Bike Check: Katy Winton's Trek Slash - Finale Ligure EWS 2018
Trek World Racing's Katy Winton finished in sixth place at the EWS final in Finale Ligure. Pinkbike's Ross Bell caught up with the Scottish shredder to talk about bikes and setups for one of the punchiest venues of the 2018 series. Winton stands five foot, two inches (158cm) and 132 pounds (60kg). "I'm a beast at the moment," she says. She rides a small-size Trek Slash with a combination of Bontrager and SRAM components. The fact that Winton chose to ride a 29er Slash is both a vote of confidence for Trek's designers and for any small-framed rider in search of a big wheel bike. PB has highlighted Winton's racing machines earlier this year, so I'll give you a slide show this time, along with some of her commentary.
"It's really balanced. Trek's done a good job with the geometry. I'm not perched on the bike, which you can be if you are smaller on a 29er. You can feel like you are just sitting' on top of it."
Switching from Fox to RockShox: "It's just a big change. I've had no experience with RockShox, so it's been a big learning curve for me. It's good stuff, but it's taken some time to figure it all out and to get it close to where I want it to be."
Suspension setups for a smaller rider: "Yeah, that' been a problem. The've tuned my forks somewhat differently. I'm not as aggressive as the guys and I don't ride as fast, but I like my fork to hold up and be soft - I don't like it to just dive through its travel. So. it's about finding the balance, so it's not noodley but it's still soft at the bottom."
"My bars are 750 millimeters, my stem is a 50. I did have it without a spacer underneath it. For Finale, I have a spacer and I am happy that. My brakes are the wrong way around. They are Euro."
Bontrager Team-Issue SE5 rear tire: "I's just a slightly softer compound on the 'edge knobbles' so I get better traction for the corners."
"I use the G5 downhill tire on the front, which is a bit softer all over. It's also a bit wider as well. We've been struggling with the narrow tires on the wider rims. When you turned, it was just sliding. The G5 is wider, so it digs in and you get more confidence."
"Did you get a picture of my brakes, with my name on them?"
SRAM Eagle XO1 drivetrain.
MRP chain guide, Shimano XTR pedals.
Heal up fast, Jared...
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"No Katy, we did not"
So why not stick with narrower rims? Is this a case of we want to sell people wide rims so need our pros on them?
The front brake on the other hand, normally requires a reasonably hard pull to lock the wheel. This is because the weight of the bike/rider naturally pushes through the front wheel when braking, meaning the tyre gets better grip. So while I don't think that hand strength is a big concern when using modern brakes, if it got to the point where I did need to choose my lever position based on which hand was stronger, it would seem sensible to put the front brake in my strong hand.
The same goes for fine motor control. Your dominant hand should have better motor control, and it would seem sensible to use this hand for the front brake, where having the control to brake just enough to slow down without locking the wheel is very important. Lock the front wheel at high speed and you will likely crash. Lock the rear wheel at high speed and you'll do a cool skid.
To be fair though, I think both hands are usually strong and dexterous enough that it doesn't really matter which you use for which brake. Whatever you are used to is fine.
But front/right is better.
a) while the front brake gets used much harder and does the majority of the work in any hard deceleration, the rear brake gets used more often, for small speed checks/bike attitude adjustment etc. and on steeper trails is often dragged gently for long durations, causing a lot of heat build up and accelerated wear. Not very hard work for the hand, but a bit abusive to the brake pads.
b) your rear wheel gets a lot more dirt and shit thrown at it than the front, so the brake pads get worn faster by the resulting grinding paste on them.
I just know that I: 1). burn through rear brake pads far more frequently than fronts (even when it's been dry for months and crap isn't thrown all over my rotors), 2). losing front wheel traction in a steep, downhill corner is not where you want to be, 3). you never lock up the front wheel (and I ride off the back more than I lean over the front, at least for DH). It's just hard for me to fathom that I use the front brake more/harder to stop my bike than the rear.
1. Buy K-edge fixed Garmin stem mount.
2. Cut off the ring / spacer section with hacksaw
3. Drill hole / countersink
4. Bolt on using existing Knock Block hardware (it's long enough). Use small piece of 3M VHB to prevent rotation.
DONE.
(This will work fine with Edge 520 + or similar. Not long enough for bigger units)
www.instagram.com/p/BnMUYv1BbgI
it scores no lower than high 80s no matter which tuning setting you select and mid to high 90s or 100 in many of the settings you'd really want to use. So it either works EXACTLY as advertised or its good at tricking the ShockWiz
It is weird the EWS team is not using one. All rider preference anyways.
these the real problems in the world I tell ye
I'm disappointed PB, if I had to pay for this content, you better believe I'd be cancelling my subscription. You need to up your game in my opinion or Vital might start getting more than 4 comments on its content.
PS: Love you really keep up the good work ????
So you might as well stop trying. Clearly my sarcasm upset you. If you stop making ignorant comments you could avoid these situations. Glad you think that crying about my sarcastic response to your comment was you “trolling me”. Good for you bud, you totally win. Haha