Take a Tour of SRAM's Mother Ship - Val di Sole World Cup 2017
SRAM goes big, especially at the races, where their red and white tent and adjoining tractor-trailer is usually found in the center of the action and stuffed with Race Techs, busily wrenching on bikes and suspension that belong to the world's most enviable athletes. Most race fans have watched the action in the SRAM pits from the sidelines - and on those rarer occasions like Crankworx, when SRAM opens its race-tech services to the public, some have been fortunate enough to watch their own drivetrains, brakes, forks, and shocks, get the pro-treatment. Few, however, are invited to climb the steps that lead into the cavernous trailer where the secret stuff happens, safely hidden from the lenses of tech-hungry journos.
PB photographer Ross Bell is one of those lucky ones, and who better to guide us through the SRAM Mother Ship than the multi-time RockShox Boxxer World Champion, Evan Warner. Click on the audio track and listen to Warner as he gives PB a walk-through of SRAM's Race Support operations while you view the images below.
PB photographer Ross Bell is one of those lucky ones, and who better to guide us through the SRAM Mother Ship than the multi-time RockShox Boxxer World Champion, Evan Warner. Click on the audio track and listen to Warner as he gives PB a walk-through of SRAM's Race Support operations while you view the images below.
Master Tech Evan Warner celebrates another victory at the BoXXer World Championships.
World Cups, like Val di Sole, double the action in the SRAM paddock, with techs tasked to wrench on cross-country and downhill rigs, back to back.
Not sure if this is a deli or a drug store. The workload varies from long, undisturbed evenings spent rebuilding wheels and bikes for race-day, to six-hour stretches of make-it-happen...now! Occasionally, there is playtime. SRAM ensures there are beverages readily available to suit all occasions.
Number-one plates are a common sight under the red and white tent. This one belongs to Nino Schurter.
Nino Schurter's SID World Cup, ready to rock.
Gunn-Rita's Monarch XX shocks in for makeovers.
What your tool kit looks like when you'll need to be ready to fix anything that may need fixing on a DH or XC machine.
Next! When half the Pro Peloton is riding red, SRAM needs big bike stands to queue up the bikes.
Most of the time, there's plenty of work for everyone....
...When the show begins, however, it can be a ghost town.
Now, the fun part: Inside the SRAM Mother Ship
Dani Portmann at work. The race truck's first task is to provide a sanitary environment for suspension techs...
...and it's a hiding place for the candy store.
Lots of very expensive candy for the kids.
The nature of the tool kit changes behind the doorways: bottom bracket and headset-facing cutters, bearing presses, cutting fixtures, files, hammers, and a few BFC wrenches bear witness to the major surgeries that take place here.
And who wouldn't want a precision metal lathe in their workshop? If SRAM doesn't have it, then they can probably make it.
Dani Portmann: Working in secret is important to a company that is often developing products three years in advance, but more often, the race truck offers the opportunity to think through a critically important re-valve without dealing with the crush of the crowd.
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I seen inside Evan's tool kit. Yes that one and the one that he gave me both say Rockshox.
Red Yellow and Orange
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