Launched at the start of last season and then subsequently launched into everything else at warp speed by their factory race team, Commencal's Supreme DH V4 is a serious piece of kit. But a bike is little more than the sum of its parts without a pilot and the man responsible for steering this matte black beast also happens to be one of the wildest on the circuit; Rémi Thirion. We caught up with Rémi's mechanic, Damien Bideau, to find out more...
The anodised matte black finish saves weight over paint (this bike weighs 16.5kg / 36.4lb) and the yellow details and accents make these team machines pop, especially when Rémi and the team are wearing their neon yellow Fox race kit. At 174cm tall, Rémi rides a stock medium frame with a Ride Alpha reach adjust headset pushing the reach numbers from 392mm to 402mm.
Damien was tight-lipped about what lay within Rémi's RockShox Boxxers forks and Vivid coil shock past that he runs 95 PSI in the forks and a 300 lb spring in the rear. At an estimated guess, he's more thank likely to be running a custom Charger damper with a unique shim stack configuration and a similar custom one-of-a-kind set up in the Vivid.
At the heart of the Supreme DH V4 is Commencal's HPP (High Principal Pivot) Contact System. Essentially a single pivot design, it utilises a high main pivot with a linkage that's located low on the frame and an idler pulley which is mounted inline with the pivot to prevent unwanted amounts of chain growth. If you want to know more about the HPP design and the Supreme DH V4's development, we covered it
here last year. Back to Rémi's bike...
Rémi runs a SRAM Guide Ultimate brake lever mated with an Avid Code calliper - a popular combo found on quite a few pro riders bikes right now. Damien said that Rémi prefers the
feel of the Guide lever.
The Supreme DH V4 offers a huge variety of geometry adjustment, including chain stay length. Rémi regularly changes his between +5 and +10mm depending on the course and how he feels, opting for an extra 10mm for the Fort.
Damien adjusts spoke tensions between front and rear wheels to change the ride feel. Here, he opted for a slightly stiffer build on the rear to help handle the abuse of Aonach Mor's unforgiving boulder. It's crucial to reach a suitable balance between too much flex and too much stiffness, especially when you're hitting this kind of terrain and at the speed these guys are travelling. Damien also told us that Rémi was running 1.9 Bar/ 27 PSI in the front tyre and 2.1 Bar/ 30 PSI in the rear tyre.
#LongLiveChainsaw
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@lunatyk
Well welcome to the Canadian chainsaw massacre! NOW FUK OFF
You can think whatetever you want to think and say it without being offensive. That is what Europe is about. Peace.
If it is this important to people then it would be amazing if SRAM would make these available. Best would be to just ask SRAM about this. I actually half expect they are already working on that and are sorting the ways to make the proceeds go to his fund. In a positive sense, it is not "if", it is "when". .
And yes, I'm talking from experience.
On topic (as far as that goed for this conversation): however unlucky the refference to our German gigantic non friend, I do get your point. I for one feel that your comparison stretches the limits of reasonable and thus is offensive.
But hey, why not sleep on it for a night, have a beer, apologise, have the apologies accepted and continue being the great culture that we all share?
Let's just accept that worldwide communication can be tricky even if we speak/write in the same language. What is very important to the one might seem pointless to the other, what is still a heavy subject for the other may just be mere history for the one.
Never ridden a Commencal that I didn't like though, or that wasn't fast, so maybe they really do?
It is THE most efficient pedalling bike I have ridden.
And I've ridden a lot.
Show me this article...
Nothing on idlers in here, just other inefficient stuff.....
Anyway, as much as I respect Matti Lehikoinen, I don't believe he is right there. There may be downsides but there sure are advantages as well. It just takes a rider to match it. Maybe if Danny Hart would get on that Commencal, he might suddenly win WC DH races .
www.pinkbike.com/news/commencals-prototype-dh-bike-lourdes-world-cup.html