Never raced xc. Last time I raced dh was 2012 or 2013. Back in college I did do a few trials comps.
Is DH hot again?
- Thread starter daisycutter
- Start date
Last time I raced anything was the Downieville Classic DH circa ~2006? It was a mechanical laden cluster-fuck of a run I'd rather not remember.
Probably when air resistance stops being a thing....
I have raced pretty much every year since 2002ish I think, probably missed a season or two early on while struggling for money as a student. All dh until around 2012 when I branched out into xc and enduro as well.
This summer (I'm in New Zealand so summer has just ended) I have done 5 dh races with one more to come, a couple of super d type races and a 3 day stage xc race. No enduro this year but I raced one last summer and I'm sure I'll do more again soon.
I raced dh on my trail bike for years and found it to be enjoyable, not as fast but I could still feel competitive, I had a couple of enduro 29ers, a trek slash and a gen 1 sentinel. However last summer Coronet Peak opened up again and the trail bike just didn't cut it up there so I bought a commencal supreme. I have obviously also used this for racing at skyline since I bought it and the results have improved marginally up there.
I imagine I'll be racing bikes in various types of races for years to come.
I've done two DH races so far on a single crown bike (3 if you include a drunken, broken hand, stolen numberplate episode about 12 years ago). Some local organisers are now running an enduro bike category to get numbers up, but I'm in Masters now so its not a huge difference which category I race in.
Yeah, that's key. I've been racing my trail bike in dh races since I moved to masters category haha.
I am stoked that thunder is investing in a second lift. Some of their trails have been a bit clapped out, but they keep adding them and they are genuinely fun. Their machine built stuff is top notch, too.
@Inclag I agree- it's tough to get people (especially newer riders) motivated to get off the jumps and berms and onto the steep and spooky stuff. I'm all good for a lap on gronk after a couple on the steeps, but I get bored AF doing back to back gronk or happy hour runs.
My 2014 fury is still going strong...it's the stiffest full suspension bike I've ridden to date and the geometry is up to date even if the wheel size isn't. I don't need nor want a new DH frame not because of wheel size, but because things haven't really changed dramatically since then. We have new wheel sizes, new offsets, higher pivots, and lighter weight now, but we had good geo, good tires, and good suspension in 2014/15....plus I can't afford a carbon DH bike.
What ya'll said. I'm quite happy doing Badger/Schist/Juggernaut/Winetree/Trillium all day long with a once in a while Gronk. Don't tend to run into too much traffic on most of those other than at junctions. Glad to see they've added some new stuff as well, and the 2nd lift sounds most excellent!
Missed the last half of 2019 due to injury, and all of last year due to Covid. Quite looking forward to this year.
I quit DH racing back in the “my x9 derailleur falls off every run/wtf do i do to find 30 seconds to make the local pro podium” phase and shortly thereafter started a bike brand that mostly sold road and cross bikes, so I raced what i needed to sell.
After cessation of peddling pushbikes i found myself wrenching at a bikepark for a few years. Lots of DH bike laps, on lots of different dh bikes, but no racing, because you end up chained to the workstand when you have a rental fleet to manage.
Eventually someone gave me an enduro bike, raced it a few times after i quit working the bikepark, until i remembered how much crap I break when I try to race, and how, without a bike brand to represent or product to promote, racing seems hollow and empty to a starry eyed child of NORBA.
I quickly found that i generally enjoy working races and promoting races more than racing (getting paid to be at bike races was always the dream, no?). 2019 i worked 30 events and raced zero, except for a few local singlespeed CX races. Working races eventually morphed into professional trailbuilding during the pandemic, focused on venue development for various dirty disciplines.
Having my racing age flip over to 40 last year got me excited to get racing again, I’d hoped to mostly race XC and road races this year to get my mental game tuned up for some local DH and grassroots enduro but it’s been near impossible to get my hands on a nica-style hardtail to get back into xc racing with, just like it’s pretty tough to pick up an aluminum DH frameset at the moment.
After cessation of peddling pushbikes i found myself wrenching at a bikepark for a few years. Lots of DH bike laps, on lots of different dh bikes, but no racing, because you end up chained to the workstand when you have a rental fleet to manage.
Eventually someone gave me an enduro bike, raced it a few times after i quit working the bikepark, until i remembered how much crap I break when I try to race, and how, without a bike brand to represent or product to promote, racing seems hollow and empty to a starry eyed child of NORBA.
I quickly found that i generally enjoy working races and promoting races more than racing (getting paid to be at bike races was always the dream, no?). 2019 i worked 30 events and raced zero, except for a few local singlespeed CX races. Working races eventually morphed into professional trailbuilding during the pandemic, focused on venue development for various dirty disciplines.
Having my racing age flip over to 40 last year got me excited to get racing again, I’d hoped to mostly race XC and road races this year to get my mental game tuned up for some local DH and grassroots enduro but it’s been near impossible to get my hands on a nica-style hardtail to get back into xc racing with, just like it’s pretty tough to pick up an aluminum DH frameset at the moment.
As much as I love racing, I think at this point of my life I'm content just being a spectator. I think.
They’ve been putting all of their work/money into Fort Hill the last few seasons. I love Fort Hill (at least to the last feature in my wheelhouse), but the Schist, Juggernaut side of the hill needs some serious love. Badger is holding up surprisingly well, but the other side definitely needs some maintenance. Not much dirt left.
When i was working at Thunder i had always joked that I hoped that they would put money into adding another 200ft of vert onto the hill so Schist and Too Easy wouldn’t be so short. Schist was always intended to decay into chunder as the years went on, but It’s hard to get over the sensation that going down the fall line on the front side will always be a little underwhelming for the uplift/descending time ratio. If you want to ride good steep DH, go to Jiminy and rail all day with no crowds and a 4 minute uplift.
The money makers for all these parks are the mega bro-dick jumplines, at this point. ‘grammable manufactured pablum to appeal to the stuntz set. Trailcrew is mostly kids who got into riding at the park, only a few of them ride tech trails. Clipz and footy for “tha boyz” as a culture lends itself to recreating on the feature rich stuff.
Bikepark is booming- downhill notsomuch.
The money makers for all these parks are the mega bro-dick jumplines, at this point. ‘grammable manufactured pablum to appeal to the stuntz set. Trailcrew is mostly kids who got into riding at the park, only a few of them ride tech trails. Clipz and footy for “tha boyz” as a culture lends itself to recreating on the feature rich stuff.
Bikepark is booming- downhill notsomuch.
One of you old-timers trying to hang on to former mid-pack glory won't be racing for the next 4 years
I often wondered if they could relatively simply reverse the weave of the schist so that the zig zag goes the other way. it would offer fresh dirt in the same space, and after several years of that, it could be swapped back ad infinitum.
I don't think it's the wrong length...in fact it's just about a perfect run from top to bottom if you ride with people who don't need to stop. Any longer and it gets tough to ride all day, any shorter and you're talking about ODB at highland.
Jiminy will always have better dirt and a faster lift, but you end up having to wait for all the bikes to collect at the top anyways.
I recollect one particular day at Thunder, hangin on my dear life riding the slippy-as-fcuk Juggernaut behind @schwaaa31 in rain. 
My favorite DH memory might be sugarbush post-rain with woody and some rando who sucked. They used the same DH trail every year, but right in the middle of it was this giant rock slab. it was absolutely terrifying, like barely any control at all, but not quite "i'm going to die" either, so it was all smiles. We were going as fast as we could, which wasn't much, but chasing each other down this super tech course in the mud trying not to die. Then we got shitfaced at the brewfest afterwards.I recollect one particular day at Thunder, hangin on my dear life riding the slippy-as-fcuk Juggernaut behind @schwaaa31 in rain.
Just bought a pass. Was debating pass vs. daily, but fuck it, this will give me a bit more incentive to make sure and get my lazy ass over there to ride/camp.
edit: yes, on my "enderpo" bike
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Whoa there. Peak light weight DH was the gen 5 V10. It was the moment Fox introduced the air 40, carbon frame production got good enough and carbon DH rims were just becoming available, while wheels were still small and reaches were still short. The year I was sponsored by the carbon rotor company my bike was 30.5lbs with 2.7" DHFs. While waiting for our starts at the top of the National Champs course in Angel Fire Gwin picked up my bike and couldn't believe it. He still beat me by 10 seconds and 15 places.
That was my last DH bike and the one I'm building this season is the current lightest frame (Gambler Tuned) so I'm curious how light it can be with 27 or mixed wheels. As I look over part weights everything seems either the same or heavier. The only place I see a potential improvement is Berd spokes but I don't want to use those on a DH wheelset.
Oh, those carbon rotors saved a 1/2lb over the already light Formula R1 rotors but didn't quite have as much bite. Once the company stopped making the special brake pads needed they became decorations.
Got mine as well. It comes with two passes to Killington and Windham as well. Makes it a little more reasonable. I won’t use the Windham ones, but definitely the Killington ones.
Haven't been to Windham, but it certainly adds appeal for making a road trip that direction. Pedal a day or two at SMBA, a day or three at the resort, head home.
Hmmm.
no but seriously, will plattekill ever open for DH again? I never got to ride the fury there...
Windham doesn't have a ton of trails but is absolutely worth it if you've never been.
ENDURO BIKES ARE JUST AS CAPABLE NEW ENDURODERPADURP FANNYPACK ENDURPODERP PIT VIPER DERPASTRAVADERP IVE BEEN BIKING FOR THREE YEARS NOW AND I'VE RIDDEN MOABADERP!!!
The last time I rode there was the last World Cup they had. The Citizens DH course was awesome. Jump trail was fun too. The WC DH trail was obviously closed to non racers. Is that an open trail regularly?
Yea the WC track is open, I've ridden it. Although the big jumps at the bottom obviously aren't there.
Just home after first DH race in two years. So fucken good.
> enduro bike =/= DH bike unless you're really really good.
> Rennie is back in shape and looks to be doing well for himself, although he pussied out of the race he did do 100kph on the shuttle road on his V10
> Graves is always an animal but he didn't race for some reason. Probably scared of me
> i'm old as shit and fuck crashes hurt now
> no joke 90% of the field was on Assegai/DHR2 combos.
> post race beer and burgers are the best shit ever
>kids these days have waaaaaay too nice bikes
>kids these days can't talk smack like the old crew at all. Useless. The old boy grades displayed fine form
>11/22 in 40-49 category. A long way from the podium though.
> enduro bike =/= DH bike unless you're really really good.
> Rennie is back in shape and looks to be doing well for himself, although he pussied out of the race he did do 100kph on the shuttle road on his V10
> Graves is always an animal but he didn't race for some reason. Probably scared of me
> i'm old as shit and fuck crashes hurt now
> no joke 90% of the field was on Assegai/DHR2 combos.
> post race beer and burgers are the best shit ever
>kids these days have waaaaaay too nice bikes
>kids these days can't talk smack like the old crew at all. Useless. The old boy grades displayed fine form
>11/22 in 40-49 category. A long way from the podium though.
Wanker
Nice.
Racing is fucking rad man. I really struggle with this time of year, races are done, it's getting cold and dark and u can't even go skiing yet.
Still one late season race in a few weeks though.
Assegai/dhr2 is a good combo, but Magic Mary f+r is my choice.
Racing is fucking rad man. I really struggle with this time of year, races are done, it's getting cold and dark and u can't even go skiing yet.
Still one late season race in a few weeks though.
Assegai/dhr2 is a good combo, but Magic Mary f+r is my choice.
I corked my thigh so bad haha. My front steps are a nightmare to get up now.
I love the Marys, but on the rear I think they're too slow rolling unless you're doing fall line stuff. Keen to try the Big Betty.
I hope so. There's nothing I've ever seen elsewhere that compares to their steepness, loose rocky slides or just plain "natural" trails. "Man made features" do not exist at Platty.
platty will always be available via private rental.
last time i checked it was around $2k, but you’ll need to do your own maintenance.
last time i checked it was around $2k, but you’ll need to do your own maintenance.
I will never not have a DH bike
People who hump their trenduro bikes need to watch some Earthed
But to answer OPs question, lots of people with 1 year old dentist bikes will be hitting the parks again this year. Cant wait
People who hump their trenduro bikes need to watch some Earthed
But to answer OPs question, lots of people with 1 year old dentist bikes will be hitting the parks again this year. Cant wait
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Also keen to give a BB a go, probably in super dh rather than super gravity, so many tyre /insert combos to try and I don't ride that much dh apart from race days.
Also, my local dh areas are predominantly fall line.
To be fair I do pretty much hump my trenduro bike. It's so good, downhill on it is still fun, if not quite as fast.
But I am very hap to have both.