MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
I have seen some hi res photos of it but cant determine if it had some sort of solid rear lock out or come to that if it had front fork lock out. If so was it remote, electronic, lever?
Any info on the rear of front suss would be good. Cheers
Amazing that he was the only top (if not only) contender to have a full bouncer.
Were any of them riding wearing flats?
Amazing that he was the only top (if not only) contender to have a full bouncer.
Not really, surely? Most of the course was as smooth as a baby's bum.
Pic from yours truly;
[url= http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7109/7775680744_28104a3832.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/80072317@N06/7775680744/ ]Jaroslav Kulhavy Lap 2[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/80072317@N06/ ]CT663[/url], on Flickr
No sign of any sort of lock out lever on the bars here, or running to the shock or fork. He was running 1x10 or 1x11, so the only shifter is on the right.
Full bounce, plain and simple.
Not sure about that - if I were riding that course I'd take a HT as well. It was pretty smooth.
The latest fox version of the rear brain shock really is very good indeed there is no lockout on the rear but with the brain set to the firmest setting its as good as..I would imagine he is running some kind of brain setup on the front too, with those graphics on the fork its hard to identify what it is probably the latest SID or something, keep a lookout on iamspecialized.com there's bound to be home details on spec on there soon
I think the Spesh epics have that 'brain' inertia valve which automatically locks and unlocks the shock, removing the need for a lockout.
edit- ninja'd by andypaul
Mint photo, now my desktop! No signs of lock out front and rear??
I could not see any noticeable bounce from the rear when he tw4tted it up the last climb to get the gap and win, must have been the suspension brain on the swing arm and that it was set as stiff as f00k.
edit--just read to two previous posts
Never mind the suspension, look at that stem! Proper slammed!
Mint photo, now my desktop!
Please send royalty payment to, etc. 🙂
Forks did look stealth/prototype
kingkongsfinger - Member
Forks did look stealth/prototype
SRAM Black Box development kit.
Calipers are [i]possibly/probably[/i] the new Red road discs, fork was something from the depths.
CaptainFlashheart - Member
Mint photo, now my desktop!
Please send royalty payment to, etc.
One karma credit for you 🙂
Bikes of the women and men:
http://www.mbr.co.uk/news/olympic-preview-the-contenders-women/
http://www.mbr.co.uk/news/olympic-preview-the-contenders-men/
Credit gratefully received. 🙂
Didn't the commentary say something about the racers running their suspension pretty hard?
Another intriguing thing I heard was there were three different wheel sizes being used; 26", 650B, and 29er.
A stiff brain could be a good call actually - smooth for most of the course with the odd really rocky bit.
CFH, the bike was ridik, so cool,so PRO AS. Bars so clean with one gripshift, massive seat to stem height, stem pointing down, that saddle, chainset, etc. etc. etc.
KKF, another pic for you. Not the best of the sequence, but good for a look at the bike, I think;
[img][url= http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8291/7784107974_93247cbd94.jp g" target="_blank">
Saddle and stem angles are mental!
Of all the bikes on Paddy's links - Last's looks loveliest 🙂
This is the ugliest bike I have seen in a long time...
[img] 
[/img]
No lockout, you can look at the original (16 Mega pixel) in Flickr.
[url= http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7256/7776536118_9f48ecd94e_z.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/7776536118/ ]Jaroslav KULHAVY, Gold Medal, Men's Olympic Mountain Bike Race 2012 Hadleigh Farm[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/brf/ ]brf[/url], on Flickr
[url= http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7118/7776540372_d598fac321_z.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/7776540372/ ]Jaroslav KULHAVY, Gold Medal, Men's Olympic Mountain Bike Race 2012 Hadleigh Farm[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/brf/ ]brf[/url], on Flickr
Agreed! S'pose the best way to not see it is to be on it 😐
(at PrinceJohn's post)
Actually the Fork has a lockout built in:
Fork: RockShox Reba, 90mm travel with BRAIN
From Paddy's link above.
And the rear shock deffo has a brain- Can clearly see the hose coming out the base of the shaft in one of Footflap's pics..
What's with the jaunty saddle angle. I'd do myself a mischief on that!
So only running 90mm on the front, confirms I do not need 140mm
Very nice pictures, ta
So only running 90mm on the front, confirms I do not need 140mm
Shhh, don't say that too loud on here or the "160mm is barely enough to ride the Cannock Chase" brigade will be organising a lynch party for you.....
As an aside,telly normally makes things look flatter. Some of that course looked really steep.
Can anyone who was there confirm?
Not sure about that - if I were riding that course I'd take a HT as well. It was pretty smooth.
Sorry I thought he won the Gold not you. My mistake. 🙂
Maybe (like me) he just knows how to set his bike up. I only ever lockout on road sections now. Dual Air Reba SL's are the way forward and I should know, I'm awesome 🙂
Some of that course looked really steep.
Can anyone who was there confirm?
Not silly steep, I'd say, but pretty relentless. Ridden at race speed on short travel/HT toys, it was certainly steep enough to make it a challenge.
The gnar-pyjama set wouldn't approve as it didn't involve any Josh Bender-esque hucking, but as a course for top flight XC racing, I was really impressed.
Very steep in places for a race course, by no means trivial (unless you're a keyboard warrior hucking god, in which case it was flat).
Course wasn't mentally steep by any means, but I wouldn't want to try and ride the technical sections flat out on my hardtail with the saddle up. Mostly because any line choice error was severly punished - anybody see the guy face plant on the rock garden on the first lap?
It was really noticeable that the guys at the front in both races were the ones who could ride DH most smoothly/efficiently. Bike handling skills might not win you the race, but the lack of them definitely could lose it for you.
As far as lockouts go, I've never understood the desire to drag the weight of suspension around without getting any of the benefits of it. All locking stuff out does is screw up the geometry. A bike doesn't bob in and of itself. It bobs if the rider is bouncing up and down on it. Good shock set up and smooth riding (both of which WC racers should have in spades) make any lockout pointless.
Good shock set up and smooth riding (both of which WC racers should have in spades) make any lockout pointless.
Have you ridden one for a length of time Jon?
I've got a BRAIN shock on my Stumpjumper and didn't think I'd use it when I got it but it works really well - means you can easily set the bike up depending on the terrain - rough or smooth, fast or slow. It transforms the bike.
paddy0091 - Member
Bikes of the women and men:http://www.mbr.co.uk/news/olympic-preview-the-contenders-women/
http://www.mbr.co.uk/news/olympic-preview-the-contenders-men/
Just read that link, and they have Kulhavy as Polish not Czech.
Cant beat some quality journalism...
BRAIN intertia valves both ends (can't tell from the fork by looking, but Spec' has been using BRAINy RockShox for a couple of years so it seems a safe bet). In Ben's pics the travel-measuring O-ring's popped off the end of the shaft, so he was definitely using all the travel he had 🙂
Is it just me, or does that rear shock look teeny?
Guess they don't need a big air can, for various reasons.
It's just a normal Epic, they've never had lockouts, that's the point! Probably some crazy pro stuff going on, but there's nothing strange about the fork/shock! They've had small air cans since they redesigned the bikes in 2009.
So do BRAINs work now then? Friend had one on a 2008 Stumpy and hated it.
Great photos of the event BTW, better than s lot of the press ones I've seen...
It's a magnetic snap valve, bump from below (ie through wheel) opens valve, shock bounces. No bumps from below (like pedalling), shock doesn't bounce.
The older Fox ones used a brass mass suspended in oil, which IMO wasn't anywhere near as good as the Spesh AFR and the newer Fox ones.
my Stumpy is a 2011 with the Fox BRAIN - it works
Yeah, I've got a 2010 Stumpjumper FSR with the brain & it's great. Set it to a few clicks from firm and the bike is very firm on fireroad etc. but becomes active with no perceivable delay.
Got mine when the frame was warranty replaced; I previously had the Triad shock & wasn't overly bothered about getting the brain shock until I'd used it a few times.
The Epic shock has always been that small on that frame design & I think the tune of the Brain is even stiffer than on the Stumpjumper, so it feels even stiffer.
I had one of the Brain shocks on my old Epic and it was brilliant. One of the Fox ones. The newer ones with the tiny air can and the remote Brain are better still and the bikes are lighter than the 2nd Gen Epic that I had by quite a substantial margin.
I've personally never liked fork lockout - even when I was racing XC semi seriously, I removed the lockout from my forks and just ran it with a full range of compression damping. On the other hand, these guys are several levels above in terms of riding ability and fitness so I'll just safely assume that they know what they're doing! 😉
looks like a brain out back there
let's not mention minimum insertion or saddle angle, coz it clearly works!
[url= http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8443/7784347666_81fed25ce9_o.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/84788821@N00/7784347666/ ]The Champion's Bike[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/84788821@N00/ ]analogueandy[/url], on Flickr
Interesting there's no chainguide. He must really trust the XX1 chainring or else it really was that smooth
Has anybody on here made the move from 26 epic to 29? missus has given me the all clear for new bike and I'm considering a carbon comp or expert?