The start of the downhill season often signals the launch of a wealth of new tech, with YT launching its new Tues bike at Fort William this year.
With numerous off-season mules being unveiled, there was plenty of exciting new tech on display at the opening round of the UCI Downhill World Cup in Scotland.
Here are some of our favourites from a thrilling weekend of downhill action.
We Are One Composites prototype
We Are One has been teasing its prototype downhill bike for a little while now, with the brand displaying it at Whistler Crankworx last year and at Sea Otter last month.
The bike shares many similarities with the We Are One Arrival enduro bike, with the rear triangles looking identical.
A host of tunable flip chips in the linkage sets it apart, with the We Are One mechanics saying BB height, suspension travel and geometry can all be adjusted.
Canadian Mark Wallace has gone for 205mm of rear-suspension travel, with damping from a RockShox Super Deluxe Ultimate Coil.
Up front, a RockShox Boxxer Ultimate provides 200mm of suspension travel.
Wallace’s bike is set up in a mullet configuration, with a 29in front wheel and a 27.5in rear wheel – though we’re told the bike can be run as a full 29er.
A set of the brand’s Strife rims are laced to Industry Nine Hydra hubs, and are booted in Maxxis Minion DHR II tyres front and rear.
Canyon Sender prototype
Canyon has been secretly testing its new Sender since the start of the year, but we got our first glimpse of the new frame in the pits.
Previous spy shots didn’t reveal the frame itself, with a black cover keeping prying eyes from seeing what was going on with the suspension linkage.
Now we can see Canyon has given the new Sender a high-pivot design that looks to utilise a six-bar suspension design.
Six-bar linkages give suspension designers more tuning options, allowing for leverage rate, anti-squat and anti-rise to be altered independently of one another.
Looking at how refined the frame, hardware and cable routing seem to be, we’d guess this prototype is very near production – with carbon moulding not being a cheap option for prototyping, as seen with Pivot’s Phoenix and the Specialized Demo.
e*thirteen Sidekick hub
Many e*thirteen-sponsored riders were seen riding a new Sidekick hub, with some stickered up and looking production-ready, while others were blacked out.
Lovers of loud whines when coming down the mountain are out of luck, with the hub emitting almost no sound.
We’re yet to find out what's inside the hub, but we've been told there's some sort of chain-decoupling device inside to reduce pedal kickback, similar to Ochain’s Active Spider crank.
When the rear suspension articulates, the distance between the bottom bracket and rear dropout increases, meaning more chain is needed on the topside of the drivetrain.
This causes the pedals to rotate backwards and can result in extra resistance in the suspension linkage, making it less sensitive.
High-pivot suspension designs reduce this by having an idler puller above the crankset, but this has its disadvantages when it comes to drivetrain efficiency.
Last year, we saw Fox patent a chain decoupler that looks to fit inside a Race Face Vault hub, but it appears e*thirteen might have beaten the brand to the punch.
Deviate Tilander
While not racing, Deviate brought along its latest titanium prototype, based on the Highlander platform.
The frame is made from carbon-neutral powder to form 3D-printed lugs using cold metal fusion technology.
These lugs are then welded to titanium tubes.
Similar to Atherton Bikes, this could allow for custom geometries and increased size range if it comes to market.
Deviate says titanium is a great material for making mountain bikes because it exhibits impressive flexibility and vibration damping.
The bike has an 18t chain idler sitting on the seat tube, with the familiar grease injection ports present on the outboard fully sealed bearings from the Highlander II.
RockShox ‘Foxxer’
World champion Vali Höll’s YT Tues featured a head-scratching front fork, with the RockShox-sponsored rider using a gold-stanchioned unit with white lowers.
The fork is a Boxxer Flight Attendant, but RockShox has given the stanchions a makeover, replacing the black stanchions with gold.
These aren’t Kashima-coated like those found on Fox’s Factory series, because Fox owns the license for using the finish in the bike industry.
Apart from the colourway, the fork seems to be pretty standard, apart from the Flight Attendant system that isn’t available to the public on the Boxxer.
