After winning the MTB World Championships in Champéry, the UCI Mountain Bike World Series in Lenzerheide was the first time we'd seen the world champion stripes on Jackson Goldstone’s bike.
Some interesting tech points were hiding on his Santa Cruz V10, including a prototype Fox 40 fork and new Shimano brake calipers that we believe are prototypes for an upcoming Saint groupset.
While Goldstone showed good speed for the whole weekend, qualifying fourth on Saturday, an unfortunate crash in his race run cost him 8 seconds and resulted in a 22nd place.
We checked out the new world champion’s bike in the pits to get a close-up look at the rainbow details.
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Fox 40 prototype
At the front of Goldstone’s bike is a new Fox Factory 40 fork, which features stickers from the brand’s RAD (Racing Application Development) programme.
Unlike the Podium fork, Fox has kept a traditional design for downhill racing.
The crown looks to feature the generative architecture we’ve seen on Fox’s latest forks, including the new 36, where the brand says it increased torsional stiffness by 20 per cent.
At the top of the stanchion, it appears the fork is using a GRIP X2 damper, the same as that found on the current 40. However, we’d expect the insides to be different from how it’s labelled.
New Shimano Saint brakes
It’s been nearly 13 years since Shimano last updated its Saint groupset, with many fearing the Japanese brand had forgotten its gravity-inspired riders.
While we’ve seen nothing of a new drivetrain, these chunky stoppers suggest Shimano has something in the works.
The calipers are much larger than the recently released XTR 9220 brakes, closer to SRAM’s Mavens, hinting that these may be the big-power brakes many fans have been waiting for.
An XTR lever is used in conjunction with the caliper on Goldstone’s bike, which we assume means the lever on upcoming Saint brakes may be the same.
With SRAM showing a prototype DH AXS at the weekend, could we see the big brands bringing updates to their downhill bikes next year?
Rainbow delight
Goldstone took the stripes two weeks ago in Champéry, but we’ve had to wait until now to see them.
The 21-year-old American's team have gone to great lengths to make sure his victory is well celebrated across the bike, with the stripes featuring on various components.
Goldstone’s bike features other techy details, with his raceplate hiding a tuned mass damper.
We’ve seen a few riders experimenting with this, with the component said to reduce the amplitude and duration of vibrations down the trail.
At the centre of the bike, an Ochain device is used to reduce pedal kickback, while a STFU Trail chain damper is used to silence the chain.
Keeping the rainbow scheme together were these hand-painted Chris King hubs, which Goldstone’s mechanic, Woody, has laced into Reserve DH rims with rainbow nipples.
