Fergus Ryan is out at the Sea Otter Classic in California racing the new Privateer 161 Gen 2. He’s using the one bike to race all three events of enduro, dual slalom and downhill. We stopped him for a chat to see how it’s going.
Hi, Fergus, so, what have you raced so far?
So, so far I’ve raced the Enduro yesterday morning and then I raced Dual Slalom yesterday afternoon. I did downhill practice yesterday as well, so a pretty busy day. And then we’ve got the actual downhill race on Sunday.
Okay, how’d you get on?
Enduro was tough, it was very pedally. I think I got 30th which is alright. It’s not too bad for racing a full Enduro bike on what was more of a cross country track, but I really enjoyed it. It is my first time at Sea Otter, so it’s really cool to get the opportunity just to be involved in the racing. And then myself and Bryson, one of the American athletes, went ahead and went up on the dual slalom course. Things were looking pretty good and… I had a bit of an unfortunate slide out in the qualifications. Unfortunately finals aren’t happening, but on the whole it was really fun. I loved every second. The dual slalom was amazing. It’s obviously such an iconic race here at Sea Otter. So yeah, just happy to be involved.
And then how’s the downhill course looking?
I love the downhill course. I think it’s amazing. Lots of jumps, berms, pedalling. Yeah, just everything that I like in it. It’s lots of fun. Not necessarily the most technical course, but definitely geared up to getting some pedals down. And yeah, I’m hopefully gonna do a few changes in my setup, it’s gonna be good fun.
What are you changing on the setup from race to race for different disciplines?
So as I mentioned before, the goal was to race all three events on the 161. So, for Enduro I left my setup pretty similar [to usual]. Tyre pressures were 26 and 22 PSI. I had 105 PSI in my fork and a 450 spring in the coil.
That’s with no inserts for your tyres as well, wasn’t it?
Yeah, no inserts for my tyres. We’ve got some sneaky new tires on at the moment and yeah, they just give me all the support I need, I’m not finding the need for that extra support with the inserts and it gives me plenty of side wall protection. No punctures just yet, so I’m happy about that.
Okay, and then you’ve got a coil on that bike at the minute, haven’t you?
Yeah, I have. For some of the more burly enduros, I just find it so much more supple and it works so well with our bike. Because of how progressive the linkage is on the bike we can afford to get away with a more linear suspension platform on it. So yeah, the coil works really well. But yeah, so I had a pretty normal – what I would consider my stock setup – as I would have in the UK for the Enduro.
Then we went to the dual slalom, I pretty much closed off all my high speed compression, all my low speed compression on the coil and the fork. I pumped my tyres up to 40 and 50 PSI just because I needed maximum rolling speed and even played around with almost locking out my shock. You just don’t want to lose any energy in the pumps. Which worked for practice and then I think I may have pushed it a little bit too hard in qualifications so I ended up sliding out! But, that was my change for that. I think for downhill I’m gonna go somewhere in between, so probably add a little bit more high speed compression maybe stick with my standard – I have three clicks from open on my low speed compression. Tyre pressures, I’m probably gonna go for 35 and 30 PSI. I think higher pressures definitely but not as high as I went for dual slalom. There’s a few flat corners and things where we want the extra grip. So they’re the main changes, no real changes to the cockpit setup. I like to have my pedals, my bars, my brakes – everything very similar across the board. That’s pretty much it really.
And how’s the body holding up then with the sliding out and all that?
Feeling a little bit worse for wear today! Obviously big day in the Enduro, then a bit of a slide out, got a few scrapes here and there, but it’s all good. This is all part of racing and I’m excited to get amongst it in the downhill.
And with hindsight on the Enduro, is there anything you would have changed on your setup?
I might have gone to an air shock. I think with an air shock you can pump it up that much harder and I could have run a slightly firmer setup on the rear. There weren’t too many technical corners on the track, so I wasn’t really finding myself needing that small bump sensitivity and grip that you get with the coils. With hindsight, yeah, I would have brought an air shock and whacked one of those on. But, you know, we’re doing one bike does all and I’ve just come off a big road trip through the US so I’ve had my same set up all through that so I wanted something I was confident in.
Oh, so you’ve been well practiced in the dust then?
Yeah, I’ve been getting used to the dust! We were in Utah, and then I did a bit in LA. So yeah, we’ve been experiencing the sand pit which has been very, very different from the wet that was the UK for the last six months.
Okay, and so is it back to the UK next?
Yep, back to the UK. I’ve got a week in the UK. Hopefully, fingers crossed, we’ll have some dusty trails. The Forest of Dean has been in desperate need of some dry weather. And then I’ve got a bit of wheel testing. I’m going back to dust in Finale Ligure in the north of Italy, so yeah, pretty excited.
And a full season of racing ahead?
Yeah, full season. I’ve got a few media projects lined up, I’ve been really enjoying getting involved in those. We obviously have our new bike, so plenty of opportunities to show what the bike’s really capable of, but yeah, I’m gonna be doing both sets of Crankworx, so Crankworkx in Innsbruck and Whistler. I’ve also got Ard Moors and Ard Rock in the UK, going to attend the Malverns Classic and then see. I’lll probably do a few EDRs as well. So yeah, a pretty busy schedule but I love it, love it.
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