Bike Check: 2 Pumptrack Machines from Evil & Pivot - Crankworx Rotorua 2019
The "Pumptrack Challenge" started off several years back and is now a staple event with tight head-to-head racing and a huge crowd at each stop of Crankworx. Historically, the bikes that riders have used for the competition have simply been their slalom or dirt jump bikes sans-chain. This is still largely the case with many competitors such as Kialani Hines, whose bike is one of the two below, but a few riders, such as Bubba Warren and Kyle Strait have built up bikes made specifically for competing on the pumptrack.
It only makes sense as it's a tight competition with not only a podium spot but also money and points towards the King or Queen of Crankworx on the line. While Bubba's bike is very purpose built, Kialani's is still aimed at the event while also being a bit more versatile and able to have a chain thrown back on to pedal.
Check out Bubba and Kialani's bikes below.
Evil Faction Details
One of the things that really sets Bubba's Evil Faction apart is the hubs. Bubba and Daniel from Onyx decided that it made sense to have a hub just for pumptrack. They designed an axle to go through a front hub that fit the 135mm rear end. This allowed them to lose the chain, cassette, chainring and strip the bike down to the bare minimum. The hubs have ceramic bearings which help them roll a bit faster than a standard hub.
The cranks are adjusted to where they take some effort to spin. Bubba says that this helps with starts in the gate and the resistance helps it feel a lot more like a standard geared bike and it helps prevent going over the bars from inadvertently ghost pedaling.
We're seeing more and more riders on prototype Kenda tires lately. Kenda has been putting a lot of effort into their R&D recently and is producing tires that should be up to the task of top-level competition. 61psi in the back and 60 up front with tubes to ensure there's no feeling of rolling the tire off the bead when pushing into berms.
160 psi and four tokens along with a lot of compression with pretty slow rebound.
SRAM Level brakes keep the weight down - the front brake is key for pumptrack racing since riders are pushing so hard out of the gate to start.
Kialani pushing for the gold medal in Rotorua.
Kialani Hines took the women's gold medal in the Crankworx Rotorua Pumptrack Challenge this past week. While her Pivot Point isn't quite as tech-heavy as Bubba's Faction, it's still a unique and purpose-built bike.
Kialani used her Point in both the dual slalom competition earlier in the week as well as the pumptrack. Not a ton of changes were made outside of pulling the shifter, derailleur, and chain off and then some air pressure adjustments that we don't have the exact numbers on. Check out some of the details below.
Pivot Point Details
Down to the minimum for the pumptrack. No shifter, chain, or derailleur. A Deity bar and stem with Shimano XT brakes make up the controls.
Marzocchi suspension up front.
Stan's hubs and wheels.
Kialani in the number one spot.
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Pivot Point for dual slalom
Pivot Point Les(chain) for pump track
Please explain
Been racing 4X an have never used my front brake on a gate start...
Also no rigid forks for a P'track specific bike
You could build a frame with a crazy low bb to resolve this maybe, but then you have a scooter...
Or are they just spinning slow? Then how?
We really need to think about re-education for all marketing professionals cause they make lawyers look like legit good samaritans. Making sugar coated turds on the daily to sneak in your mouth, infect your brain, then shit out your money.
at 6ft4", my little 26" wheeled jump bike looked/felt ridiculous.
It got nicked. I never replaced it