A friend of mine is planning to do this this year, and trying to rope a few of us into it.
Thing is, he's taking a V-10 with Fox 40's. Am i right in thinking this may be overkill. Or will i be under-biked on a 160mm f+r bike?
Your thoughts would be appreciated.
Depends on what they are planning on doing to the course.
If they keep some of the climbs in the the v10 will be a total arse.
I did it on my Mini DH last year and the climbs were a pain but doable, my mate on a Moto was bloody quick, I reckon you will be fine, if I was going this year it would be using similar to what you are planning
yup. v-10 would be overbiked but fun, especially on the qualifier as it is more dh than the actual mega track.
if it is your first time, and you dont care about results just having fun, then i wouldnt sweat it too much the mega can be ridden on anything!
good luck and see you there
Good for the qually, but it'll make the race a bit of a pain.
depends;
a V10 with 40's will be loads of fun, but will hold him back on the pedally / pushy bits - there are a few...
i'd say a 160 bike is just about perfect for the event, unless you also want to enter the sprint race.
if you want to do well, practise cornering on gravelly fire-road hairpins - that'll get you towards the front on the qualifier.
the top ten will be on bikes like yours. lapierre spicy or similar seems to be the choice of the fastest riders.
v10 will be big grins (esp. on the qualifier), as people have said, but even on the quali there is are a couple of minutes uphill pedal where you can make some serious places if you're on a lighter bike.
i rode an old s-works enduro with fox 36s and it was perfect.
Did the qualifier on my Morewood Izimu with 888's (a DH race bike) bang on with a full rather than roady cassette for the firetrail climb in the middle
Did the race on a Commencal Meta 5.5 (with integrated cracks) with Marz55s on the front. Bang on.
Also had my Cove Stiffee out there for pissing around on and in case I needed spares
Its all about driving out in a van with lots of bikes and spare bike bits
vid:
(commy:green, izimu:red)
I did it this year on my spesh epic (met another fellow rider on the hill riding an epic) I wouldn't recommend that set-up for the mega but it's what I had at the time. Still, at least I qualified unlike all the people limping down the mountain with snapped commencal frames...
The long, pedalling, sandy bits that traverse the mountain will sap your strength if you're lugging a heavy bike around - and you'll still have a lot of pedalling to do after that. Something like a spicy would be nice.
