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My new DH sled for 2013 - carbon goodness

- seb

Turbo Monkey
Apr 10, 2002
2,924
1
UK
First things first, a big thanks to Jon Skene of Don Skene Cycles (Cardiff, UK) for hooking me up with this ride for 2013. I'm very proud to be part of their team, and hopefully I'll get them some podiums... fingers crossed :)



I've been riding an old Devinci Wilson for the last 4 years — also a Horst link — so when I tried a Demo a few months ago the suspension felt natural to me. The super-short rear end suits me too, I like lively/poppy bikes.

It's guaranteed to be a LOT stiffer at the rear end than my Devinci was... I hope this is a good thing. I'm sure it is. Friends would often joke about the "sideways travel" on my Devinci, even with all-new bearings on it. I secretly hoped that maybe this was a good thing - enabling the bike to choose its own line rather than getting pinged off of stuff... Maybe.

There's no doubt that the off-the-shelf bike is an absolute steal at it's retail price of £4000 in the UK, but since I had a bunch of parts lying around the house I've made a few changes to it from stock, part weight-saving, part personal preference.

Renthal bars/stem, switched from SRAM to Shimano gearing. Lighter saddle/seatpost/pedals, etc. The dura-ace mech I'm using is at least 4 years old now, and still arrow straight with not a hint of slop in it. I'll run it until it dies!



Its first ride and set-up will be this weekend, can't wait. Going to be uplifting a few local tracks with some friends I've not ridden with since last season, good times.

:thumb:
 

dump

Turbo Monkey
Oct 12, 2001
8,194
4,419
I thought that perhaps this would be the new devinci carbon before opening up the thread. That's a bright bike, looks fun!
 

- seb

Turbo Monkey
Apr 10, 2002
2,924
1
UK
So there is... I see it was bumped back to the top in the minutes I spent writing this one too - I definitely hadn't spotted it before hand. Whoops :(

Not a big fan of the new Devincis dump - I'm sure they're great, they just don't excite me when I see them. I'm a bit "meh" about them. And I've always wanted to be Sam Hill Aaron Gwin ;)
 

- seb

Turbo Monkey
Apr 10, 2002
2,924
1
UK
Got out for two days uplifting on it this weekend. Thoughts:

1) 3 months is too long not to ride any DH. Completely useless at the start of the weekend!

2) My uselessness is definitely not the bike's fault - love it. Can't wait to get to grips with it and start to exploit it more over the next few weeks.