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Suggestions for Super D Bikes

lonewolfe

Monkey
Nov 14, 2002
408
0
Bay Area
Hey, I am interested in finding out more about Super D racing. What do you all think are the best types of bikes for this type of racing? More of an all mountain type bike than downhill?
 

MikeD

Leader and Demogogue of the Ridemonkey Satinists
Oct 26, 2001
11,669
1,713
chez moi
Really depends on your particular course, in my experience. Super D seems to be widely varying as far as up vs. down, length, and technicality.

All in all, though, something like a Cannodale Prophet (on the DH-y end of geometry), Turner 5-Spot, or Yeti 575 seems like a good choice. Heckler and Blur 4x (blur actually would be awesome, now that I think about it...) also come to mind.

You really will make your money on the climbs, I think, and if you're an aggressive rider, should be able to handle the DH-ish parts on any of these bikes well enough to keep any lead you gain on the climbs.

Definitely look with an eye towards pedalling and climbing for Super D. An expertly-handled lightweight bike is going to tromp a heavy slogger 99% of the time. You want a frame that can make the most of your pedalling. I saw an ancient Yeti XC HT tromp the field in my 1st Super D, and that was an 80% downhill singletrack course.

MD
 

vitox

Turbo Monkey
Sep 23, 2001
2,936
1
Santiago du Chili
yea like he miked said, if theres just a little bit uphill or in general pedalling involved, you will benefit from a bike that doesnt slow you down much more than from a heavier bike on the difficult parts, take a look at what the guys use at the mega avalanches, mostly 5" bikes with SC forks and not big ones at that.

a blur lt might be a good option, a good pedalling position is crucial, i remember the french commencal megavalanche team used remote control seatposts!
 

preppie

Monkey
Aug 30, 2002
379
0
Europe
What about the Specialized Enduro SX Trail with a Fox 36?
6" travel front and rear and not too heavy to climb.
It 'could' be the bike that fills the gap between all-mountain and DH.

I don't have much ride time on the enduro, but enough to want one as a replacement for my Bighit. I don’t HitBig enough to "need" 8.1".
 

Super-man

Chimp
Jun 20, 2005
56
0
Orem, UT
It really depends on the course. I've done a few SuperD's and they are all different. When NORBA came to Deer Valley, they used the Sport DH course for the SuperD and just added a climb to the first of it. I used my DH bike for that. Then I've done other SuperD's that it I had used my DH bike, I would have probably lost about 5 or 6 minutes off my time.
I say, if your an experienced rider you should be able to handle most of the DH on any bike, the climbs and maintaining a fast speed on the straight aways is the most important, so I would get a smaller bike. If you want to start to get more into DH, then get a bigger trail bike.
 

leprechaun

Turbo Monkey
Apr 17, 2004
1,009
0
SLC,Ut
defenatly an all mountain bike that is light.
A 575 is my choice,it's the lightest long travel trail bike that i know of.
5.75",6.1 lbs

I hope the courses get more tech but the climbing seems to be where the passing happens,and the dh parts are usually easy.

At Brianhead Nat. it ws a Le Mans mass start and i jogged to my bike instead of sprinting and was in the back of the pack when we hit the singletrack,so i could not bomb by the XC goons in front of me.I had to hammer the 1st climb since there was room to pass there.A lighter bike would have been an advantage on that course.

Rumor had it that the Mammoth course will be far more challenging but looks to have a long flat,or uphill section too.
It goes down 1/2 of the Kamakaze then traverses way over past a mid mountain lake then descends a bunch of switchbacks to the bottom of the lower mountain! Sounds like you may want more than a pure XC bike for this one.Still,a light bike,but maybe some bigger tires would be ideal.

Also the Deer Valley one is cool.Time trial format.You ride the whole upper mountain,then climb 1 significant hill,then ride the sport DH course! Still,a long travel light XC bike with a good front tire sounds right.

Krispy
 

Cant Climb

Turbo Monkey
May 9, 2004
2,683
10
At the Snowshoe national i know a couple guys switched from their 5 inch bikes to DH bikes with smaller tires, tubes......
 

jackalope

Mental acuity - 1%
Jan 9, 2004
7,596
5,894
in a single wide, cooking meth...
Cant Climb - At the Snowshoe national i know a couple guys switched from their 5 inch bikes to DH bikes with smaller tires, tubes......
True that...I practiced that course on my Preston, and was completely overwhelmed with the rock garden section and general gnarlyness of the high speed rock ditches...Switched to my V-10 and got 3rd in my class...Saw tons of dudes on trail bikes eating complete sh!t in that nasty rock garden, while the DH bikes blasted through it and just felt a lot more comfortable at high speed...Just had one minor climb to deal with, then it was ON...Btw, I think Weir won the event on a full on DH rig...

Just depends on the course IMHO...So ideally, I'd definitely recommend pre-riding the course and bring at least two bikes (a trail bike and a DH type rig if ya got it) and make a decision after your practice runs...
 

leprechaun

Turbo Monkey
Apr 17, 2004
1,009
0
SLC,Ut
Yeah,2 bikes.
After 12 years of DH i'm gonna give super d my all next summer.

I'll bring the 575 with a Vanilla 130,28 lbs/
ASX with a 150/170 sc fork DRS guide,35-37 lbs depending on tires.
One of these bikes ought to do the job

I hope there will be some ASX worthy courses other than Downyville!
 
L

Lightninleana

Guest
I raced my Prophet at all the Super D nationals this year and it worked awesome. It was my four cross bike so I only had one front gear which ultimatly killed me on all the uphills but I always had a blast when it turned into downhill. If your a downhiller I would recommend doing 2-3 minute uphill sprints this winter, standing up and cranking it. The damn XC racers can make up crazy time on the uphills I've found out. The only course I used a cross country bike on was the race in Arizona which was more of a time trial than a super D, and my climbing sucked so bad I didn't want to use a full downhill bike for any of the courses.
I would say the average time of a super D race is about 17 minutes and about 4-5 of those are uphill. Those one seat posts that go up and down might be worth looking into, I think it would be really beneficial.
 

dogwonder

Nitro
May 3, 2005
1,849
0
Walking the Earth
I think the Nomad is the perfect bike. Weir won @ Mt. Snow on one.

6" in the back
68 degree head angle
pedals well

I rode a 575 but thanks to a flat 1/3 of the way, finished dead last. If I were serious, I'd be on a Nomad.
 

Bicyclist

Turbo Monkey
Apr 4, 2004
10,152
2
SB
A Specialized Enduro with light tires. Those bikes are absurdly fast on the downhill and climb pretty well too. In the new DIRT mag they beat their times on full-on DH bikes on rocky, technical downhills. That would be a great super d bike.
 

lonewolfe

Monkey
Nov 14, 2002
408
0
Bay Area
I currently have a Foes FXR with Curnutt in the rear and a Pike in the front. I'm running kind of a heavier wheelset with Mavic 521D's laced to Hadley hubs and a Nevegal 2.1 DC Folding in the rear and a Nevegal 2.3 Sticky Folding in the front. The bike is a large and weighs about 33lbs. I also have a Bullit with 888 built pretty burly at about 43lbs. I think the Bullit is too much bike but was thinking the Foes might do the trick. I wish it was a few lbs lighter though. I've ridden it on the same gnarlly trails that I've taken the Bullit on but at a noticeably slower speed.

As for the Nomad, I have my eye on one of those to replace both of my current bikes. I think that will someday be my ideal bike.
 

leprechaun

Turbo Monkey
Apr 17, 2004
1,009
0
SLC,Ut
gonzostrike said:
obviously Cannondale's continued sponsorship of Cedric Gracia has got a lot of people ignoring the ride quality.

OH that's some funny shizzle.

After getting my Float PUSHed to try to get mt non-linkage falling rate single pivot trailbike to feel just OK i gave up.It still feels like crap.At least the Pushed shock fits the 575.

Isn't the Profit like 90% the same as the bikes they've been making for 10 years??
C'mon it's friday afternoon,lets fight behind the Gym at 3.00 :blah:
 

dw

Wiffle Ball ninja
Sep 10, 2001
2,943
0
MV
Heikki Hall rides my Iron Horse Hollowpoint MTX with a 5" fork.

Dave
 

seabass

Chimp
Aug 30, 2002
80
0
knoxville, tn
Yep, a Prophet, 575, Blur or Intense 5.5 would all be great choices. Don't forget the most important thing. Strong legs and lungs. Super D is like "old" DH races. The difference between the fast and slow guys on tech sections usually equal fractions of a second where as the difference on the pedaling sections will be worth 10 or 20+ seconds.
 

ohio

The Fresno Kid
Nov 26, 2001
6,649
23
SF, CA
dogwonder said:
I think the Nomad is the perfect bike. Weir won @ Mt. Snow on one.

6" in the back
68 degree head angle
pedals well

I rode a 575 but thanks to a flat 1/3 of the way, finished dead last. If I were serious, I'd be on a Nomad.
Um, if you finished dead last on a 575, then "getting serious" would mean training, not switching to a Nomad, which would be a pretty negligable change.

Honestly, all of these bikes are good, and all are pretty similar. Assuming you've got the shock tuned properly, there's going to be virtually no difference in your race times, unles you have a strong preference for a given geometry (I personally prefer slacker).
 

dogwonder

Nitro
May 3, 2005
1,849
0
Walking the Earth
ohio said:
Um, if you finished dead last on a 575, then "getting serious" would mean training, not switching to a Nomad, which would be a pretty negligable change.

Honestly, all of these bikes are good, and all are pretty similar. Assuming you've got the shock tuned properly, there's going to be virtually no difference in your race times, unles you have a strong preference for a given geometry (I personally prefer slacker).
Check the post again...a flat 1/3 of the way in makes it difficult to be competitive in any race, especially where pedalling is involved, no matter what bike you are on. My training runs would have put me top 5 but when you lose 5 minutes on a 7 minute course, not much you can do to make up for that...
 

Transcend

My Nuts Are Flat
Apr 18, 2002
18,040
3
Towing the party line.
Without being too much of a brand whore...check out a patriot 66. I rode one for the first time at the product launch for 06 in Ft Bill (crashed it actually). It felt amazing with a 36 on it. I really, really want one now.
 

MikeD

Leader and Demogogue of the Ridemonkey Satinists
Oct 26, 2001
11,669
1,713
chez moi
dogwonder said:
Check the post again...a flat 1/3 of the way in makes it difficult to be competitive in any race, especially where pedalling is involved, no matter what bike you are on. My training runs would have put me top 5 but when you lose 5 minutes on a 7 minute course, not much you can do to make up for that...
So if the flat was the problem, what's that got to do with the frame at all??

MD
 

Zutroy

Turbo Monkey
Dec 9, 2004
2,443
0
Ventura,CA
dogwonder said:
You missed the point...Weir dominates Super D and he chooses the Nomad.

Actually he doesn't....downieville yes....SuperD as a whole no. Not to say Wier is not a total bad ass.........
 

sanjuro

Tube Smuggler
Sep 13, 2004
17,373
0
SF
If this means anything, in Norba Nationals, Maverick won Super D 4 times and Santa Cruz (Mark Weir) twice.
 

dogwonder

Nitro
May 3, 2005
1,849
0
Walking the Earth
Zutroy said:
Actually he doesn't....downieville yes....SuperD as a whole no. Not to say Wier is not a total bad ass.........
I think he won every event he entered this year...he skipped most of the season though. I could be wrong...but I think he did dominate when he chose to play.
 

dogwonder

Nitro
May 3, 2005
1,849
0
Walking the Earth
MikeD said:
So if the flat was the problem, what's that got to do with the frame at all??

MD
Not much, but I still think the geometry of a Nomad will be better suited for Super-D. Slightly more slack in the head angle, more rear-wheel travel...