Pro bike check - Australian National Round 2

With most of Australia's factory riders sitting out this race for various reasons, it is interesting to note that the majority of bikes are standard sales' room models. It reinforces that it is the rider, not the bike, that produces the fast times. Most have adapted their particular bike to suit themselves in the form of tyres, handlebars and grips. As well as setting the suspension to their preference and the shifters/brakes to suit their ideal position. At this round some riders chose to lift their levers a little higher (or roll their handlebars back) to combat arm pump from the braking ruts that had formed on the track.

Let's take a closer look at the bikes underneath the fastest riders at the second Australian National Round.Of the 10 bikes, 7 riders chose flat pedals with only 3 choosing clips. Rock Shox accounted for half (5) of the forks on riders' bikes, with Fox having 3 pairs of forks, this left Marzocchi and Manitou with 1 a piece. Tyres are a particular choice and riders would use different models from the same brand depending on conditions, but the main manufactures were; Maxxis 5, Specialized 3 and Schwalbe 2. The break down of shifting systems was very evenly matched with 5 riders using SRAM and 4 using Shimano (the Jezken with its gearbox was left out of this count!).