DH Bikes of the Southridge Fontana Winter Series
It has become common for World Cup pros from the SoCal area to show up to the first round of the Winter Series as it is good practice. Specialized Factory Rider Aaron Gwin took a second for a quick bike check.
No surprise, Gwin looked to be in winning fashion during practice on Saturday but decided not to race in the rain on Sunday.
Jacob Jordan isn't a pro, but at the early age of 16 years old and competing in junior expert this weekend, he was the brain and brawn behind the course, so we felt like he should be mentioned.
Intense Bikes Pro Rider Dylan Unger is an up and comer. His 951 EVO features DVO suspension.
Ray Syron, riding for Evil Bikes, Outdoor Technology and 100%, moved to San Diego CA from the East Coast so he could race the Winter Series.
Santa Cruz rider Evan Turpen had a decked out V10 that included this beautiful one-off paint scheme.
Turpen was also running a prototype Chris King's Buzzworks Offset headset, which gives riders 8mm of additional cockpit room.
Evan was also running a 54 tooth star ratchet that Bontrager developed in conjunction with DT Swiss for quicker engagement on their 350 hubs.
Jon Buckell and the rest of the Enduro Team for Incycle will be making the move to Intense this year. Jon decided to race the DH and Super D on the New Tracer Carbon T275 this weekend and while it was a demo bike, he still managed first place in Super D and was top ten in Pro DH.
Speaking of Intense, We saw what appeared to be a variation of an M9 floating around but didn't get a clean shot of it as it stayed hidden most of the weekend. What we did see was their Carbine 29er boasting a DVO Diamond 29er fork. No other info from the guys at DVO though.
Kevin Aiello from the Factory KHS team was there this weekend, rocking some new Fox goodies and finished in 2nd place behind team mate Logan Binggeli.
Logan Binggeli is always a threat at Fontana, and walked away with the win this weekend.
The KHS team had factory Fox support at the race and were running custom tuned Float X air shocks.
Marzocchi rep David Merideth had a GT Force Pro with their new fork on it. The 350 NCR Ti is a 4.74 lbs 160mm 27.5 wheel fork that features a 15mm QR, their NCR enduro specific cartridge, and their exclusive Dynamic Bleed System for a semi-open bath lubrication, plus 35mm stanchions with the Espresso Treatment.
Rounding out the finds from the weekend was the new Commencal Meta V4. There were a lot of great features on this bike and according to the rep, price points will start at a very affordable $2500 for the entry level build.
The way the the rear shock tucks into the top tube is eye catching, as was the BOS suspension the bike was outfitted with.
Stay tuned for more coverage from the Southridge Winter Series as the winter season progresses - who knows who or what we might run in to.
Unless you meant the riders are fully......
on these shots @ least
Waaaaaah-waaa
There's a thing called a DVR, now....
Nah. Can't be.
PB- this is a bike that needs to be reviewed…notice the price point!
www.pinkbike.com/news/commencal-meta-x4-race-review-2015.html
Ignore the fact that the link says "x4", it's really the "v4".
As someone who doesn't ride DH as often as he'd like to, 8mm seems fairly negligible. Can anyone point out why it isn't? Honest question, cheers.
So if you can squeeze out 8mm with that headset that´s pretty much half a framesize.
And considering stems go in steps of 5mm, it´s like a full "stem size". Like going from a 50mm to a 40mm stem, which at least in my opinion is very noticable.
www.workscomponents.co.uk/reach-adjust-ec49--ec49-headset-with-7mm-offset-363-p.asp
But the Buzzworks or Works Components reachset accomplish a different thing. They lengthen reach AND wheelbase while not altering the headangle.
I don't think this says santa got their sizing wrong.
Those guys are really tall and ride the most challenging tracks in the world at much higher speeds than we do. Of course they have different needs than us mere mortals (Minnaar ran a stupidly high cockpit setup last season. I wouldn't say he is someone to compare yourself against in any way).
And we can not forget that this is just another way of customisation. Maybe they would run it to shorten reach/wheelbase if they were on a larger frame?
That would just mean they feel more comfotable in between sizes.
The works angleset achieves a head angle change by offsetting the bearings within the cups eccentrically. By rotating the top cup, the bearings are no longer offset relative to each other. This effectively pushes the steerer tube away form you and results in no head angle change.
If you were to rotate the bottom cup instead, it would in fact shorten the reach/wheelbase, The maximum reach increase can be achieved by rotating both cups 180 degrees, resulting in a steeper head angle, but the longer possible increase in reach. This would also shorten the wheelbase.
All of this is conditional on the requirement that both cups have offset built into them. I know works sells some headsets where only one cup is offset to achieve smaller head angle changes. Obviously if only one cup is offset (usually the bottom), the only way to increase the reach with that configuration is to rotate the offset cup, but this results in a steepening of the head angle.
However, it´s just something they´ve done for ages now and they are certainly not unridable. It has more to do with current designs from other manufacturers having much more progressive geometry designs.
Like you said, the newer one will likely be different. But that´s like saying Giant had their sizing wrong on the old Glory when compared to the new one. In its time it was completely fine. Nowadays those numbers are dated, that´s just how geometry is progressing but doesn´t proof their geo was in any way "wrong" (even though i have to admit, i never liked the V10´s geometry and sizing).
It´s more like finally ALL manufacturers start building bikes with proper geometry and sizing.
On that works headset:
Now i see what you´re talking about.
But, when both cups are angled, those bearings have to sit at an angle in the headset cups. If you were to rotate one cup, those angles wouldn´t match up anymore, making it impossible to fit a steertube through. Or am i misunderstanding something?
Under those circumstances you might be right, but i´d still rather buy the dedicated reachset. Surely there is a reason for its existence,even if only it offers a little more length.
Right now, there are quite a few options popping up.
Da Pilten in Switzerland, Works Components in the UK, Reverse Components will offer a reachset in the near future.
It´s great how far we´ve come with options for customisation!
But then I saw that quite a few of the bikes aren't really dh bikes. What gives? Is it a surprise that dh is dwindling if people can turn up and race on a bike they rode 'stages' on all week?
No wonder people can't be arsed to keep beating the dh horse.
Racing Queenstown festival following week,
then back to Roto to do Crankworx DH following week.
That would be WC prep first rd starts in April less than a month after that!
New / old DH track on Skyline hill (Nongotaha) in Roto is a legit 4+ min track and will be mean mean mean as!