 3 mill dif from 200 to 203 so thats 1.5 mill on each side of the rotor.
That trek is a new bike. It has the shock mounted to the front triangle instead of linked to the chainstay like the current bike. Looks like the current bike but if you look at the rear triangle and the tubing it's completely different as well.
yeah well seen.
looks like no full floater like the new slash.
dirt was live today in the pits and wasnt allowed to go into treks team tent.
pretty sure they are on 29ers too
Yep. At first I thought it was a Slash, but then realized the lower shock mount is slightly different, as is the top tube shape near the head tube. Definitely the new Session 29'r...
Biggest give away to me is the rocker is linked at the back of the seat tube like all previous sessions, the rocker on the trail bikes connect in front of the seat tube.
Arghhhh my eyes! My eyyyyes...no amount of suspension-drivetrain independence is worth this...I'd rather run a single pivot and have everyone preach at me about pedal induced suspension bob...
It's required for the new proto linkage that provides more pro gress ion, means Troy is riding so fast he needs bigger rotor for dissapation of heat, clearly you arent fast enough if you are still riding 203mm!
Really interesting vid, Minnaar and Peaty seem a little defensive on 29ers, get the feeling a lot of teams are opposed, Brendan/Page made some good points against the change.
@PHeller: wait to see who else is on a 29er guys!!!!!! Santa Cruz is just loving the hype....funny that you'll see more than two 29ers at the race! Just to be clear...it was on vital but I could only get the link via Facebook. I hate that site haha
@pimpin-gimp: i enjoyed the hell put of that FB live feed, except the part where the Trek crew acted surprised and cagey about 29ers....when they were debuted theirs earlier this week and are working in a pit with SEE THROUGH windows.
I think GM and Peaty KNOW the big wheels are gonna help the tall guys. Will be most interesting into see how Luca (6 feet) & Loris (under 6 feet) perform. Sure, both will have wagon wheels, but their height might play a factor like Barel implied.
Would be surprised for it to help Loris, since he's literally on a new brand, suspension and wheel size. If the larger wheel is an advantage, it may only allow him to finish similar to past results until he's used to all the changes .
Athertons were running that frame at Nant G ,BDS
Just like a slash 29er beefed up with a wider flatter top tube
Bottom shock mount direct to the frame and beefier seat and chain stays with internal cable routing
Had 27.5 wheels but probably designed to take 29
Why would they go to all that effort for a new 27.5 frame
They will definitely be wheeling out the 29er tomorrow
Two questions: 1) What is the purpose of a FOX 49 when many people complain about the 40s being overly stiff and 2) What is up with the switch on the secret shock, is this a type of manual damping control for fast vs rough, or related to gear position i.e., taller gears have higher damping rates assuming faster speeds? I wouldn't think there are many pedally sections at Lourdes, no?
@mgolder: So is it 49mm diameter tubes, I guess should be my question. If 40s are considered very stiff, why not just make a 40/29? They make 40's for 26 & 27.5 so what is the difference other than offset for rake & trail differences? My streetbike has 48mm fork tubes & it weighs almost 500#, you can't tell me a 29" bicycle requires even larger diameter tubes than my motorcycle.
Its unlike rock shox to show something so early in development, but i know they are leading the charge with on the fly coils. I'm Going for RS.
Either that or it's BOS with Antidote Telemetry pissing around with something
@rnayel: Why would they design a conventional shock that works with classic linkages? They explicitely said the Fox they were using had way less damping than any other damper.
@Blablablup123: Maybe the design allows for better (lighter) tuning. Honestly, your question makes sense. I wonder when Dave is going to spill the beans.
"Cool... what does that mean?"
"... I'm not sure, but I'll give it few more clicks of low speed - should sort it out"
"203aintdead"
You mean.... just like every other DH race? I don't think anyone is going to run 160 rotors on their DH rigs..?
I think GM and Peaty KNOW the big wheels are gonna help the tall guys. Will be most interesting into see how Luca (6 feet) & Loris (under 6 feet) perform. Sure, both will have wagon wheels, but their height might play a factor like Barel implied.
Would be surprised for it to help Loris, since he's literally on a new brand, suspension and wheel size. If the larger wheel is an advantage, it may only allow him to finish similar to past results until he's used to all the changes .
Not everyone needs them, certainly not me at under 5'7". 650B max.
Does anybody recognize the "e"?