Bike Check: Danny Hart's GT Fury - Bielsko-Biala DH World Cup 2024

Danny has been playing with the flip chips in his new GT Fury. He had been running the bike with the flip chip in the progressive setting, but before training in Poland, he wanted to change it up and run the bike in the linear setting just to try and get the bike to sit a bit higher in the travel and be a bit more upright in the berms in the upper section of the track.






Danny's bike is set up mullet, and he is running a set of Continental Kryptotal tires with no inserts inside them. He did have his tires glued to his rims at Fort William, a bit of insurance against the brutal rocks that litter the track; this was just for his finals run, though. He's not yet decided if it will be needed again in Poland. Danny runs 23 psi in the front and 25 psi in the rear.



Now, obviously, this is not a normal rim set on Danny's bike; it's a prototype from DT Swiss. It's a new aluminum rim that Danny is testing.

It's also a full set of TRP drivetrain components for Danny, another new part for him. But he said it's been a pretty invisible change to him. It's been really easy to set up and run.





The classic DH pedal, the Crankbrothers Mallet DH, is a mainstay of the DH World Cup.


We have seen this brake lever already at Fort William and in our Tech Randoms article. I managed to speak a bit more with the team at TRP and found out that this lever will be released soon and, in fact, has its roots in XC rather than downhill. Danny mentioned that it feels like this lever has more power and modulation compared to the old Evo lever.


Danny runs his levers relatively flat, and the pull on them is pretty standard, with the bite point coming about an inch from the bar. Danny feels that the TRP brakes have a similar feel to the Shimano brakes he's been used to, so the learning curve was pretty small with this change. He did say that the lever pull feels really light, which is good for helping with arm pump and fatigue in your hands when riding.


The lever is not the only new thing around these brakes. Danny is using the new R220S05E front and R203S05E rear discs from TRP. These have just come out and feature a new hole pattern in the braking surface to help manage heat better. They are also now laser-cut instead of stamped, meaning the discs should be even flatter due to the new manufacturing process.


There are plenty of options for pads when it comes to TRP. Danny has been running organic pads since Fort William and will stay that way for now.


Suspension-wise, in Danny's fork, he is running 84.5 psi and ensures this is checked pretty often. This is something that doesn’t really change from track to track. He does adjust volume spacers, but the pressure stays fairly constant. Regarding Danny’s Fox 40s, he has had the new GripX2 damper fitted to these forks.

He runs his high and low-speed compression right in the middle of the adjustment range. The important thing for Danny is to make sure his fork and shock are reasonably balanced. However, his rebound is on the quicker side.

His shock uses a CX003 compression tune, which is relatively light as compression tunes come. But again, Danny runs his compression on his shock in the middle of its adjustment settings. He has been using data acquisition to tweak the compression.

When it comes to telemetry, Danny isn't a rider who gets too fixated on the numbers; the feel is the most important thing for him. The telemetry really allows him to get the last 5% out of the bike after he gets it to a position that he feels is right.


These Fox 40s have lived a life, that's for sure; they carry some war wounds from races past.


When you look at Danny's fork, though, he has the stanchion pulled through the upper crown a fair bit. This is so that he can keep the distance from the lower crown to the lowers between 210mm to 205mm. The thing with Danny's setup is all about trying to maintain a balance between the front and rear of the bike.


Danny uses an aluminum set of Renthal Fatbars that are custom for him. They are cut to 770mm in length and have a rise of 25mm. Danny prefers the feel of alloy over carbon options. Also, his mechanic has used some foam to keep the noise down from the gear and brake cables as they come out of the top tube.


The custom part comes in when you look at the backsweep of these Renthal bars. They have been made just for Danny and have a backsweep of 9 degrees. This is pretty interesting and may hint at something new coming from Renthal. They are also mounted to the Fox 40 by a Renthal Integra stem that's 50mm long. Danny sets the roll-up on his bars to match the slack angle of the fork, so when the bike is at 0 sag, it looks rolled back, but when the bike is at its sag point, it feels natural to Danny.


All finished with a classic set of ODI grips.

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Reviews and Tech Bike Checks DH Bikes GT Gt Fury Danny Hart Bielsko Biala World Cup Dh 2024