downhill is the f1 of our industry….

mrmo – funnily enough both Amps and spesh FSRs were raced DH back then

crikey

Sorry, but DH tech is a mish mash of stuff stolen/appropriated from other sports.

never claimed it wasn’t.
most of what I listed was first used in cycling for DH
and even my your mum could realise a lot of it then filtered into being minced round trail centres at the w/e.

Yes, whatever.

mrmo – funnily enough both Amps and spesh FSRs were raced DH back then

yep, i will agree that, but then they were mtbs they weren’t DH bikes, your getting to a point when you turned up to a race on friday did the dh one day and the XC the next. I seem to remember that steve peat was winning DH races on a rigid/front sus Kona hard tail with Conti XC 1.5s?

The first MTBs that were more about DH than anything else were probably Sintesi and Foes, could still take front mechs, Mountain Cycles San Andreas been around a long time but as a general purpose bike. the first Full sus i had the (mis)fortune to ride was a Cannondale EST in 1991?, fundamentally not much has changed since then, tweaked so they work but that is about it.

Actually the first bikes that were about DH more than anything else were the bikes used by the Klunkerz. It was only after a while, when they got fed up with having to get lifts up to the top, did they start adding gears and reducing the eight of their bikes so they could pedal up to the top.

if it is strong enough to survive a XC season, then it is more than suitable for being made 5x heavier for DH

If it’s light enough to satisfy a pro DH weight weenie, I hope to hell they beef up the ones they sell to the public.

“XC must be the most boring of all of the cycling disciplines to watch”

I have no doubt about the skill and fitness of the riders. But in the races I’ve watched on Freecaster, the favourites soon get to the front and then precess in the same order until the finish, with only the gaps varying a bit. There are no noticeable attacks, few crashes, no overtaking or team tactics (perhaps because drafting doesn’t work). It also doesn’t help that the cameras can’t cover the course adequately (similar issues with DH to be fair). Consequently it lacks the drama that makes sport interesting to watch.

[this is a complaint from someone who enjoys cricket!]

I agree that XC is inherently uninteresting to watch, and I compete. Not really the point though is it? I don’t think DH is much better (but it is better).

I’m not sure what the point of comparing F1 to cycling is. I find F1 dull, I like watching cycling whatever the genre. On the flip side, I find moto-x on the outdoor tracks dull, yet find Supercross exciting. All horses for courses.

However, if we’re comparing the technology aspect of the two, then I think there are some similarities. The Sunn Chipie team with Nico used to use telemetry to monitor suspension performance back in the late 90’s. I think at the time the Sunn Radical was pretty much a team only bike so it wasn’t like it was intended to filter down to Joe Public. Similarly I think there’s probably a lot of stuff in F1 that’s done just because it makes the F1 car quicker, not because they have an eye on it filtering down to consumer vehicles.

On the flip side, TT bikes and some aero road bikes are wind tunnel tested for speed, just like an F1 car. You don’t get that in DH, or at least nothing that teams would talk about.

Are F1 and DH the pinnacle of technology for their ‘sport’? F1 yes, DH probably not. Is there a lot of testing/technology in DH compared to say XC? Yes, in some instances (suspension), no in others (frame composition).

I still want an RN-01….

Except Trek World Racing did do some wind tunnel aero part testing specifically for information to use in DH racing 😐

DH racing is morally superior to F1 too

im confident that both the organizers and the competitors wouldnt go ahead with an event in a country that uses torture to repress its citizens

(id also like to think we wouldnt sell them weapons but our government sold out long ago)

eccelstone is a ****

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/17038966

Except Trek World Racing did do some wind tunnel aero part testing specifically for information to use in DH racing

They’re looking at using deep section carbon rims too. So that’ll be tech they developed for the road then?

I’ve watched the last few seasons on Freecaster and it’s been brilliant, proper edge of the seat stuff imo

As for the F1 comparison, who cares and the bigger question, why?

Those Trek wind tunnel sessions resulted in some rather half arsed looking “Aero mods” being run at one WC round from what I can remember, bits of modeling foam stuck on the bars and fork legs as fairing, and the V section wheels were just more bits of polystyrene stuck on at the rims for one run… We’ve not seen much of them on track since…

Of course it’s not the first time a DH bike has been put in a wind tunnel, but Road and track cyclists were using tunnels and actually applying what they learned in races long before DH teams.
And yep Nicco proved the value of the odd well judged Aero tuck in DH over a decade ago…
The thing is the biggest Aero drag on any bike is the meat sack a’top the saddle, and since the UCi in their infinite wisdom ruled that teams can’t make them anymore slippery and riders have to wear flappy, baggy, non-Aero clothing, there’s not really any point in trying to make the rest of the bike cut through the air more efficiently is there?

In “F1 terms” it would be a bit like the FIA insisting that next season every car had to have the same bodywork as a 1988 Ford transit, not for any technical reason or to make the racing fairer, but simply so there that there was more space for sponsors logos… In fact thinking about it Bernie pushing that one through wouldn’t really shock me…

Much more importantly wind tunnel testing gave a more accurate measure of what speed tucking instead of pedalling and thus resting became a better strategy on fast open sections.

What Cookeaa remembers was simply a PR stunt, clearly worked too?

Njee still clueless I see 😕

Hmmm, cos no one thought that bending over might be quicker…

GW, given the already mentioned laughable approach to aerodynamic pyjamas current in DH, I think you’ve lost this argument.