Cam Zink looks stoked to just be in Whistler, but we all know he's not here to just play around. He's won here before, so don't be surprised if Zink pulls it off again, or at least one massive move that we'll end up talking about for months to come. He'll be on his carbon fiber YT prototype that can be run single-speed thanks to a concentric bottom bracket main pivot.
Anton 'Clean Lander' Thelander is hoping to bring some of that easy style to Saturday's big show on his Canyon Stitched hardtail. He's gone with some relatively large-volume tires on his bike, especially up front, as well as a load of extra brake housing wrapped around the bike's head tube.
Louis Reboul and his Scott made the journey to Whistler from Lyon, France.
Specialized rider Mehdi Gani is another rider who's made the trip over from France.
Is Brett Rheeder going to win his third Crankworx event of the year? After winning in France and New Zealand, a victory in Whistler comes with a cool $25,000 bonus for taking the Triple Crown on top of the $25,000 for first place. Rheeder's had a consistent season so far, and he's looking to take another win on his Trek Ticket S that's built up with FOX suspension and a Shimano drivetrain.
DMR's Dustin Gilding lives just a few hours from Whistler and had a hand in building the slope course, so he's probably feeling right at home.
Canyon's Tomas Lemoine.
Nicholi Rogatkin is coming off a third place at the Swatch Prime Line in Munich and a Best Trick win at the 26trix event courtesy of a frontflip barspin to tuck no hander, so it's obvious that he's able to throw down on his Specialized hardtail.
Torquato Testa, from Monza, Italy, with his Beddo hardtail.
Thomas Genon rode a Canyon Stitched hardtail in Rotorua, but has gone with a full-suspension bike for the burly course in Whistler.
Carson Storch looking very patriotic with his custom painted Diamondback.
Logan Peat is on his custom built Santa Cruz slope bike that's fitted with an X01 DH drivetrain and RockShox Suspension.
Yannick Granieri on another prototype YT carbon slope bike.
Canadian Paul Genovese with his Specialized P Slope - one gear, one brake, and one colour. He's also another rider that using a cable-operated brake with a gyro, which is an update from the hydraulic brake and extra long hose that his bike was sporting in Rotorua, New Zealand.
Greg 'Double or Nothing' Watts is known for throwing down combos that look like they're straight out of a video game, so expect some ridiculous moves from him and his Mongoose on Saturday. He's also in the minority of riders who have a front brake bolted to his fork, with the hydraulic line routed down through his fork's steerer tube.
Trek's Tom van Steenbergen and his flashy Ticket S.
YT's Kelly McGarry flipped the canyon gap at Rampage, so we all know that he's not afraid of anything. Slope comps are all about mega tech tricks these days, but the New Zealander's preference to go massive rather than combining all sorts of spins and flips still makes him a crowd favourite.
NS Bikes' Sam Pilgrim is sticking with a hardtail again this year.
Brandon Semenuk might not live in Whistler anymore (he has a house and private slope course on the Sunshine Coast), but Crankworx is still his home event, so he'll clearly be hoping to stand on top of the box again. As usual, he'll be on a custom painted Trek Ticket S that's assembled around a stock aluminum frame (except for the carbon fiber seat stay unit). He's gone with a 7-Speed X01 DH derailleur and cassette, with a TT friction shifter bolted on the down tube that allows him to forgo a handlebar-mounted shifter and the cable that would normally be routed up to it. According to SRAM, Brandon's Pike DJ is set at 175 PSI, runs five Bottomless Tokens, and he runs the maximum amount of both compression and rebound damping. His stem is 40mm in length and his bars are 720mm, which is his go-to width on his slope bike. His stack height is 35mm, which is enough space the mechanical gyro he's running.
i thought that was his old diamondback slope bike all sticker bombed since he's not with them anymore. I think since he's a giant the carbon yt didnt fit him.
Yeah they look cool not taking that away but they are here to serve a purpose and not only to look cool, id just be happy if i could see a bit more of the bike
@downhere67 You know the rules man, no telling the truth about your own experiences okay?
Translation: whoever decided to neg prop you has issues. To me that's an example of the most inane use of the neg prop. You simply stated a love for a great bike, then stated a shifting personal preference amongst a group of bikes that remain unstated, and somehow that was unacceptable to someone. (Shakes head slowly in disbelief)
Thanks dude, that's a rad little bike. Explains the raw looking headtube area. And I like the way the linkage top pivot looks like it's just been punched straight through the side of the toptube, 'homemade' style as they put it. What I don't like so much is companies starting to pretend like 'yeah ain't it cool that we built a bike', well no, on two counts. One, you have a factory, designers and engineers. Two, if I can't go into a shop and buy one then don't show me it just to say 'oh look we knocked up a bike cooler than some of you will ever have, in about two weeks, but it's just for the family, sorry.' We know it's about brand placement, so the 'ain't it cool the top guy got involved' is a bit weird to me. Maybe my corporate-bullshit radar needs calibrating again. I'd let them off a little if it goes to production, probably still be a bit small for me though. Good job I squirrelled away a medium blur 4x frame
Freedom flags appear to be the new neon.They have been popping up all over PB the last few days (Zink - Palmer - Storch). (Hoping Storch does well as I've always been a fan of his riding style and attitude/presentation in interviews).
definitely you can tell right away from the photo the front triangle is clearly different the down tube is mostly straight compared to the stock ticket s. his top tube looks a bit longer and less curvy than stock and the gusset from the top tube to the seat tube looks different. looks more refined and better in my opinion.
At daugherd,
I actually ran and tested the TRP road bike brakes with the integrated master cylinder and found them to lack stopping power. I wanted a rear brake that locked up with little effort anytime i wanted and the TRP brake just didnt have it. I only used a 140mm rotor and never experimented with a larger one. I was running a colony bmx lever with an odyssey gtx sealed gyro and cables. The quality of the TRP brake was great and it was very durable in my opinion.
It would be cool to see someone make one like this but specific for mtb. I bet a smart engineer could figure out how to get the stopping power these guys need.
How was modulation? I feel like they might be on/off yeah?
Modulation was fine. In a skatepark setting tricks like a tailtap required a lot of lever pressure and a lot of balance because too much force would cause the wheel to slip a little. On high speed jumps like 30 plus foot stuff the rear wheel wouldnt lock up when trying to stop. I know that the rear wheel locking isnt a good way to stop but it shows the lack of power, i simply couldnt squeeze it hard enough to lock the wheel at speeds like that. They had a weird method of adjustment where if you screwed the adjustment screw out to far it would shut off the system and they brakes wouldnt work at all. Honestly, it seemed like a cool idea but personally mechanical disk brakes and gyro work fine. In theory it should work though. Even on a lot of modern sportbikes the clutch is hydraulic bit activated by a mechanical cable. I think the new yamaha r1"s still use this method.
Thelander has the new full suspension canyon he told me and that the other guys ride it but not he surprises me a bit. But i think he let Tomas Lemoine borrow his ht for the pump track challenge
Apparently he's six foot four, I thought he was taller than that but he does like smaller bikes so I've heard, which might affect it optically. Seems he's further from giant status than I thought.
Sorry Rheeder fans but Semenuk will win this round. He's got all the motivation from Whistler and the skills to do it. Luck will be on his side this time.
I'm sorry, but you're wrong. The podium of this weekend is clear, 1st Rheeder, 2nd Semenuk, 3rd Peat. Is not about luck, is about pressure control, and Rheeder has a better control of this than Semenuk. Remember me! (C'mon guys, give me your negative props).
So did Hayes back in the day. Agreed though, I think it would work pretty good in this case. I did ride a bike (back in the day) that had one and it wasn't far off from the full hydro's on power. Then again, I had avid's most reliable brakes at one point and they really surprised me how well they worked. BB7's.
I tested these brakes in this exact application. I found they lacked stopping power. The quality of these brakes are very good and they were very durable for me. I was running a colony bmx lever with an odyssey gtx sealed gyro and the trp rear brake with 140mm rotor. I wasnt happy with the stopping power, while they would slow you down they wouldnt lock the rear wheel up easily which i wanted for skatepark riding and stuff. Ive switched back to an Avid bb7 hooked to the gyro and i prefer that to the TRP brake.
Clicked on the article, straight to the comments section - it's what PB is all about, right? - just to say I had no comment to make...until I saw the quality of those pics, that is.
@tobiusmaximum@TheLongMan Lol I actually mistook Yannick's picture for McGazza's picture. haha, Well anyway McGarry was the one test riding the YT Carbon slopestyle prototype a few months ago but it seems he's not riding it this time and it was Yannick's photo that I saw the carbon prototype..
You're spot on, but yeah you musta been drunk this time. In future, Mcgarry is the massive fraggle . I didn't neg prop you btw, I actually thought you might have some inside info lol.
Sorry, sorry. I'll rephrase.
I don't wish it on him at all to end in hospital.
I was basically trying to say that I think he'll just go MEGA hard to secure the win. Taking some risks!
semenuk can run 5 tokens on a Pike ....
www.google.co.nz/search?q=yt+play&safe=active&espv=2&biw=1920&bih=979&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMIlafwruSnxwIVRBmmCh27xwyD#imgrc=9VXcl6vBERKSEM%3A
You know the rules man, no telling the truth about your own experiences okay?
Translation: whoever decided to neg prop you has issues. To me that's an example of the most inane use of the neg prop. You simply stated a love for a great bike, then stated a shifting personal preference amongst a group of bikes that remain unstated, and somehow that was unacceptable to someone. (Shakes head slowly in disbelief)
nsmb.com/logan-peats-new-santa-cruz-slope-bike
How was modulation? I feel like they might be on/off yeah?
Cam too. Will be announcing
Soderstrom is recovering.
www.trpbrakes.com/category.php?productid=1198&catid=206&subcat=0
My bet is no one will win this event.
Mega tech compared to what?! Road biking?