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I reckon the 'only 10 year old' 888's probably helped him not be 22 seconds down.
STATO - Member
I reckon the 'only 10 year old' 888's probably helped him not be 22 seconds down.
Agreed. Would have been nice to see an actual comparison with some "proper" forks 😉
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That's surprising actually, I really expected it to be a big difference.
I wonder what the difference would be if you took a normal person instead of an ex-pro? I suspect Rob is probably quite capable to riding anything he's given, and to a normal person the 'flatter middle section' is probably quite steep and technical.
On the other extreme, how fast would the ATX be if it were 2 sizes bigger, set up right and (most importantly probably) with new tyres?
"Proper forks" - surely you mean these?!
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Yeah I reckon it would be a lot different for a 'normal person' too!
great article but very flawed bearing in mind the ATX was a medium which was tiny for Rob Warner, and the sh*tty Tioga tires with a hard compound
a great test would have involved the correct sized ATX and some half decent tires like the tires fitted to the 2015 Glory in the test
Or the Michellin he has on in that pic above (98/99?), best tyre at the time, way better than Tioga DH.On the other extreme, how fast would the ATX be if it were 2 sizes bigger, set up right and (most importantly probably) with new tyres?
Thinking about it more, the ATX wasn't a bad bike in '95, it wasn't a bad bike in 2005, IIRC Richard Jones (Bob-along?) was still using one at WC's way past when it was a top end bike, and 200mm forks instead of 150mm will be doing the head angle some favors.
In '95 disk brakes weren't even a given, and the Intense M1 still had a McPherson Strut suspension design!
still while thre are a few flaws the principle is pretty sound.
a decent size bike will be more useful than more recent suspension i think. tuned original boxxers wernt *that* shit.
but even so if he had a decent size and decent tyres he reconed he`d save another 5seconds. not far off really.
less fatigue is teh real bonus he found to teh modern bike. you can practice more
I'd say lack of fatigue when riding is the defining feature of modern DH bikes.
Having ridden DH bikes in the 90's all the way up to now I can say that I used to really struggle through a full day of riding in Whistler or the Alps. My arms and fingers use to cramp up and be very painful. Nowadays on Bos suspension it doesn't cross my mind and I stay out all day.
As they say in the video there's been no fundamental changes but every single thing is a little bit better than it used to be. Modern brakes and tyres being the most obvious for me. If you're confident in those you can really hang it out.
Watched the other vid (the interview style one) as well. Didn't seem Rob was too happy with his brake sponsors at the time, brakes was one area he has highlighted huge improvements.
Interestingly head angles on the team bikes were as slack as today.
Tbh, the bit of track they used for the comparison, although still a DH course, is nothing like a 2015 World Cup/Championship track (it's comparatively smooth)
As such, the poorly controlled, high friction suspension on the older bike wasn't as much a handful as it could have been!
Watch the way a modern DH bike goes through a modern rock garden, full of foot tall boulders without even slowing down these days. On the old Giant, you'd be on your face before you could say "Look at the TIME"..... 😉
For reference as to what 11s means 15s separated all bar 1 of the elite class at that race
https://www.rootsandrain.com/race2989/2015-sep-20-rose-bikes-bds-6-antur-stiniog/