Hey guys, quick explanation as to why we took the pod down for a bit…

I want to give everyone on the pod a platform to speak candidly. With this episode we were up against it, we only recorded on Friday morning & I knew Singletrack were publishing on Friday evening, so we rushed it out & Jack, Emilie & Joe didn’t get a chance to listen back to it until it was live. On reflection there were a couple of bits where people wished they’d phrased things differently. I was racing at the time in a field in Wales & didn’t have the files with me to re-edit (or any decent internet) so Hannah (at my request) took it down for a bit, but I can confirm there were no big revelations removed.

Thanks for the positive comments on this one, really glad everyone seems to be enjoying it. The Vali episode drops on Thursday…

 

Maybe not on the podcast, but you made the vlog! https://youtu.be/hoEFTR-SNok?si=0CVCsjr_2W9yFI9s

Interestingly, until I bought the Eboxx I hadn’t ridden a bike that was too big since a Raleigh Grifter in the early 80’s. Eboxx has 560mm reach & with a 50mm stem it was too much.

New Geometrons do have taller stack. I need to have a chat with them because on the XXL the head tube is 170mm & I don’t think there’s a dual crown fork that will work at that length unfortunately but I could be wrong :)

Thanks @tjaard! I think the most important thing when it comes to bike design is that it fits. Travel, kinematics etc are all important but you’re just polishing a turd if it’s the wrong size. I’ve found that 550mm reach with a 45mm stem or 560mm reach with a 35mm stem seems to be the sweet spot for me but interested to try the new G1 which has shorter reach & longer chain stays at some stage!

Thank you for the kind words everyone! For anyone wanting to keep up with the team’s endeavours we’re vlogging this season https://www.youtube.com/@makingupthenumbers

I don’t think it’s Danny as he said “podium rider”. Think you’d say “World Cup Winner” if you were intro’ing Danny & from what I heard last weekend I think Scottie might be leaving the bike industry completely unfortunately.

Aaron is a good one but again would you intro him that way? We think it’s more likely to be Angel but just a guess.

 

 

Thanks Nick, always lovely to hear nice things :)

Thank you!

Oh thank you! Glad to hear you’re enjoying them, Happy New Year!

Both my bikes were Shimano Saint until I tried these; now both my bikes are running these. Performance wise the only ones that come close are the Trickstuff ones but I could never justify spending £1k on a set of brakes. For the money these are fantastic, particularly with the 220mm rotors, haven’t tried them with vented rotors yet.

@malv173 so, the font I use for the pod doesn’t include the umlaut, so the first time I interviewed her I asked her advice & she said it should be Hoell if you don’t use umlaut. I’m never sure if the umlaut is web safe so I’ve chosen to play it safe ever since :)

It’s so hard to pick the Men’s, but if I was a betting man I’d go Pierron. Women’s, either Nicole or Hoell.

Not had it confirmed from the man himself but 2 people have told me Rob won’t be doing the World Cups anymore. Massive blow. You only have to watch Crankworx or World Champs coverage on the BBC to see what he brings to the sport.

😂 I bet you rarely lose!

@fazhure I always read the comments! Working off a 0.5mb connection & was torn between Finn / Bruni / Daprela for the final podium place.

Who are you all picking?

:) Looking at the stats, more so than any other track people tend to be good or bad at Fort William. There are of course exceptions to the rule, that’s racing! Podium picks…

Mens: Pierron, Wilson, Vergier, Hart, Bruni

Womens: Nicole, Hoffmann, Balanche, Hoell, Cabirou

Enjoy the racing everyone. Should have quite a bit of content to share over the next couple of days!

Thanks guys. Couple of additional bits of info…

Thibaut is fine. Disappointed, but fine.

Benoit’s run was wild. So wild that I messaged him about it as something didn’t look right compared to all the other riders. He said he was struggling as he chose the wrong settings on the rear shock so…

Little bit of info on a few things mentioned above…

I think Gee was just covering for Lauren who usually does the finish line interviews, not 💯 sure but think she had Covid. Gee’s not fully recovered yet.

Thibaut is fine. Disappointed, but fine.

Benoit’s run was wild. So wild that I messaged him about it as it didn’t look right compared to all the other riders. He said he was struggling as he chose the wrong settings on the rear shock so…

It’s only been live for an hour I’m back to Pierron or Daprela for the win…

Just stumbled across this @drchaos. Hopefully our recent output will put your mind at rest :)

G

Ok so a few possible ideas:

– not teaching you to suck eggs but just checking you know you need to arm the tracks & then hit record?

– your audio interface, does it have an app with it. If logics receiving audio it should be fine but check in the app that it’s all set up correctly

– maybe don’t have Logic & Ableton open at the same time? Some CPU’s don’t like that :)

Before you even arm it can you see any input? On the mixer strip:

Audio From

Ext In

Should be able to see level indicator registering when you talk / type if preferences set to internal mic

Just to confirm – Is Logic working OK? Trying to work out if it’s an audio interface issue.

Try unplugging audio interface, preferences to internal mic & see if you’re getting anything?

Undoubtedly. I did one of those enduro-endo-corners at one point, I wish I could say it was intentional but it wasn’t :)

In the main I’m fine if I know it’s coming. The “Reddy McRedface” trail at Revolution has some super tight corners which threw me the first time but now I know they’re coming I can set up for them. It was the first time I’d ridden “Date Night 2” so…

LOL. I think 58.5 might be a bit slack even for the most committed evangelist!

@sharkattack Shock off for service at the minute, also needs a +2 degree headset as it’s a bit too slack (60.5 degrees) see below…

@gibbonarms I don’t think that’s Jack selling that one (though it is one of his frames). Just be aware that yes, the back wheel fits but the tyre hits the seat tube before bottom out so you also need the longer mutators (47mm rather than 41mm) (£160 from Nicolai) to make it work properly. These lengthen the chain stay which in turn slackens the Head Angle to 60.5 in Low Setting & drops the BB to 325mm but then there’s a circa 25mm boost by going to 29 so it ends up around 350mm. Need an Angleset as well to get the HA back to where it should be. Have ridden it once at 60.5 & it’s rideable but I think it needs to be steeper.

@bilbo So far I’ve used it on the local loop – 2 hours, peak district style ride; uplift at Innerleithen & the push up at Havok. So yeah, it’s main purpose is going down but it’s actually bloody good at going up short steep climbs. I’ve only had one issue so far & that was descending, think it was on a trail called “Date Night 2” at Inners. I was following a mate & he were hauling but I couldn’t get it round a couple of  tight switchbacks & ended up just bypassing them & going straight down which was a bit wild :). Not raced it yet but maybe next year.

It is a proto. Was developed by Chris for DH but don’t think it ever got any further than that. Have thought about offset bushings but think they would slacken the HA even further???

In case anyone missed it, Singletrack did a Bike Check on my G18 https://singletrackworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/bike-check-george-thompsons-geometron-g18-29er/

Have also converted the G19 to 29. First ride was last weekend, loved it!

I think everyone is pretty much on the money here… the rise of enduro etc etc but there are a few other bits to point out…

– When we started racing 4 years ago all the big teams used to turn up to the BDS with their trucks etc. In that time DH has gone global & for the top level riders it’s now all about the world cups. Now, you’re lucky to get one or two teams at a National. This kinda happened at the same time Si put the price up & tried to steer it towards being a more elite series so the 2 things worked against each other. Feel sorry for Si on this as he was trying to do the right thing.

– Moelfre cancelled because of numbers… Have heard that’s a smokescreen for something else. Not saying numbers were great but…

– Rumours abound that there will be big changes at the end of the season…

@the-muffin-man I agree with you. My in laws retired early, mid 50’s. They’re now mid 60’s & tbh their minds are still to active to sit around all day with limited human interaction / challenges. FiL has become remarkably right wing, I feel due to this & their fear of change / inability to adapt if things do change – they’ve got a pension now & that’s it, they can’t earn any more. If they’d worked for another 5 or 10 years they wouldn’t be as restricted financially & would have probably had a more positive outlook on the world.

That’s my thoughts on it anyway. If you ask them they say they wouldn’t change a thing :)

Completely at the other end of the spectrum here… 43 next month, wife (11 years younger) currently pregnant with our first born, recently moved into bigger house but kept our flat, 2 mortgages both finish when I’m 70. On the plus side… I have a job I love. Oh & I spent the 90’s & early 00’s DJ’ing & running clubs so the wife always says I didn’t actually start work until I was past 32 so… :)

Cheers nach, much appreciated

I did not know that there were adapters available to convert to Boost. Absolutely amazing :)

Cheers

Handy to know glenh, ta.

Ah right, have just sat here playing with 2 pens on my desk & I suppose it does. Hadn’t thought of that :)

Hey Chainline, cheers for this. Yep, emailed Chris this week & he suggested trying XXL G16… Custom G19 tho… Hmmm :)

A few quick Q’s you might be able to help with.

– Can you just explain how ST angle affects the reach? I aways thought reach was horizontal distance between centre of head tube & centre of BB?

– The figures on the Nicolai site for the G16 – are they in low mode or high? Also, no XXL figures despite being able to order one, do you have?

Just discovered this thread & although I haven’t read every post (apols, there’s a lot to get through) I thought I should post a few thoughts as I’ve been racing DH all season on a Geometron. Here’s some key learnings for anyone who’s interested…

So, background is that at 6’ 6” I’ve spent the last 5 years on a quest to find a DH bike that fits. I’ve been through a lot of bikes. The closest I got was a prototype Orange 225 that was custom built for Ben Cathro but much to my dismay it snapped at the headtube 6 months in. Last season (in despair) I went to see Chris with my XL V10 & he modified it (the shock) for me to try & make it fit – shorter shock meant it permanently sat in the first inch of it’s travel which made it longer. It was much better but still too small “it will always be too small”. Whilst I was down there getting the V10 set up I rode a Geometron & I just didn’t want to give it back. We were testing on the DH tracks near their building & the Geometron was the nuts, like a whole other world. At last, I didn’t feel like I was fighting to stop myself going OTB all the time. A few weeks later I bought one (in Longest) for trail riding.

At the end of the season Chris rang me & said “I’ve got this frame that I think might work for DH…”. I think it’s one of the original Geometron prototypes that he made. It’s got a 60 degree head angle & a 1380 wheelbase. It’s bloody huge. Unsure how much rear travel it’s got, maybe 175mm but Chris has set the rear shock up & you’d never know it wasn’t a DH specific frame. I raced down Val Di Sole on it a few weeks ago at Masters Worlds & never felt the need for any more travel so…

Anyway, I’ve been racing it all season & my results have improved significantly. Last year I finished the season 21st in the Vet category at the BDS, this year I finished 7th. In July I took the trail Geometron out to the Alps & raced the Mega. Last year, on the modified V10 (with a dropper) I made the Challenger race, this year I made the Pro race. So it’s definitely working. But, as mentioned by others it takes a bit of effort & commitment to ride it. Having spent year hanging off the back of bikes, fighting going OTB on the steep stuff it’s a complete change in rider position & it’s bloody hard to get your head around. You have to weight the front wheel. You have to push it into the turns, you have to put it where you want it, other wise it will run away from you. The most dangerous run of the day is always the first run as you can’t “just potter down”, you have to put some effort in. The other thing I’ve found is that you have to use your head when you race it. You can let it fly on the straights but you have to back it off a bit on the corners if there’s no berm to catch you.

There’s a few things I’ve done to work on the fit, the main ones being 820mm wide bars & 155mm cranks. The bars came about because being so tall my span is also pretty massive. I read something about measuring your hand width when doing a press up in the most comfortable position & mine was 840mm. I tried the bars at 840 but it was a bit too big to turn. The cranks, well with the low BB I was getting a lot of pedal strikes so I gave the 155mm Canfield Brothers cranks a try & they haven’t been off since. Tried them on the trail bike & it’s fine if you’re out in the Alps for a week with a gondola but noticeably spinney if you’re on a 4hr Peaks ride.

The thing I’ve played with most though is stem length. I started the season on a 25mm stem but midway through I switched to 45mm for some flatter tracks & to help getting my weight over the front end. I got comfortable with that but a consequence of the 820mm bars is that I could only find them in 15mm rise & the final 2 races of the season were on steep tracks – Val Di Sole & Llangollen so I jacked the front end up with some stem spacers. This brought the bars back a bit so I went to a 60mm stem. I’ve got used to that now but it’s kind of buggered up my plans for next season. I’ve been looking at the G19’s that Jack’s developed with Chris / Nicolai & I fancy one but the reach on the XL is 25mm less than the current bike. Given that I’ve been running a 60mm stem I can’t go much beyond that so I’m probably just going to stick with what I’ve got.

Anyway, unsure if that’s of any use to anyone on here but… let me know if you’ve got any Q’s.

Here’s a pic – think it’s the only bike that doesn’t look like a clown bike in photos :)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/m7e9or0zpbohdo6/_DSC8173_DxO.jpg?dl=0

Cool, see you there :)

The other thing to say is… next time you’re stood at the top with your new mate, ask him to show you his lines / where he’s going & why & then ask if he’ll slow down a bit & let you follow. I’ve just watched Ben Cathro’s helmet cam from the race I mentioned & where everyone else follows the same path, he goes on & off the track all the time. He’s cutting corners, riding on the grass at the side as it’s got better grip or a better angle into the next corner. Sat here wondering “Why didn’t I see that????”

In my opinion going fast DH is about 2 things – physical ability & confidence.

I raced DH last year for the first time & did OK, was in the bottom half of my class (bottom third overall) in general. Training was quite a bit of running, me & a mate doing a bit at the local gym for the masses & a few uplift days. Through the winter I joined a gym in a unit with a proper trainer. Usually manage 4-5 times a week doing everything from circuits to core to boxing. It’s a proper workout for an hour & I’m riding much faster than I was at this point last year, probably the fastest I’ve ever been (still waiting for results from my first race of the year – this weekend’s SDA at Ae).

As I feel physically stronger I’m getting more confident.

8pm start again tonight is it Andrew?