The path towards summer has included some notable events that weren't just out of the norm, but might actually never be repeated. Aaron Gwin's peers are likely wishing that his Leogang World Cup run isn't ever duplicated, at least by the American racer, and everyone out there was shocked to see neo-Nazi rioters throw a wrench into Bernardo Cruz's race run at the finals of the City Downhill World Tour in in Bratislava, Slovakia. We can't make this stuff up. Aaron Gwin
Most Impressive DH Run Ever?
So we all knew that Gwin is an absolute beast who's very likely on his way to becoming one of the best downhillers in the history of the sport, but who would've thought that
he doesn't even need a chain to win? With Gwin's chain breaking right out of the gate, his effort at the Leogang World Cup looked to be over before it really got underway, but the American put on a clinic in not giving up by throwing down what might have been the most jaw-dropping run ever. Even more stunning than Kovarik's fourteen second win in Fort William? Yup. I mean, c'mon, the guy won a freaking World Cup without pedalling, which is kinda like taking Usain Bolt's shoes away from him and expecting the Jamaican to still leave everyone in his dust.
That's exactly what Gwin did, and while there was plenty of nonsensical internet banter about his Demo's suspension working better because it was freed from any drivetrain influence, that theory is ridiculous and insulting to the man's skills.
Two things happened during Gwin's winning Leogang run. First, he didn't even think about taking it easy. Most of us would have been thrown off our game by the disappointment of being robbed of what looked like a likely win, and we would have sat up in defeat. Not Aaron, though, which leads me to the second point: watch his body english and look at his line choice during that chain-less run and you'll hopefully realize that Gwin has more skill in a lock of his red hair than you and I will ever hope to possess.
Suspension Nerds
Basic Data Acquisition For The Masses
Data acquisition is the stuff of engineers, top World Cup racers, and F1 teams, right? Maybe not. Australian company Dusty Dynamics is
hoping to bring a basic data acquisition system to the market, called the ShockWiz, by 2016 that will give the average rider some real insight into not just what's happening under them, but also what to do to get their fork and shock working even better. No, this isn't a full-on setup that measures shaft speeds, has more wires than the space shuttle, and requires you to put $200 worth of zip-ties on your credit card in order to mount it to your bike, but that's also why the ShockWiz could be a winner - it appears to be simple to mount, use and understand, which is exactly why it might be just the ticket for Joe Blow who doesn't have a PhD in fluid mechanics.
The ShockWiz unit works by monitoring the changing pressure inside the fork or shock's air chamber (it doesn't work with coil-sprung suspension), which is an indication of how much travel is being used.
With this data, it knows how often the suspension bottoms out, how quickly it's rebounding, and whether or not it's doing anything weird, such as packing up. That data is then sent to a phone or tablet by way of a Bluetooth connection, allowing the rider to see what's happening and note any suggested changes. I predict that some snobby suspension tuning outfits might turn up their nose at the $239 USD ShockWiz, but I'm all for any reasonably priced device that is going to have people's suspension working better for them.
Not Taking Things Too Serious
Kirt Voreis and the Vanzacs Bring the Fun
Why so serious? In a month that included a handful of sobering events, it was Kirt and a group of rowdy racers from Australia and New Zealand who hopefully reminded some of us that it's better to chill out than it is to make a mountain out of a molehill. With his first words being ''
Alright woodpecker lips over there, gimmie a question,''
Voreis' mock press conference pokes fun at the rigid, politically correct sound bites that have become the norm these days, and then he goes on to note some race timing issues of the past:
''TIMING?! The only bad time is when you come up short on a double!''
He's got that right. This is followed by a few minutes of Kirt riding his bike really, really fast, which makes the whole video a worthwhile watch.
The World Cup circuit is contested by a lot more racers than those of the Syndicate and Trek World Racing super-teams, most of whom don't have their own mechanics and a tickletrunk full of spare parts.
The Vanzacs spend the European season living in vans that cost less than the retail price of a top downhill bike, likely consume more wobbly pops in a race weekend than Gwin does all year, and are very aware that they should just be thinking about having the time of their lives given that outright race wins are probably a tall order. We should all take note.
Aaron Gwin's Competition
Talk About Demoralizing
Picture yourself as a being a pretty handy downhill racer who's usually in contention at any World Cup, has been around long enough to have supposedly seen it all, and gets paid a healthy six-figure salary to do what you do. Sounds like a good time, doesn't it? But then someone comes along who can not only show you his heels during most race weekends,
he can do it without a damn chain on his bike. Aaron Gwin's chain-less win in Leogang wasn't just a ''I'm pretty fast right now'' kind of thing, it was a Wilt Chamberlain scoring 100 points in a single game kind of thing, or maybe even akin to Jim Clark winning the 1963 Belgian Grand Prix by nearly five minutes.
The run seen around the world surely has every single one of Gwin's peers realizing that his talents might be unassailable right now, which is a devastating thing in a sport where you have to possess insane amounts of confidence and belief in yourself before putting your body on the line. All that means that, in the grand scheme of things, Aaron's chain-less victory might mean a lot more than just one more World Cup win.
Greg Callaghan's Knee and Hand
ATopsy Turvy Season
A few short weeks ago, Cube racer Greg Callaghan took a fairytale victory, his first major victory, on home turf at the second Enduro World Series race of 2015. That might feel like an eon ago to the recently injured Irishman, though.
Things went from terrific to terrible when Callaghan took a tumble while training in Leogang, and the result was a few broken bones in his hand and a hole in his knee large enough to store a spare tube and multi-tool in before it was closed up by surgeons in an Austrian hospital. The good news is that his insurance will look after the out of country medical bills, but the bad news is that he's looking at five or six weeks of relaxing before he can get back at it, which is not ideal given that he had some good momentum from his first EWS win.
Racer's of Greg's caliber don't just sit around eating gummy bears and feeling sorry for themselves when they're hurt, which is just one of the many differences between us and them, so we expect him to come back even stronger than before. And maybe with some burly kneepads on.
The City Downhill World Tour
Rioters Ruin the Race
Leave it to the Nazis to stop the fun. The finals of the City Downhill World Tour in in Bratislava, Slovakia, came to a full stop last weekend as protestors wrecked havoc on the course and clashed with police,
all of which went down during Bernardo Cruz's race run. How it all unfolded still isn't exactly clear, but it's said that a group of about forty masked individuals rushed the finish area and did their best to tear down course barriers and bring proceedings to a halt.
The masked men also attacked crowd members and camera crews until police did their best to intervene, and while there were no serious injuries reported, thankfully, the event couldn't be restarted due to police collecting evidence and the limited window of time due to the location of the race being an historic site. Not your typical race weekend, then.
The events that unfolded in Bratislava had nothing to do with mountain bikes, with the cause being blamed not on the anti-immigration and anti-Islamization rallies held nearby that are said to have drawn 14,000 people, but a minority group that reportedly turned violent when members of a so-called Nazi party turned their focus towards the race. It took tear gas and a large number of police officers to disperse the rioters.
first email
"To keep it as simple as we can for most users, the device has been designed
to just give tuning recommendations and not the raw data. It is good to
hear that other people are interested in accessing and analysing the raw
data, so this is something we will look at adding in as an additional
feature. - Nigel"
second email:
"A few people have now asked about this, so we are considering our options
of how best to include raw logging of data as a feature.
So we can get an idea of volumes, if you had access to the raw data, how
many units do you think you would buy? - Nigel"
So, fellow data nerds, get on the horn to Nigel and let him know we want to see raw logging of data and that you'll buy tons of them if he adds the feature (jk i'm only going to get one but if you are part of a high school or college team i think a few of these would be a worthwhile investment.)
Send emails to info@dustydynamics.com.au
If you try to measure displacement in a long run it becomes completely false due to that.
Bad = were lucky if it's not 95 deg. By 10:00. And the tails get dry and sandy.
Good = I live at the base of the san gabriels with a shuttle that will take you above most of the heat. Gotta love 5000+ feet down. So enduro, bro. THANKS Southern California Outdoor Adventures Shuttle.
The same was true in most sports until recently. Why MTB is not more mainstream is beyond me. But that is what it will take (plus TV/beer commercial money) to let the wizards of the dirt be paid.
Even so, I bet there are quite a few pro athletes in mainstream sports who don't even see six figures. I knew a guy who sat the bench for the Lakers for half a season and I know he didn't see $100k, although Shaq did take him car shopping once, so there were some other perks.
PS : Love this monthly review !
Add in working 50+ hour weeks and the boss banning bikes being stored on site means I'm commuting by car in heavy traffic so getting sod-all saddle time.
Oh well, 4 weeks until Chatel..
However,....
Dear Mr Mike Levy, now let us not jump on the bandwagon of Greece. But let us look at:
example one: www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33325842
example two: www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-33347117
Now there is also a good example that we must never give up in this weeks public information that caught my attention:
www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33113238
"So I am here to tell you - there is life after so much damage, there is life after so much trauma. There is life after people have told you that you are nothing, that you are worthless and that you will never amount to anything. There is life - and I'm not just talking about a little bit of life. There is a lot of life. "
I am going to say it is neither a bad nor a good month (although the weather is f£$%&^g brilliant after 3 years summer hiatus where I live).
We live in a time of change. Not a day goes by without reading of a successful international hack of some mega Corp like Sony etc etc. This is the digital revolution.
Whilst I applaud the question you raise with your article I would suggest that mountainbikers are not just athletes. In a way we are explorers and pioneers without boundaries. This is why Bratislava was such a shock to many (I hope). I would suggest you broaden the horizon of this article in part 2.
"Life is too short not to go big!"
When I was a kid I used to say: "If we all rode bikes we would be too tired and content to start a fight".
Sorry, more than 2 cents, but hoped the there was more so just felt like being a bit of a knowitall.
Cheers
Let’s get real here.