Kyle Strait's Commencal Furious - Red Bull Rampage 2017
Kyle Strait's no stranger to competing at the Red Bull Rampage - in fact, he's been at every single one since the event began back in 2001, when he rolled up as a 14-year-old grom. His impressive streak has been punctuated by two wins, in 2004 and 2013, and if anyone has what it takes to deliver the mix of technical riding and slopestyle trickery that the modern Rampage demands, it's Kyle.
Rider: Kyle Strait
Bike: XL Commencal Furious with custom swingarm
Wheel size: 27.5"
200mm travel
Handlebar width: 808mm
Tire pressure: 40 psi (front), 45 psi (rear)
RockShox Super Deluxe Coil: 600 lb/in spring
RockShox Boxxer: 5 tokens, 105 psi
Suspension
With so many Rampage appearances under his belt, Kyle knows exactly how to set up his suspension for the monster hucks and steep, loose chutes that make the terrain surrounding Virgin, Utah, so unique. Kyle's built like a linebacker, and it's it's almost as easy to imagine him moving refrigerators or tossing bales of hay as it is to envision him throwing big suicide no-handers. For that reason, his bike setup would be much too stiff for most riders, but it's perfectly tuned for his weight and riding style. There's a 600 lb/in spring out back, and up front the RockShox Boxxer is set up with 105 psi and 5 tokens.
 | I know pretty well how to set it up for around here – just over all the years I have what I need for spring rate, valving, stuff like that. I'm running a pretty similar setup to what I expected to. We're fine tuning a little here and there. This morning I added a little high speed rebound to it, just to keep up with what the spring rate is. |
The frame itself has also been customized with an additional brace on the swingarm in order to add the stiffness and stability that'll be required when Kyle drops into the massive straightline he has lined up from the very top of the venue.
Strait's custom 'Meaty Paw' grips
Grips
| Those are my Meaty Paws – I've been running those for over ten years now. Basically, I run a Sensus Swayze Lite underneath a regular Swayze grip that I pull over the top. Hopefully soon we'll have my custom grip from Sensus – it's coming out soon. Racing World Cups my knuckles were hurting real bad; I have really strong hands, so I couldn't figure out why. One day my mechanic, Colin Bailey, was like, 'Dude, your grips are too small – you have big hands.' And I'm like, 'Yeah, so?' He actually taped like half a roll of electrical tape to each side of the bar, and then slid a Swayze on top of it. It felt weird at first, but literally my knuckle pain went away. I think it's like frame sizes or shoe sizes – basically your grip should be to the size of your hand. |
Blaze orange Onyx hubs are laced up to Stans rims that have been customized with a RealTree camouflage pattern.
Tires
Kyle has switched over to a tubeless tire setup this year, with Kenda's new Hellkat rubber mounted up front and back. The front's inflated to 40 psi, and the back to 45 psi.
| In previous years we've had a lot of those big wood kickers, and there's a lot of compression in those. A tubeless setup can't really go to a much higher pressure than where I'm at, so if I had to go more pressure I'd put tubes in. I'm right at the fine line between going tubeless and running tubes, but it's been working good so far. |
There's a minimal amount of pedaling in Kyle's line, but when it's time to turn the cranks a gold SRAM X01 7-speed drivetrain will be waiting.
The previous generation Avid Code brakes have been installed to help keep Lyle from breaking the sound barrier.
Must Read This Week
107 Comments
*Doesn't show it*
I’ve had Flows and if I ran them that firm I wouldn’t have had all the flat spots I got but traction would have been shite. I’ve got nothing against them tho.
Would like to see more of this. Pro setup for such an extreme event is a curious thing.
Some would say Kyle may get free rims so what the hell. But a free rim that breaks isn’t doing anyone favors. I’m surprised a Flow is run under such a gnarly and big rider for an event like this but damn Kyle knows better than us.
Can't remember who it belonged to, but someone this summer had a demo 8 wrapped in a bunch of photos, looked amazing.
Photo Here
www.pinkbike.com/photo/13451993
Video Here
www.pinkbike.com/news/must-watch-dean-tennant-higher-calling-2-video-2016.html
I have done a few partials as sponsorship, and one for my son, there are always seams, but hiding them well is the key!
My Son's old bike, a partial wrap to hide all the original colours, we went all black and blue, the black is satin, and the blue is all gloss
www.pinkbike.com/photo/13341096
Kyle's Commencal is also a partial wrap, the black is left original and it looks like they covered up a green metallic flake with the matte. The ideal wrap will hide the seams underneath or in welds and joints.
On my Instagram feed there is a Santa Cruz V-10 I did for a local ripper I sponsor with all the turquoise taken out with orange and black, then customised the wheels and shock, added clear paint protection film to the forks, downtube, chainstays, all rub spots and cranks too.
www.instagram.com/p/BSTtopKDVl4/?taken-by=designsnanaimo
Basically, the guy said that painting a bike frame is a nightmare. The tubing being so thin makes the paint very prone to drip/move before drying, ruining the design. Helmets are overall easier in that they feature larger curvature radius. Another thing he told me and that I wasn't expecting was that there was a lot of loss in the painting of a frame. Since tubes are thin, you lose a lot of paint by going over them, rather than an helmet and gas tank.
All in all, I believe wrap is the best answer for complex yet repetitive patterns cost and time wise.
www.instagram.com/p/BLw3-SCgFLC/?taken-by=designsnanaimo
For complex patterns though, yes wrapping would be cheaper than a custom paint job.
I eventually got my frame painted by a car painter. A slightly tweaked British Racing Green and got away for ~100$. The guy did a lovely job!
www.ispot.tv/ad/wA1k/coors-light-mountain-biking
@COMMENCALbicycles, can we get this added to the options on the a la carte range?
Join Pinkbike Login