Brandon Semenuk is the most decorated athlete in the still young sport of slopestyle mountain biking. He has the earned the right to have the most cutting edge technology in his hands, but when their isn’t a solution provided by his backers, he’s not afraid to go out and tinker on his own. Ask him anything about anything on his bikes and he’ll tell you exactly how much, how wide, and why. His bike setups are meticulous labours of dedication; each year slowly evolving into a setup that he feels is perfect for him.
The most important element between a mechanic and athlete is translation. The athlete needs to be able to accurately pass along information on how the bike is performing, and then the mechanic has to translate that into a fix, modification or tune. The longer you work together the better you are together at reading each other. Brandon is highly effective at communicating his needs to Shawn who is able to make the necessary adjustments to his bikes, no matter how big or small they might be.
Over the years, Brandon has had some of the most unique paint jobs in mountain biking, from bright colours to airbrushed hair. This year is no different with his Ticket S being coated in a “
hammer peen” finish that gives the surface of the bike a rough, 3D looking texture. It’s a truly unique finish for a truly unique athlete. His Ticket S frame is stock save for custom, carbon seat stays for increased stiffness on those big hits.
Brandon’s bright red slopestyle bike in 2011 finally took him to the top step at Crankworx Whistler. The bike was ahead of its time, featuring prototype components and custom tuned suspension. A few of these components have made their way into the SRAM line up and are featured on his 2014 slopestyle bike.
(Left) Derailleur: SRAM X01 DH | Cassette: SRAM X01 DH 7-Speed MINI BLOCK | Chain: SRAM PC-XX1 | Cranks: SRAM X01 DHBrandon’s Trek Ticket S is set up with a 7-Speed SRAM X01 DH derailleur and cassette. Always thinking about keeping weight low, the SRAM X01 DH cassette is the lightest production mountain bike cassette available and offers Brandon more than enough gear selection for whichever style of slopestyle course he is competing on in a given weekend. Compare this to his 2011 bike, which was set up with a 10-Speed SRAM X0 derailleur and SRAM RED road bike cassette. The 2014 set up is lighter, quieter and more efficient.
His SRAM X01 crank arms are as short as possible at 165mm. When Brandon does opposite tailwhips he kicks his bike with his front foot, which has to slide back to the center of the bb. The shorter crank length allows his foot to travel less distance before kicking his bike around.
Also to note: Brandon’s SRAM X01 DH crank arms have a combination of inner tube and electrical tape wrapped around the bb to dampen the rotation of the cranks during tricks. This is a simple hack, which has been used for many years by the top riders.
Brandon runs a 1X set up with a 32-tooth X-Sync chain ring without a chain guide. The loss of chain guide is bonus points towards keeping the overall weight of the bike down, and a testament to the X-Sync and Roller Bearing Clutch technologies keeping the chain on his front ring during the big hits of a slopestyle contest.
The rear hub is a SRAM X0 hub with an XD driver body. Brandon prefers the 6.9-degree engagement that the DOUBLE TIME ratchet provides. This results in quicker engagement when getting a quick pedal stroke in on top of a roll in, and has a loud confident buzz while flowing the course.
Slopestyle competition subjects bikes to incredible compressions, with bikes and riders first hitting massively steep lips at high speed, and then landing sometimes short, sometimes long, and sometimes sideways. To be perfect you have to feel every inch of the lip, the less give in the suspension on take-off, the better.
Brandon’s 2011 Ticket S has a custom RockShox Argyle that was built by Shawn and featured both the Motion Control damper, and a dual air system from an old Pike, it was referred to as a “
Pargyle”. Brandon felt that the Motion Control from the old Pike was more predictable on take-off than Motion Control damper from the Argyle of the time. He would run the fork at 95mm with the maximum allowable PSI.
Fast forward to 2014, and Brandon is running the all new Pike DJ, which has a stock tune that was designed around the custom tunes of year's past. The Solo Air system in his Pike DJ only needs to be set to 175PSI which allows Brandon to predictably feel the lip every time. With 5 tokens stock, the Fork ramps up considerably, giving him bottom-out protection on the hardest hits. He runs his Pike DJ with his compression in the firmest setting, and his rebound set to the slowest position.
Brandon runs maximum PSI in his rear suspension, which can make landings rough, but the trade off is his bike is always predictable on take-off. Shawn added a bottom out bumper to the Monarch to act as a volume adjuster, which increased the compression ramp, as well as taking the edge off the extra flat landings. His 2014 Monarch RT3 is set up very similar to his 2011 Monarch RT3, with both the compression and rebound tunes being considerably higher than that of a shock tuned to be ridden on singletrack.
His TRUVATIV Holzfeller stem is 40mm in length and his bars are 720mm, which is his favourite width on the slopestyle bike. His stack height is 35mm, which is enough space for a gyro, hydraulic or mechanical.
The initial one off Gyro is unfortunately much to heavy for Brandon to comfortably run that close to his handlebars. The form is there, but the weight is an issue. It’s back to the drawing board for Shawn and Brandon. In the meantime he will continue to run a long hydraulic hose and calculate just how many bar rotations he can fit in.
Coming off the production his movie, the talent has been training hard on his private slopestyle course. He'll be gunning for the gold at all the Diamond FMB World Tour stops as he looks to take the overall. It all starts this weekend in France for Crankworx Les 2 Alpes.
www.sram.com*Like what you see here, now's your chance to win a replica Brandon Semenuk Rad Company Trek Ticket S in full SRAM components.
I just don't think the benefits of eating a bike are worth the side effects.
can't be that bad i guess
Please stay down under sir. Your backwards.
He was simply bashing Semenuk - on an article about Semenuk.
Please read the comments before you ramble on you f'n loser.
Try to be nice to people ? Lol. He bashed him and said "Bring it on !"
thenos09 (16 hours ago)
time to get over yourself Semenuk....as if he couldn't do all his shit on the stocky. $$$$ gone to his head. neg prop me f*ckers!!!
If your average Park-rat can throw a tailwhip pedal to pedal over a speed bump in route to BLASTING a box jump, sans brakes, shifter, suspension (this one is the best - suspension... man oh man), close-up--photos of all bike parts; all without an article explain why a GYRO (seriously, what is this 93?) is SOOOOO necessary... When will "GNAR-GNAR - my front wheel was like an inch high bro" get with the program.
I understand, in a sense, the need for suspension, cause ain't a one of you can nosedive to save your life, or the save lip of a set of my doubles over 4 feet. Seriously, it's not hard. Called speed, pump (not the track...) and..
So, what next, a video explaining the manual record has been broken. Look, super cool that people are in to downhill and Enduoro and being in the woods and stuff, but this stuff, man I don't get it.
Suggestion: Go to the Pittsburgh, seek out Chris Doyle, or Allentown for Chris Stauffer;- ask for a lesson in STYLE (s is not silent), and all this will go away.
So f*cking bizarre to me, but if there's one guy that could make me shut up about it, it's that man of few words right there. Hopefully someone like Pinion picks him up someday!
Of coarse he could do all YOUR tricks on his stock bike - have you seen HIS tricks tho ?
Your dumb as they come.
Why do you care what he does to his bike ???
Are you looking at his upgrades when he does a backflip or barspin ?
Shut your hole and enjoy the show retard.
I wasn't the one commenting on how the money's gone to Semenuk's head and how he should get over himself - or how he could do all those tricks on his stock bike.I guess all the pro riders of any disipline should just ride STOCK bikes right.
Makes good sense to you I guess.