[fwp]

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/giant-atx-1-vs-glory-rob-warner-2015.html
1996 Giant ATX one vs 2015 Glory timed DH run comparison. surprising results?

20 year old Giant ATX one two sizes too small, (probably 50lbs+) with Original tires and brakes that didn't really work.
Just 11 seconds slower on a steep National level racecourse than a full factory Giant Glory 650B??



I don't know where to start? I'll let you guys

 

[Bikael Molton]

11 secs is a huge margin at a WC DHI. Top 30 even?

That said, it's always been the rider much more than the bike, to use an age old corny phrase.

 

[ianjenn]

He even said with better tires he would have been faster still on the ATX so.... who knows may have been much closer.

 

[Cant Climb]

Plus the ATX was much too small for him, Would like to see him on proper sized frame but keep the old style tyres. Those Tiogas had awesome tread pattern, mini-spike before mini-spike existed.

.

 

[Gary]

Dude. did you ever ride those TIOGAs?
despite how the tread patern looks. A mini spike is pretty much the last way I'd have described their performance.

Pity that ATX didn't have a set of Comp 16s... 7 seconds right there

 

[Cant Climb]

Dude. did you ever ride those TIOGAs?

Rode them for 10 years on my trail bike. They were good, real good.
Sidewall was terrible for DH. Flats every run.

 

[Gary]

Yep. those are the ones

 

[fwp]

11 seconds is a decent margin, but considering all the factors and looking at both bikes next to each other, its not nearly what the industry would like you to think? I would bet there is more than half that margin between a modern factory race bike and a modern grassroots racers bike. I highly doubt Giant would have wanted that story released given the outcome?

 

[dump]

Dude. did you ever ride those TIOGAs?
despite how the tread patern looks. A mini spike is pretty much the last way I'd have described their performance.

Pity that ATX didn't have a set of Comp 16s... 7 seconds right there

Those tiogas were pretty decent in the dry and quite nice on grass... not good in the wet or even mixed conditions at all. terrible sidewalls... very light though!

 

[trib]

If we could repeat the experiment but with Steve Peat on his GT Lobo, Dhi, Orange 222, Worlds winning bike and first and last years v10s that'd be an interesting read.

 

[Jm_]

Rode them for 10 years on my trail bike. They were good, real good.
Sidewall was terrible for DH. Flats every run.

I rode those too! They were good because we didn't know any better. The only good thing was the the 2.3 was really a 2.5, unlike today when they lie the other way.


If you ran Tioga DHs on Mammoth rims, go and do a shot of scotch right now!

 

[Jm_]

Disappoint. Was hoping for:

It was even a "finger-bike"

 

[Cant Climb]

The ATX has a super tall 8 inch 888 on it.....?......not period at all.....

 

[Sandwich]

Can anyone explain to me how the timing works? Split one is 1:45, split 2 is 1:51, "min time" is 2:15. Does that mean the "Splits" are 6 seconds apart, and the entire track ends 25 seconds later at 2:15seconds long? Or is split 1 1:45, split 2 is 1:51, and he went back in time a minute and a half?

11 seconds over a 2:15 course is pretty huge...

 

[dump]

The headcam side-by-side suggests track is ~ 2:30.

 

[trib]

had a quick reread and it seems that Warner (true to form) didn't pedal during the flat part of the course, at all, on either bike. Considering that a big part of modern DH bikes is you can pedal them (especially with those 6fiddybees) it'd seem that the Glory would only get faster in comparison to the ATX

 

[Sandwich]

The headcam side-by-side suggests track is ~ 2:30.

thanks, so he's about 7.5% faster on the new bike. That's kind of a lot.

 

[Jm_]

Plus, 1996...lets think for a minute here, the boxxer 151 was 1999, the first version with the purple crowns was 1998 I believe, so rewinding back to 1996. what was there? The handful of long-travel forks made by Risse, Foes and Hannebrink? There's no way that bike has an era-correct fork on it. Take a nice fork with a shitty bike attached and you can go pretty fast, especially on a short track where it's more of a "sprint" and you just hold on for dear life, vs. where later on it fatigues you so much at that speed that you simply get flung off the damn thing.

As the other posters are pointing out on the PB thread, I don't even think the ATX came out until later anyway...doesn't seem to actually be a 1996 bike there.

 

[dump]

Did Sandwich just imply that the boxxer 151 is a nice fork!? I liked mine way back when... but the limitations were very clear.

 

[dump]

Loved how easy it was to service. That was amazing.

 

[Sandwich]

Whoa now, that was definitely not me!

 

[dump]

Whoa now, that was definitely not me!

Oh, it was Jm_ ... sorry! A well-documented old-school boxxer lover. Was he the one that said the 2003 boxxer team + tuned shim stack was the pinnacle of mtb suspension?

 

[demo 9]

I tend to think that there would be a very large margin if you were to take a current top pro and repeat it. The old bike may have been near its limits but i bet that new giant had alot left in the tank...

How did his time stack up against the recent pro times from this track a few weeks back?

 

[dump]

I tend to think that there would be a very large margin if you were to take a current top pro and repeat it. The old bike may have been near its limits but i bet that new giant had alot left in the tank...

How did his time stack up against the recent pro times from this track a few weeks back?

Yes. Next topic!

 

[Jm_]

Oh, it was Jm_ ... sorry! A well-documented old-school boxxer lover. Was he the one that said the 2003 boxxer team + tuned shim stack was the pinnacle of mtb suspension?

Boxxer Race, that was where it was at.

 

[Gary]

In '96 Warner rode his first ATX-1 with lots of different forks. I remember seeing him at UK Nationals with a single crown Marzocchi Z1, a shitty RST upside down thing and a Boxxer.
Forks back then didn't really matter. everyone fast pretty much rode the back wheel and used a fork that was too soft... Warner was (prob still is) the king of this style of riding.
The ATX-1 production model came with a 6" Boxxer... Pretty much everyone had them... well... everyone who wasn't on an LTS or that Cannondale

Check me. Talking forks. Using locationally correct pluralisms an' everything

I need a beer.

 

[peecee]

I loved this idea when I saw it but to be honest they could of found a better ATX for him surly its a horrible mule with bits from all era's by the looks of it, I think he sold all his bikes he had back in the day.

There is a article somewhere from 6 or 7 years ago where Warner mentions his ATX back in 99/00 had a 63 degree head angle.

They should of hit me up and asked to use my replica, this scan from Dirt is what I based it off.

and here she is after 2 years of searching the world i managed to get it finished, I even have a RS Blackbox shock like the one pictured above but its currently out of action

http://www.pinkbike.com/u/heavyp/album/Giant-ATX-DH-Team-Rob-Warner-Replica/

 

[Kevin]

More of this please.

 

[csermonet]

I loved this idea when I saw it but to be honest they could of found a better ATX for him surly its a horrible mule with bits from all era's by the looks of it, I think he sold all his bikes he had back in the day.

There is a article somewhere from 6 or 7 years ago where Warner mentions his ATX back in 99/00 had a 63 degree head angle.

I just watched the video/interview in the article and he does mention that his old ATX race bike had custom geo with a 63.5 head angle. that and the fact that he was on a medium for the test definitely added a few seconds. this was a pretty cool concept though, i would love to see some more riders do this. It's also cool to see Rob stoked on riding again, you can tell he is really enjoying it. I'm happy for him

 

[Gary]

this scan from Dirt is what I based it off.

10/10 for attention to detail. specifically matching Rob's BB height mid-manual.

Your pic looks to be from the UK NPS around 97/98.
around that time Rob had an 8" ATX-1 for world cups and a 6" ATX-1 he'd use at UK races.
I still remember him choosing to ride the 6" version at the Innerleithen NPS (UK National series) where most of the English guys thought they'd come to a proper WC track. Rob put something like 11secs into everybody in possibly the worst conditions, rootiest and longest track the hill had ever used.
Despite winning rob still complained that the BCF (British Cycling) had ruined the event by cutting the track short with a shitty pedal across a grass field so it could finish next to the trade stands. He (as usual) was spot on.
Guys a total legend.

BTW. Rob never used those shitty signature pedals. Don't think anyone ever did.