Atherton Racing mechanic Polish Pete built up the first of the team's GT Fury DH bikes at their winter training spot in Southern California yesterday. Check out this video of the build by Pinkbike Video Guru Aaron Larock and listen to Pete talk about the bike and the parts the team will be running this year. As Pete says this is a pre-season bike and all parts and graphics etc are subject to change before the beginning of the World Cup race season.
For the 2012 race season the Atherton Racing team of Gee, Dan and Rachel Atherton and Marc Beaumont will be running a stock GT Fury frame. The bike is white for now while the team graphics are being finalized, but we can expect to see something different once World Cup time comes around. This bike has an Ultegra 11/21 9 speed cassette with a 36 tooth chainring up front that will probably remain standard through the season, and they've been working with Continental and Stan's on a tubeless setup that is pretty much dialed now. More information on the GT Fury can be found
here on the GT website
There will be a few little details that will help to adjust the geometry of the bike. The team will be using a slightly shorter than stock shock, as well as offset bushings and an FSA Orbit Option headset. This will get the headtube angle to 63 degrees, and the bottom bracket height close to 13.6"
The team will be running the Shimano Saint group the same as last year, with a few proto bits here and there, such as these brakes with an XTR style lever and a prototype Saint Caliper. PRO is working on a new Atherton line as well so we'll probably be seeing some new parts from them soon such as this 800mm PRO Atherton bar. Gee is running one a little bit shorter than the full 800mm.
The bike is built up with an E-13 SRS Plus chain guide that the team will be using this year.
For 2012 the Team will be running Fox Suspension the same as before. Everything will be fairly standard, with a few details such as a slightly shorter than stock shock, and a custom race tune. This bike has a normal spring on it right now that will be replaced with a Ti one as soon as possible, and this seatpost will be swapped out for a new PRO Atherton one as soon as they get them.
The Atherton Racing team is sponsored by One Industries for clothing this year, however the team kit is not quite done yet, we'll have details on that as soon as they're available.
Atherton Racing Q&A SessionPinkbike's Aaron Larock will be doing a video interview with Gee and Dan later this week, what questions would you like to ask them? Write them below in the comments and we'll get them to answer as many as possible in the time we have.
I just managed to get the summum confused with the V3
1: how satisfying is it to be building bikes on that particular beach? oh, and is your face hurting from smiling?
questions for the family:
1: will you please bring it all back for Britain in your respective categories, including the Enduro for Dan?
Mr Turner must be stoked to have this team together. GT have come a long way in 32 years. Lets hope for another title
I see you race at Southridge....a little tip if you didn't know: A certain pair of brothers, one of which this article may or may not involve, are definitely confirmed to be racing super d there this coming weekend.
www.bicycling.com/mountainbikecom/bikes-gear/2013-mountain-bike-gear-news-and-rumors
That being said I'm sure Mick Hannah had a ton of input on the initial frame geo
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nGoqF7CNR8
GT Fury is the fastest bike on the market in my opinion.
I have been racing it for tvo seasons now and it has landed me 4 titles in my country. It is really good!
Cheers.
www.commencal.com/web/en/company/history
And if reading the company history is too long a read for you, then here's the summarized version... Max Commencal founded, built up, and then ultimately sold the Sunn bicycle brand. In 16 years the brand amassed 70 World Cup wins and world championship titles. And after starting a brand under his own name, he recruited many of the top names of the sport including two very well known downhillers..Anne-Caroline Chausson and Cedric Garcia. And its doubtful ANYONE, rachel atherton included will EVER break anne-caroline's record of 12 World DH championships (with 11 of them consecutively), two dual world championships, two 4x world championships and the 2008 Oympic BMX gold medal (not to mention the countless world cup wins and series titles).
Kind of ridiculous really, engineers usually should be finding best theoretical settings and making slight changes from there to suit rider. Really should be trying the bike stock for a good while first. Almost no point in moving if they just want the same thing- beside the cash of course!
A good pilot with drive, guts & glory... GO HARD OR GO HOME!!!! Just saying.
Bottom line engineering wise is they do not like what they are on, thus have modified it.
I guess we will find out on the 18th March if it is faster/better than the Commi.
1.92s over a 4 minute track in 2011. 1% faster than the Commi and Gee will be on top!
I know where I would put my money for 2012...
The GT bikes available to canada (ie, the ones the distributor bothers to import) does include the Fury DH bike... but does not include a whole bunch of XC and Trail and All-mtn models that are available in the USA, and often in models they do offer...they'll only import ONE size of them. I own a 17" 2008 GT Peace 9R Multi in the rasta colour scheme because Genesis wouldn't import then 15" or 19" frame sizes at all for that model, and its the only one I could get here.
GT USA has exactly 12 women's model bikes available (counting the road and mtb lines) but GT Canada only offers THREE of them, and all at the bottom of the model ranges.... the highest level they give women here an option of is the Avalanche 4.0 hardtail and the Series 4 road bike. GT USA's XC Race lineup is now seven 29er models, one full suspension 26er and the Xixand titanium frameset. GT Canada has 5 bikes including three 26er hardtails not apparently offered by GT USA any longer (if the website is anything to go by). Of course they could also be old inventory that the canadian distributor still has and is still trying to move.
Like I said above, if industry rumour is to be believed, Commencal is thought of to be going out of business in the near future. Which is probably the main driving force behind the Arthertons departure.
sorry cant see how to reply to your reply mate
if this was the case though then why are not picked up by another team? a bigger team than GT?
I just think in my opinion they a less of an attractive bid as a trio but that's just me and believe me i don't have a clue what I'm talking about haha but as a business owner it would not make sense.
I was riding at Laguna once and saw a pearlescent white prototype (or probably a pre-production final) and I said 'You've got to bring it out just like that.' To cover it in logos would be a shame. Mick's paint jobs were okay but that white pearl, in the flesh, is just so gorgeous.
I think the others went "This design works in aluminum, so lets just reproduce it in carbon", where GT went "Well, with carbon the frame design has no limits, so let's start from scratch." GT started at the front and are still there in terms of what can be done with carbon.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDuWn2ncOp8
As for the GeeT I like it, Gee obviously believes carbon is the secret to winning....
I guess GT must have spent quite a bit on the molds for the frame and can't afford to shell out for new ones to bring the bike more 'up to date'.
ps. aftermarket parts are where its at, come on, how do you really think r&d pays off and actually gets parts arriving at our doors.
They have wins, yeah well... the sun even shines on a dog's ass some days. The point is, they don't have a competitive bike week in and week out... it's not my opinion, it's a fact. You watch a season of races and you'll see the same brands on the podiums time and time again and they won't be GT. GT is one of those... "oh look, they won one" brands. And, a large part of the reason why, is because the bike isn't setup for modern world cup downhill. For example, the stock fury has a 65 degree head angle... they come with an angle-set not to adjust for preference, rather just to make it close to slack enough for high speed WC DH. Most top guys would consider 63 or 63.5 angles at the steeper end of DH angles... some are even running down around 62, which wouldn't even be possible on the Fury. Sure, pros do run prototype shocks... but they don't run hacked up one-off eye to eye shocks to compensate for the bikes shortcomings. Putting in an adjustable headset alone doesn't make it unworthy... putting in a -1.5 degree headset and STILL TRYING to find other ways to slack it out more because the manufacturer didn't have the foresight to make an adjustable frame or to use angles more applicable to the task at hand does make it unworthy.
The stock Glory is actually a half degree steeper than the Fury... but then, the pro's aren't on stock Glory's are they... or did you actually think they were? They're all riding Glory Prototypes which were developed with input from Hart, Needles, and Riffle that were developed after a very mediocre year aboard the stock bikes... and which, among other things, have a much slacker head angle.
So yeah, the pro's are doing well enough on bike's labeled Glory's though not on the same 65.5 hta Glory you can buy. In 2010 when Hart rode a stock Glory, I think his best finish was a 7th if I recall correctly and the Giant team only managed something like 14th, behind much smaller budget teams like Mondraker and Lapierre... GT actually managed a bit better at 10th or something. For 2011, after redesigning the frame to suit the riders and the WC DH courses they're riding on, both Hart and Needles managed to finish top 10 overall and the team was 2nd overall I believe... proving just how much the stock bike and its bullshit angles were holding them back the year before.
From Giant's own site... "Over the following months, Giant engineered a modified race bike for Danny and his teammates Andrew Neethling and Duncan Riffle. The prototype Glory bikes were quietly unveiled at Round 2 of the World Cup series in Fort William, Scotland. The very first time he raced it, Danny scored a career-best second-place finish."
So... like I was saying, expect to see a similarly redesigned Fury in the coming year or two which incorporates all the BS adjustments the Athertons are now having to hack together to accomodate for the shortcomings of the current bike.
dirt.mpora.com/uncategorized/burgtec-introduce-offset-shock-bushhardware.html
Marc Beaumont has been using them since 2010 as it happens.. so maybe these are just items the Athertons are now getting to use themselves since they were already using them on the Fury Team bikes for Marc. Perhaps if you actually worked on bikes and rode bikes, instead of just reading about them and spouting off like an armchair expert... you'd not be making such ridiculous statements. What do you consider "modern" world cup downhill ? Who are these "most top guys" you apparently speak for ?
I'm apparently the only one objective enough to recognize that for a TOP LEVEL downhill bike, you shouldn't need to hack your shock to get a custom eye to eye to get the angles you need. That's why bike like the Demo and now the Glory have been redesigned with input from Pro riders to address deficiencies which were holding them back previously..... No, but I'm sure you're right... Specialized and Giant completely redesigned their bikes to suit those pro riders cause they were bored and had nothing better to do... had nothing at all to do with performance. Sure...
You guys are a joke... You're just stuck drinking whatever KoolAide is served to you in the form of mass market hype and have lost all ability to think for yourselves... If the Atherton's ride a Fury it must be sick. If the Atherton's are using a product, it must be legit. Just cause a product is available to the public doesn't mean it shoudl be used at the top level of WC racing anymore than the Atherton's getting paid a huge check to ride for GT means the Fury's worthy. No shit Beaumont's been using offset bushings... WHY does he use them, because the GT's angles f*cking suck dumbass. Do you think he's using them cause he's happy with the bike as it is???? Do you think a top level world cup DH bike should actually REQUIRE third-party products to make it rideable at the top levle??? Seriously, pull your heads out of the hype machine's ass and learn to think for yourselves.
I'll leave saying this: Pretty much all pro bikes are massaged in some way to suit the individual riders preferences. This is no different. It’s clear you have an unfounded, uneducated hate-on for GT, but really, your ‘proof’ is the same ‘proof’ for nearly every other pro ride out there. Most every rider running a stock frameset uses some 'bandaid' for geometry adjustment.
Continue shooting from the hip.
There's nothing wrong with adjusting a bike to make them slacker/tighter. Hell there'll be some pretty drastic differences in bike setup between PMB and Champery.
What I do find surprising and concerning about this bike is that they've had to exploit every available option to get the bike to how they want. Not just one or two mods. That says alot about the current frame design and its lack of in-built adjustability. Doesn't mean the bike is crap, only that it could be tweaked to better suit modern races/riders.
After all Polish Pete has already commented above that the bike's already riding faster than their last Commencal.
Yeah, that's what I thought
Thanks in expectations!!
One other thing that I found was; I ordered a Large Alloy Fury (I am 6'4") and when measured against the Medium Carbon they are almost exactly the same in length (Top Tube measurement), which was quite strange. The Medium Alloy is roughly an inch shorter than the large alloy.
Keep this in mind if you are fussy about fit.
I was talking about carbon frames in general. not just this bike.
World class racers dont win by remaining static
You might want to rethink the chain growth point...
And the brake jack point is even less valid. The bottom line is this bike will ride like any other high single pivot (with the same rate) but maybe with a slight sensation of something odd going on with the BB position. Unfortunately marketing drives design more than performance. Apart from weight, I don't see any advantage to this bike over the teams 2010 bike. Obviously $ was the main factor in the decision.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nGoqF7CNR8
Cheers.