Video: A Deep Dive on Martin Maes' GT Force
Martin Maes is always a podium contender in the Enduro World Series with multiple wins and has even won a World Cup Downhill race, but sometimes his bike setups have a few quirks that most people wouldn't consider normal. He's been known to run shorter travel forks, cut-down mud tires on the rear wheel in any conditions, and smaller brake rotors. It would seem that his stature and precision riding can attribute to an original choice of components.
Martin Maes // GT Factory Racing
Age: 24
Hometown: Liege, Belgium
Height: 183 cm / 6'0"
Weight: 70 kg / 155 lbs
Instagram: @martin_maes5
Age: 24
Hometown: Liege, Belgium
Height: 183 cm / 6'0"
Weight: 70 kg / 155 lbs
Instagram: @martin_maes5
The Belgian enduro wizard has been running Fox suspension and Shimano brakes on his GT bikes for almost a decade, however, he doesn't always jump for the latest and greatest.
Martin has also dabbled with mixed wheel configurations, like this previous generation Force, but is currently running dual 29" wheels, the way the bike was intended to be set up.
Details
Frame: GT Force Carbon (large), 435 mm chainstay setting
Shock: Fox Float X2, 160 mm travel
Fork: Fox Float 36, 160 mm travel
Wheels: Stan's No Tubes EX3 w/ Neo hubs
Tires: Michelin DH22 29" F / Michelin Wild Enduro 29" Front R
Drivetrain: Shimano XTR, 34T chainring, 45-10T cassette
Brakes: Shimano Ice Tech, 180 mm rotors F & R
Cockpit: OneUp Components carbon 35 mm rise bar, and 50 mm length stem.
More info: gtbicycles.com
Frame: GT Force Carbon (large), 435 mm chainstay setting
Shock: Fox Float X2, 160 mm travel
Fork: Fox Float 36, 160 mm travel
Wheels: Stan's No Tubes EX3 w/ Neo hubs
Tires: Michelin DH22 29" F / Michelin Wild Enduro 29" Front R
Drivetrain: Shimano XTR, 34T chainring, 45-10T cassette
Brakes: Shimano Ice Tech, 180 mm rotors F & R
Cockpit: OneUp Components carbon 35 mm rise bar, and 50 mm length stem.
More info: gtbicycles.com
Martin likes a reactive suspension feel that sits deeper in the sag and uses the full range of travel more frequently. This would mean less compression and rebound damping with a softer, more progressive air spring to give support at the end of the travel, but also more grip on tiny trail bed ripples and roots.
One of those quirks I mentioned is the fact that Martin not only chooses the more forgiving Fox 36 chassis, but also prefers a 160 mm spring length, despite the bike's geometry being designed around a 170 mm fork.
First thing's first - The front wheel is the first thing to contact trail objects. Martin is particular to the front end height and handling.
With a BMX background, Martin likes a higher rise 35 mm bar and short stem, but a 50 mm length leads to more weight on the front wheel and therefore more grip for his body positioning.
The idler has 16 teeth and Maes choose a 34 tooth for La Thuile, but that can vary depending on the race venue. The lack of a lower chain guide roller reduces drag.
Quirky or tactical? A 10-45 tooth cassette pairs with a shorter cage derailleur, mitigating damage.
Martin still prefers the actuation of the Saint levers over the new generation of XTR. He positions the levers at a fairly steep angle around 45 degrees.
180 mm rotors provide enough stopping power when you barely use your brakes. The shorter 435 mm chainstay setting allows the rear wheel to whip around corners.
Michelin rubber is new for the team this year - a DH 22 up front and Wild Enduro Front tread out back.
Although Maes has tested carbon rims, he opts for the softer feel and flex aluminum rims deliver, like the Stan's NoTubes Flow EX3.
124 Comments
Holy shit, finally a real reason to choose alloy, not the old crap about being able to fix them easier. Because the same impact that breaks a good carbon rim has already broken an alloy rim beyond "repair". Doesn't matter if you can't bend carbon back because it doesn't bend to begin with.
But choosing it for feel, now that makes sense. Although, that only says something about Stan's carbon vs Stan's alloy. Would be interesting to get Martin's opinion of some other carbon rims that claim to bring the softer alloy feel while keeping the carbon strength.
I would not trust this bad QC.
I am my self a QC guy and I would be ashamed of my self if I didn't saw it and get shipped.
To verify my findings have spoken to everyone I have spotted who runs them and surprisingly everyone have had defects on them. Some of them even had to glue it with epoxy to get it tubeless , what the actual f*ck?
I mean I cut a EXO+ in half yesterday by a minor impact I did not even felt. With my Rock Razor and Super Trail I have never even had that problem for that spot.
So I don't agree with you from my experience.
I stick to super gravity because the tires from Schwalbe damping way better then MAXXIS does.
It was awesome until it wasn’t and I fear having to put $200 into it every damn 7-8 months.
Also, isn't finding service kits for the X2 right now a bitch.
Not expensive if you get a 15% discount on a Cube bike, which was already cheap to begin with, and was the last bike in stock
Everything I have heard or read about the 38mm chassis's is that because they are stiffer they deflect less, allowing a rider to stay on their line, not stiffness leading to more suppleness.
That's why it doesn't make sense that a fork stiffness can lead to better tracking but wheel stiffness can be a detriment to it
If Maes wanted just a lower BB, couldn't the team make something, or use offset bushings rather than reduce fork travel. There are many good reasons to reduce fork travel, but getting the desired BB height doesn't seem like one of them.
I wonder if he likes the increase in reach (he is also running a long 50mm stem).
It's the racing line
In the front triangle, there is more room to really optimize strength to weight and flex to stiffness in various areas. Chainstays and seatstays are relatively small parts that really only need to do one thing: locate the pivots and/or axle. Not a whole lot of flex zones or whatnot to tune with fancy carbon magic. Just needs to be a stiff tube with pivots at/near the end (and a dropout on the seatstay on a horst-link). Sure, it could be done with a crazy optimized layup to shave some grams, but that comes at a cost that might not be worth it in some situations.
The only downside would be that I could no longer refer to it as “The F-35 of bicycles”
Cannondale and GT bikes are cheaper than many other brands,you could get a very good equipped 5000 6000 bucks bike nearly the top of the range for the brand. My Enduro was 5000 at it is the lowest model,Sram shit parts everywhere. My NX rear mech is so bouncy I´m worry it could break the CF rear end of the bike hahahaha .
The Enduro need a carbon fiber rear end,it has so many links it would weight a ton if made all from alloy.
It is easy to scratch the rear end,or hit some rocks. I sold my old bike to a noob and he almost destroyed the frame with a rock. It is a carbon fiber front end bike,so it was repaired and now it is like brand new again
A mate of mine cracked his frame on the seat tube/top tube junction and had it welded up. He rode that frame for a couple of years after that and it wasn’t heat treated again. Not best practice perhaps, but good enough in most cases I would guess. It could be a wrong guess but.