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Leogang 2014 WC #4

Gary

"S" is for "neo-luddite"
Aug 27, 2002
7,631
5,547
UK
Laurence's photographu is awesome and a breath of fresh air in his approach to capturing the WCs in pictures..

Good call Dirt now get Billy back and demote Jones making his tea ;)
 

toodles

ridiculously corgi proportioned
Aug 24, 2004
5,502
4,752
Australia
Even though I don't normally wear armour myself, I can't understand why riders kick up such a fuss when it is mandated in a particular country. If everyone is wearing it, surely there's not much to be gained or lost? And running cardboard instead - haha.
 

trib

not worthy of a Rux.
Jun 22, 2009
1,478
421
yep. from what I understand gloves, elbow, knee and back protection is needed. Plus helmet of course
 

Gary

"S" is for "neo-luddite"
Aug 27, 2002
7,631
5,547
UK
:( gloves make no sense!.. Is this an Austrian or euro rule? Why no consistency?.. Like the UCI's ever heard of such a thing
 

supercow

Monkey
Feb 18, 2009
969
128
Massive respect for Gwin, but so stoked on a Bryceland win!
26" DH bike wins by large margin, Internet about to explode.
 

4130biker

PM me about Tantrum Cycles!
May 24, 2007
3,884
449
Psyched for Ratboy! What a great race! Gwin is nuts- going so fast with no tire!
 

toodles

ridiculously corgi proportioned
Aug 24, 2004
5,502
4,752
Australia
Gwin is easily faster than me on a bare rim. Fsck.

Speech impediment boy for the win though. Awesome to see. Great event they've run there, loved the cable cam sections.
 

Pegboy

Turbo Monkey
Jan 20, 2003
1,139
27
New Hamp-sha
Scary fact: Gwin would have beat 99% of the people on this board, on the rim alone..tire dragging, down that track! Not trying to be A fanboy, but that may have been the most impressive display of skill all day.

Awesome mix up of wins this season!
 

Uncle Cliffy

Turbo Monkey
Jan 28, 2008
4,490
42
Southern Oregon
Scary fact: Gwin would have beat 99% of the people on this board, on the rim alone..tire dragging, down that track! Not trying to be A fanboy, but that may have been the most impressive display of skill all day.

Awesome mix up of wins this season!
99% is a pretty generous figure.
 

Samoto

Guest
Dec 16, 2013
402
0
Bummer for luici. He has smoothest style. I'm stoked for him and Bryce. Troy too.

It's about time that gwin gives up lol.
 

supercow

Monkey
Feb 18, 2009
969
128
Did you notice how much everyone's wheels (except for the 26ers) were flexing and chattering all over the place?

It looked like 1998 all over again.
Funny you should mention, but I did in fact notice, but thought that perhaps it was just my imagination.
 

TrumbullHucker

trumbullruxer
Aug 29, 2005
2,284
719
shimzbury, ct
well i guess that was good leg training for gwin.. was waiting for his rim to explode


i thought i saw some flexing.. especially the slow mo rock garden camera shot

bring back "looks flexy" along with root beer color

f*ck monday.. i want to party with all the lads
 

joeg

I have some obvious biases
Jul 20, 2011
198
137
Santa Cruz CA
Did you notice how much everyone's wheels (except for the 26ers) were flexing and chattering all over the place?
I thought it was just me noticing that, but I thought it was flexy frames. Was it really a 26" wheel thing? I didn't watch all the race runs, and most of the non V10 runs I saw were on 27.5.
 

ButtersNZ

Monkey
Jun 6, 2013
176
10
Brilliant display of skill from Gwin but what an awesome event all around. Feel a little gutted for Brook Mac dropping to 4th with only 0.025 sec between him and Minaar. What a tight race.
 

toodles

ridiculously corgi proportioned
Aug 24, 2004
5,502
4,752
Australia
Would have loved to see where bruni ended up if he hasn't washed out
Didn't he end up like 6 seconds back even with washing out?

Forget gym work and road bike training. Upcoming DH racers need to practise crash recovery speed. I'm always amazed how quick they get going again.
 

weedkilla

Monkey
Jul 6, 2008
362
10
But lots of wheels looking like they had no place under the fastest riders in the fastest discipline of the sport.

I wasn't even really thinking about it but after about 15-20 riders I just started wondering why everyone's wheels looked like they weren't tracking for shlt.
And yet - gwin. Wtf?

I decided what had contributed to the wheels that looked bad was some poor suspension tunes. It looked like they could tune for the big jumps, or the roots, or neither.
Very few looked like they had found a good compromise.
 

kidwoo

Artisanal Tweet Curator
And yet - gwin. Wtf?

I decided what had contributed to the wheels that looked bad was some poor suspension tunes. It looked like they could tune for the big jumps, or the roots, or neither.
Very few looked like they had found a good compromise.

Heh......I was just thinking it was camera angles. Lots of shots facing downhill where you could get a pretty sustained view of back wheels.

Camera angles and flexier wheels. I mean it was like literally everyone, except for a handful. Watching the replay this morning I was literally pulling up bike websites (trek, scott, etc) to see what bikes were running what wheels. It was only after about 5 or so that I realized what I was seeing. 26ers were bending around a lot less. I looked up fairclough's bike thinking 'damn' that thing is tracking, fulling thinking they were 27.5s. Nope. And what I'm talking about was definitely wheel deflection and flex. I know what that looks like vs. a choppy suspension setup. You really could see wheels twisting.

Not sure what you mean by gwin.
 
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weedkilla

Monkey
Jul 6, 2008
362
10
The gwin comment was just my amazement that his wheel didn't implode.

I'm 99% sure that wheel flex was a constant across most of the 27.5 stuff. And the obvious 26 team - Santa Cruz has the stiffest wheel set, irrespective of size.

Still pretty sure very few had found a good suspension tune for what we saw on tv. Fairly sure Rachel Arherton was asking Carpentor about arm pump after her run, i think that perhaps some riders were getting beaten up and chased a fork tune to suit. This is total speculation, but fits what I saw.
 

William42

fork ways
Jul 31, 2007
3,915
651
As far as I can tell, gwins wheel probably wouldn't have flexed if he had a tire on it, because it was made of indestructibullium. That was hands down my favorite run to watch of the day, which was strange because he ended up over 30 seconds back. The corners were even better then the rock gardens.