Now THAT Was A Bike: Nico Vouilloz's Sunn Radical+
For bike nerds, there is one bike that separates the early days of downhill from the modern era. That bike is Nico Vouilloz's Sunn Radical+, designed by Olivier Bossard. It marks the change from the wild experimentation as the sport found its feet to bikes really working in a way that we would still appreciate today.
There is so much on this bike that we almost take for granted today - things like adjustable chainstays, high and low speed compression adjustment, an angleset or offset frame layout - yet in the late 1990s this was the highest end of World Cup exotica. Part of the explanation for this is the approach they took - they tested, timed and tweaked with a focus on outright performance. There were no focus groups, no marketing people to appease, the only thing that mattered is how well it performed on track.
Details
Height 5'10" / 176m
Weight 155 lb / 70kg
Hometown Peille, France
Model Sunn Radical+
Frame Size Medium
Wheel Size 26"
Suspension Bos Obsyss
Drivetrain Custom
Brakes Formula
Cockpit Race Face
Wheels & Rubber Mavic rims and team-only hubs, Michelin tires
Height 5'10" / 176m
Weight 155 lb / 70kg
Hometown Peille, France
Model Sunn Radical+
Frame Size Medium
Wheel Size 26"
Suspension Bos Obsyss
Drivetrain Custom
Brakes Formula
Cockpit Race Face
Wheels & Rubber Mavic rims and team-only hubs, Michelin tires
Details
Fork travel 170mm
Rear travel 180mm
Head angle 67.5 degrees
Front centre 700mm
Chainstays 450mm
Wheelbase 1145mm
BB height 360mm
Weight 41.6 lbs / 18.9kg
Fork travel 170mm
Rear travel 180mm
Head angle 67.5 degrees
Front centre 700mm
Chainstays 450mm
Wheelbase 1145mm
BB height 360mm
Weight 41.6 lbs / 18.9kg
You can just see the head angle adjustment sleeve beneath the headset cups. At the rear axle, the chainstay adjustment is a more open design than you'll find on production bikes these days - as making sure you line the axle up perfectly on both sides is considered too much of a hassle to pass on to consumers. At the headtube is Bossard's take on an integrated bump stop - only he decided to mount it in front of the headtube rather than in the mainframe itself.
Out front the Bos Obsyss fork offered 170mm of travel - you need to remember that in this era its main competition, the Rockshox Boxxer, only sported 151mm. From above you can also see how the split top tube design is offset.
It's hard to get a clear shot of the shock as it's so hidden within the frame. At the lower end it joins onto the linkage via an eyelet bearing mounted on a strut to help it move more freely under directional loads. At the base there is a high and low-speed rebound adjust, high and low-speed compression adjust at the head, plus an air valve to alter pressure in the piggyback. Nico isn't too sure about exact settings, he thinks it was at around 40% sag, but what is sure that more than twenty years later the bike still sags under its own weight.
When it came to the drivetrain, he ran nothing as boring as AXS or Di2. Nico ditched the mainstream brands for an EGS Up Cage derailleur mated to a Raceface crank.
It may seem like a small detail, but this freehub may be the most out-there component for the time on what is already a very out there bike. There are no pawls or ratchets in the body, instead these team-issue only hubs were designed around a one-way bearing. For the most part it works exactly like a regular hub, the only difference is the engagement - it is instant. And when I write instant, I don't mean Industry 9/Chris King/DT Swiss freehub quick, I mean fixed gear track bike quick. Onyx uses a similar design in their hubs today.
With Mavic going through some tough times at the moment, these D521 rims are timely reminder of just how dominant the French wheel maker once was - for a long period of time was there even any other rim worth using? Those rims are shod in another reminder of a great French company who are working to retain their reputation - Michelin's Comp 16, 24 and 32 tires set the standard for downhill tires until the early 2000s when they were surpassed by Maxxis as the benchmark.
Nico is well-known in mechanics' circles for how particular he was about his spoke tension, so your first guess might be that these cable ties are to help increase wheel tension. You'd be wrong. It's a popular moto trick to join spokes with solder to increase stiffness, but Nico was more often found hunting for compliance, so these cable ties are to hold the spokes together in case one breaks - leaving it tied to its partner for the rest of the run, rather than coming free to cause chaos.
Formula's role in the development of the mountain bike disc brake is often overlooked, especially in favour of cross-Atlantic alternatives that shout a lot louder about their achievements, but in 1997 when Vouilloz wanted to slow down in a hurry, he turned to the Prato-based company.
ODI's Ruffian grips - they are unchanged today. Direct mount stems were not yet a thing, so this Race Face numebr had to suffice. At a guess we'd put the length at around 70-80mm. Shimano's DX pedals - another mainstay that has only recent been surpassed by more modern designs. A standard Shimano XTR shifter was paired with his EGS derailleur.
Signed and dated.
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Im pretty sure Canfield had to do it back in 1999 on the big fatty fat or whatever it was called due to the massive amounts of travel, I thought the didnt start using a idler fully on the DH bike till 2002
@heavyp:
Anyways back to idler pulleys I didnt say Max invented it I am just stating he build a very good rare bike for Nico to ride in 2000 and it was never seen again and there is no info out there about what I feel Is a very special bike.
If this was about ugly looking bikes that weighed the same as a small car and were only built for dropping off mountains I would get it but im talking about DH racing on the World Cup stage.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=toncHR99a30
assets-oir.youongroup.com/2b7313d0494bb7258780a2ed4bb7a97a/rth8xqxpj4ro.jpg
www.pinkbike.com/photo/8550320
The Jedi is good, but nothing, and i mean nothing beats the Brooklyn design, nothing before or since has come close, geometry is terrible though
Corrine had sick frames way ahead of their time
In 97 the perimetric frame design from Sunn made its debut at the worlds with Mickael Pascal. The bike from your pictures look like it's from 1999.
Michelin is also underrated. Maxxis owes them pretty much ALL their initial designs that sold like hot cakes. I like Colin Bailey a lot, I also dig his story, but the DHF just resembles the Comp 32 too well. And when the Mobster, Minion DHR and High Roller also look like C16, C24/Transalp/Hot S and DH Soft, you stop believing in coincidences...
Cheers!
Anyway, it's safe to say that the biggest game changer was the 1st gen Radical+,around 1994. Nico was still a junior (and rode for GT) and François Gachet was the man to beat.
See this blog at the very bottom: www.melivelo.fr/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=413
The number plate was signed in 1997, but the Number plate isn't the bike...
It's just the race info, could have been written recently.
Maybe it was the '97 bike, the mystery is yet to be solved.
Pictures of him from that race he is on a different carbon prototype bike is where the questions are coming from.
Honda is reversed with the pull rods attached to the frame and the knucle attached to the swingarm, always has been
Old kawasakis and and some Yamaha are this way with pull rods to swing arm knuckle on frame.
They can be made to (and generally do) work the same
By the way, if my sources are correct this frame (as most if not all Sunn DH racing frames) is made in Italy out of Columbus Cr-Mo tubing.
@Speeder01 - I'd also like to know about 'le systeme', surely enough time has passed now?
bring it back, please!
But it was really expensive to make, Shimano bought all the patents from EGS at an auction in France. Few years later they came with the shadow design
I would also like to see an article on the very first vario (with the adjustable saddle and elastomer supsension)
One day i had a chance to try a Radical+ at the local DH track and hell yeah it fell like a freaking Dirt Bike! i was 14yo at that time and will never forget this run on this dream machine!
Merci Nico pour toute cette inspiration, me voila maintenant a Whistler!!!
CHEEEEERS
www.mountainzone.com/mtbiking/worldcup/worldchamps/dh.html
Perhaps its a conspiracy
PIZZAGATE!
www.facebook.com/groups/sitoiaussituroulaisensunn
I believe Miguel Martinez and Nico's brother are on there...
Eventually that one chick said "f*ck that's a cool looking bike!"
I loved it and wish I could have kept it! I don't regret the 20kgs +
#goldeneramtb
Didn't realize it was there in '98.
antidotebikes.com/product/carbonjack-29/?v=7516fd43adaa
BTW, Box Components bought True Precision last fall. hopefully we'll see more from them soon.
Maxxis first DH tire was a 2.35" front and rear specific combo with an orange stripe that they showed up at 1995 Nationals with and handed out to amateurs like they were sticks of gum! Resembled a Tioga Pyscho, but were a big upgrade from the hot turd Panaracers everyone had to use.
2021 Specialized Epic: Head angle 67.5 degrees