With all riders at the Crankworx Summer Series competing in every event, we saw a big variety in bikes being raced. After all, how may bikes can a rider bring? From modded enduro bikes to short travel trail bikes we saw a bit of everything.
Rhys Verner and his Kona Process 111. Not in Kona's current line up, but makes for a great dual slalom bike.
Mark Wallace opted for the short travel Canyon Nueron over a hardtail or the Spectral.
ALN was running the same new Rocky Mountain as she raced in the Enduro, but still wouldn't spill the beans...
The custom Ride Wrap sure does look good though.
Kasper Wooley was running the new Yeti SB115.
Fabien Cousinié and his Polygon Siskiu T
Jesse Melamed was also running the new Rocky Mountain bike but had a very different approach. 29" wheels replaced with 27.5" wheels, a shorter travel Fox 34 fork to replace the 36, a shorter stroke shock to reduce the rear travel and Cush Core removed.
Bas Van Steenbergen and his Hyper. Being a SilverStar local Bas actually helped build and design the Dual Slalom course.
Jakob Jewett and his Canyon Stitched. Jakob was the only rider using a hardtail in the Dual Slalom.
Remi Gauvin had built up a Dual edition of the Rocky Mountain Thunderbolt with a small cassette and big chainring.
The Process 111 is a sweet bike, but I'm kinda disappointed it's not a custom one like Fearon's "Brocess" from a few years back. Got me thinking though, that a 111 with 27,5 wheels (or even 27,5 + 26 mullet) would probably be ridiculously fun. Probably not very sensible for actual trail riding, but for events like this or just regular flow trails. And you could always use one of those headset cup extenders to account for the shorter axle-to-crown without having to bump up the fork travel.
Guerrilla Gravity Trail Pistol(a) with 27.5 works just like that, but the low BB is a thing, so I get around that by using shorter cranks, currently running Trailcraft 152mm, low BB for great handling without a pedal clearance issue.
Sorry, I know I'm being that guy commenting a year late, but watching US Nationals DS rekindled my interest in racing slalom. Doing some quick math - the 134 has the same CS length as the 167 - 420mm. I think the 134 and 111 front triangles are basically the same, but the 111 has a 6mm shorter shock.I think if you take a 134 and chop it to 111/120 you would have an amazing bike
It would be a good thing if the mtb industry still made some short travel 650b bikes for ripping trails and slalom. There really isnt to much to choose from for these style of events anymore.
Unfortunately not many events like that anymore, so the market would be very small.. the 650b bikes of a few years ago would be a good start there.. I had a 140mm 650 some years ago and a 120mm 650 after that.. used it in our local slalom series.
@likehell: Yeah very true... I just want 650b options in general, had to sell my remedy recently, and if I'm honest about my local trails I could go with a little bit lighter / shorter travel bike, but there's just not much to choose from. They can say what they want but I have no desire at all for 29" wheels. Also, regardless of the commercially available bikes I say MORE SLALOM!
The idea of building a 5010 just for slalom use is something that I would like to do, but it would be hard to justify because it wouldn't be used enough..
That's basically what "downcountry" bikes are. XC levels of travel with more enduro like angles. Like Lumpy said stuff like the 5010 are perfect if you have to get a new one. But 26" are still amazing for DS since acceleration and nimbleness is important.
I always wanted this bike, but the price in Europe was insane. Still I can see one in local polish distributor's shop and it is literally 2x price of 2020 process 153 with the same level of equipment.
@santacruz-ing: What I meant was I'm having a hard time letting it go because I'm enjoying it too much! I've gone through a couple new rear ends and shocks though.
I think the series wouldve been even better if it was a one bike (frame and fork at least) event. Seeing how they would modify wheels and shocks for different things wouldve been great. Now for bike sponsors it would stink since it would show you only REALLY need one bike but it would be cool to see where people chose to focus their equipment and where they would just fight through it being the wrong tool for the job.
The downhill is where everyone would suffer. Either that or someone suffers through 3 other events each week in order to bring a bike capable of a proper DH.
@dr-airtime: They could do it like Formula 2, everyone has the same car (frame in this case) but they can put whoever's logos they want on it. With so many brands not selling a dual/slope bike at all it won't hurt them very much. But we wouldn't get to see the funky prototypes and one offs anymore if they dad and that's no fun.
@likehell: DS is awesome but 4x is so exciting, watching them go bar to bar, stuffing each other into corners, like BMX but faster and bigger. I wish 4x would get back to being mainstream again now that pumptrack and DS are growing in popularity it would be cool to see more of the head to head styles of racing as opposed to the traditional time trial style of DH and enduro.
That Hyper though... it looks like it could go into production as it seems to share a lot of the front triangle of the hardtail that's been around for a couple years! That could easily be a competitor in DS, 4x, speed & style and slopestyle with all of the experience Hyper has from both freestyle BMX and BMX racing.
What happens to all these one off builds once the event is finished...? Are they reused, kept for next year, sold on....or just stored in a garage somewhere to gather dust? Constant new bikes and components for single events seems a tad wasteful.
They generally get to keep them. It's not unheard of that pro's former bikes and frames end up on the used market. Recently saw an ex-Wyn Masters GT frame turn up for sale here.
@streetkvnt-kvlt: I always smirk when I see former pros' bikes for sale on PB classifieds. People advertise the fact that a pro owned it like it will make it more valuable when surely it's the opposite. I know one guy who's a pro and he beats the shit out of his bikes. Literally treats them worse than anyone else I have ever met. I would not touch an ex-pro bike at all!
@Civicowner: that’s what I’m saying. Either supply some proper bikes or tweak an old event format. Maybe dual slalom courses should be bigger or steeper or include some rock gardens if all the pros are only going to be able to bring are enduro bikes. It’s not a big deal, I just feel like it cheapens an event when riders aren’t able to use the right tool for the job.
@Civicowner: Not to mention that 'events like this' only seem to exist in unique places where few people ever have the opportunity to do them. I've never seen a short track race in my life...nor heard of one being put on anywhere near me. I'm sure they exist, but kinda like luge racing....
@dirtybikejapan: BlckMrkt - Killswitch, Trek - Ticket S, Specialized P-Slope...there are a number of options out there for short travel 26" full suspension bikes.
BB pivot sucks for racing DS and 4X, and I'm pretty sure that the rules require running at least 3 gears on the cassette... That is a single speed and would require some modifications to run a rear derailleur.
I would not touch an ex-pro bike at all!
Not going to be 29 out back that is for sure?