- We're here today at Whistler checking out
Gee Atherton's Trek Session 9.9 29er race bike.
(lively synth music)
(rocks rumbling)
At the heart of the bike is the carbon-fiber
front triangle, which is very similar
to the 27.5-inch model Gee previously raced.
Out back is the alloy rear-end,
and they've had to just change the configurations
just to get all the geometry just right.
But surprisingly, it's only the third generation
of the bike it's taken to get this,
and this is the same model that you can
actually get now in the shops.
So out back, you've got the ABP,
Active Braking Pivot design, which means
it's very active under braking,
so Gee can get the maximum amount of suspension
while still having to hold it on the brakes.
And it's running a 200-mil Travel
via Fox X2 shock, at the moment.
You might be surprised at that 'cause Gee has been
running a coil shock, but recently he's been
quite experimental with the air shock and really likes it.
He's got good base settings and he kind
of varies between two or three clicks
of compression rebound either way.
And the only real adjustment he'll make
is in the volume spaces just to suit different courses.
So at the front on Gee's bike,
he's running about a 63-degree head angle.
It's the stock up in this.
They can be adjusted to make it slack or steeper
but that's pretty much the base set that he runs from.
And say approximately 63 degrees, it does depend
on how he's running the forks in the crowns.
Sometimes he's gonna drop 'em down.
Sometimes he's gonna run it the other way.
His bar height pretty much remains the same.
It's a 50-mil stem and it's a 785-mil bar.
Doesn't tend to roll it too far back or forwards.
It's fairly neutral on the bike at the moment.
Up front on Gee's 29-inch race bike,
of course, there's a Fox 49 fork.
They're starting to become a little
bit more commonplace these days
and something else that's really cool on here we spotted
is the new RAD Damper design on this.
This takes care of high and low speed
compression with a single dial.
It may or may not be something
you see in the future from Fox.
So transmission-wise on Gee's bike,
he's got a Shimano Saint system on here.
Up front is 165-mil crank, and he's running
Crankbrothers Mallet DH pedals.
For those of you that want to know, he's running
his cleats at a 15-degree setting.
He runs it really far back on his shoes.
That's a 36-tooth chain ring with a Shimano
Saint top and bottom chain guide,
and it's got a bolt-on bash plate here.
It's a seven speed cassette and it's 11-24,
and he runs his clutch on.
So a roll in stock on Gee's bike, he's got
Bontrager Line wheels, DH 30 rims,
so that's a 30-mil internal size.
He's running these tubeless with Bontrager G5 tyres,
and obviously, that's the 29-inch version.
He's running them at 29 psi in the rear
and 27 on the front, and he's got Bontrager sealant inside.
So front-end rear on Gee's bike, he's running
Shimano Saint brakes with 203-mil rotors.
Interestingly you'll see he's got
a vibration damper on the rear brake here.
And we can ask Gee a little bit about that
to find out how it affects the braking on the bike.
And another cool little custom thing
on Gee's bike is the Shimano Saint levers.
He's had his mechanic actually bend the end of the lever out
because he likes to just come off
the end of the lever sometimes.
Doesn't always want to be hooked in on that
really small lever they normally have.
Finally, you'll notice on the bike, it's got
a PRO Tharsis 9.8 saddle and seatpost combination.
Gee likes to run this as low as he
possibly get it without having
to suffer excessive tyre buzz under full travel.
Okay, so we got Gee Atherton with his pro bike here.
Just gonna find out a few more
finer details about his setup.
Obviously, this being a 29-inch wheel bike,
and it's only really come into fruition this year,
I wanna know a little bit how about you came
to transition from the 27.5 to this bike.
- Well, it happened quite quickly, really.
I mean, we were testing early season,
focus on the 27.5 bike.
The guys at Trek had the idea of the 29
and it was kind of on a back burner,
and then as soon as we had that initial test
and realised how good it was, and how quickly
we were getting on with it, suddenly,
the whole project kind of snowballed,
got pushed forward, and suddenly it was on
for the start of the race season.
- And it was pretty much straight
into a carbon frame from what I can make out?
- Yeah, I mean, the guys at Trek were really passionate
about the whole race side of it.
They didn't just want to bring us a bike.
They wanted to bring us a bike
that we could race and do well on.
So, going straight to carbon was key
to that and it seemed to work well.
- And how did this setup transition vary for you?
Obviously, the 29-inch wheel thing,
you've got a fairly low BB height, and the whole dynamic
of the bike is quite different to 27.5.
- Yeah, the jump when we went from 26 to 27.5
was almost like we just altered
the wheel size and that was it.
And jumping from 27.5 to a 29, literally everything changed
and that was quite difficult
because the geometry was different,
the suspension was different,
the way the bike worked was different.
You had to adjust nearly every single thing
on the bike to get used to it, and that was quite a big jump
to make and still try and ride fast.
- And how did the bike actually feel when you first got it,
compared to that smaller wheel size?
Could you feel the instant speed benefits,
or was it a case of it was literally faster on the clock?
- It wasn't so much that it was a lot faster on the clock,
it wasn't I was suddenly knocking big chunks off,
but it was the ease with which the speed came.
I was comfortable on the bike within a couple of runs.
We were going the same speed we were on the previous bike
on an aluminium mule that wasn't really set up, you know?
We saw straightaway that the bike was quick and we saw
straightaway that it was gonna work well.
- And it was just a case of fine-tuning it
then and getting things in place?
- Exactly, yeah, it's all a case of making yourself
comfortable on the bike and learning
what the bike does and what works
and what doesn't work from your previous setup rig.
- [Doddy] So do you make many adjustments
to your damping and your air pressure and stuff?
- Yeah, we play with it quite a lot, specific to the tracks.
Sometimes you've got quite a flat track.
There's a lot of peddling.
Everything gets firmer.
The bike kind of levels, if you like, suspension-wise.
And then, you know, you get to a steeper, rougher track
and you need the bike to sit down more
and the front to hold you up more.
You play with the rebound to do with the heat
and the temperature of the place you're riding.
If the tracks got a lot of big hits, sometimes you've
just gotta really ramp the pressure of the fork up
and lose that small bump sensitivity,
so it all kind of depends on what you're riding.
- And do you think that a lot of that comes
from ride feel and your expertise as a rider?
Or how much of that has come from the data
acquisition equipment that you guys use?
- It's a combination of everything.
We work a lot with Fox early season
to get a good base setting so you're
going into the World Cup season with a setting
that you can go back to and always revert back to.
But, at the same time, we have, like you say,
data acquisition at the World Cups.
I work with Polish Pete, my mechanic,
and we really kind of fine-tune those small adjustments.
It's all about getting the bike balanced,
whether it's firm or on the softer side,
you need it balanced,
you need to know exactly that the
front is gonna match the rear.
- Amazing, and I just wanna know a few things
about your actual setup on a bike.
I noticed that you bend your brake levers.
What's the story of that?
- Yeah, I just tweaked the ends of them.
It's quite a curve on the end of the lever,
and I like to be able to just slide
the finger on and off the lever easily.
Sometimes, you need to just let go of the brakes and--
- So you don't always cover your brakes?
- Not always, no. (laughs)
- Now, that's commitment for you there.
And, out back as well, so that's
a braking damper, is that right?
- Yeah, that's right.
It's basically to take the vibration out of the rear brake.
You know, sometimes without it, it's not a positive feel
so, you know, with that vibration damper on,
it really gives the brake a sharp feel,
really positive and you really
know when you lock the brake on.
- That's Gee Atherton's pro bike setup.
Hope you enjoyed the video.
If you want to see an epic ride
here at Whistler, click right down here.
- And if you want to watch the Atherton's HQ
behind-the-scenes video, click down here.
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