Diamondback's Carson Storch nearly had to call time on his Rampage long before the event even kicked off, with a broken collarbone while at Crankworx derailing the Oregon rider's plans. The train didn't come off the tracks, though, with Storch taking the recovery seriously enough to earn his doctor's permission to send it just a week prior to leaving for Utah. ''I just tried to get on it really good. You know, diet and I have a really good PT guy at home that help with the process, and I just worked as hard as I could,'' he said of the healing process that left nearly no time to spare.


''I was riding the YT jump and having a good session on that, and I came into the hip and felt like my speed was good. I cased it super bad and got pitched over the handlebar and into a ravine. It was a weird fall; a little lapse of judgment, I guess. I should have taken my time.'' It turned out to be a costly mistake for Storch as he sprained an ankle bad enough that there was no way he could compete, let alone even try to qualify.That said, being on the sidelines wasn't enough to keep a smile off of Storch's face throughout the week, although that grin might have had something to do with him signing for Red Bull. ''It's been almost a year of trying. I'm stoked to be part of the Red Bull team,'' he said of the news.




Carson's Custom DB8

Standing ten or fifteen feet away from Carson's bike, or just far enough to not be able to read the hot patch on the Diamondback's tires, would probably have you believing that his DB8 is nothing too interesting. Some custom graphics, yes, but the bike's lines are identical to the 200mm travel, 27.5'' wheeled production model. But despite appearing to be the same, there's actually some major differences between the production bike and Carson's custom Rampage weapon.




An up close look reveals that he's actually rolling on 26" wheels and questioning the newly signed Red Bull athlete saw him admit to his DB8 being a prototype frame designed around smaller wheels and to Carson's needs. ''I basically asked for the shortest rear-end as possible, give or take a couple other geo changes to make it feel like a big slope bike,'' he said of his wishlist for a beastly Rampage sled. And since Diamondback had originally designed the DB8 around 26" wheels, it probably wasn't a big reach to get Carson the machine he wanted for Rampage.


All that makes for a bike with a much shorter wheelbase than stock and probably one that's also not going to be comfortable for most riders, but Carson's downsized DB8 is surely easier to handle when it comes to doing slopestyle moves on a big travel bike.




Custom frame and smaller wheels aside, the rest of Carson's basic setup very much mirrors what we've seen other competitors using. His SR Suntour RUX fork is running more air pressure and added rebound damping compared to his usual go-to setup, and the bike's DVO shock is fitted with a 550 in/lb titanium coil from Lite-Spring, complete with a custom fade color added to it. ''It's good to run really wide tires in Utah to kind of float on top of the loose dirt. I run the Kenda Honey Badger DH tires,'' he explained about his rubber choice, going on to say that they're pumped up to just over 30 PSI. ''Rampage is the last place you want to skimp on a few grams and run tubeless.''