Loic Bruni Unlikely to Race With an Idler-Equipped Demo in Leogang

Back in March, Loic Bruni posted a video on his Instagram that showed him testing an idler-equipped Specialized Demo downhill bike. A keen-eyed Vital forum member noticed the difference. While the frame doesn't look all that different from the current Demo, a closer look reveals that the pivot where the chainstay connects to the front triangle is higher, which would explain the addition of an idler pulley. Without that idler, the higher pivot would result in less-than-ideal amounts of pedal kickback caused by the chain growth created by the more rearward axle path.

However, while it is definitely interesting to see more teams experimenting with idler setups, it doesn't seem like we'll see Bruni on this setup when World Cup racing resumes. Pinkbike reporter at large Matt Wragg went to shoot Bruni's race bike for an upcoming bike check yesterday, and reported back that Loic was only testing the idler to see if it would improve his feeling on the bike, but apparently it didn't really help given the suspension layout of his Demo.







Specialized and Pure Agency did also not provide comment at the time of the article's publication, we will update this article if they respond in future.