- [Narrator] Last time on The Privateer.
(intense percussion music)
- Oh yeah!
He's got it!
He's still got it!
- So it's hard and what's the perfect setup
and everybody thinks there is a perfect setup.
- Yeah - You know?
But it's really kind of what you've been running
and adapting your style to it.
It's cool that you put yourself in this position to,
show the world right?
- Cheers yeah, man.
- It's like a little bit of stress, right?
- Yeah, just a bit.
(laughing)
- It's a good social experiment.
- [Kirt] Yeah, right?
- [Adam] We'll see.
- [Narrator] This is Adam.
Adam was a privateer working a nine to five job
to finance his passion for racing bikes.
Last year, parts and training helped him get way faster.
But success doesn't happen overnight.
This year his program has been turned up to 11,
with full factory support.
Will he be able to break into the pro ranks?
We're about to find out.
Being a professional rider isn't just about race results.
Now that the privateer is getting pro-level support,
maintaining relationships with the sponsors
is important to a successful racing career.
After a disappointing result at the Sea Otter Enduro,
Adam is feeling the pressure to train and ride
as much as possible.
However, he is also scheduled to meet
some of his sponsors in the US.
- Yoann Barelli drops by to offer some insight
about the other responsibilities of being a pro rider.
- What do you need to keep the sponsors happy
aside from riding?
- Riding is kind of part of our job, no?
- [Adam] Yeah.
- Like it's the main part, so if they are not happy
with just riding, then they can (beep) off!
(laughing)
Okay, are we gonna start over?
(beep)
Well, you're gonna meet people
and that I think it's actually pretty good
because they're gonna put the face,
associated to a name.
Like if you, just signed a contract
and then after, boom, you disappear,
then the next year they're gonna say, well,
we don't really like to work with the guy.
- Yeah.
- But sometimes, you know, we are so busy, yeah,
with training and traveling and racing and blah blah blah
that it's hard to make the time to do all that.
Especially if you do video content
and all this kind of stuff that we talked about.
It's pretty hard.
And they know that you're busy.
Working for them.
But if they ask and they say, look,
we have V7S at our office and we want you to come,
you have no race at this time, we pay for everything,
then yeah, you say yes.
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- [Narrator] Adam's first stop is Orange County, California
to check out FOX headquarters and shake hands
with some of the people responsible
for supporting him this season.
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- Hey, I'm Adam.
- Adam, Dave, pleasure to meet you.
- Nice to meet you. - Welcome to FOX.
- [Adam] Thank you. - [Dave] Let's take you around
and show you what the brand is all about.
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A lot of really iconic bikes here.
This is the bike that Travis Pastrana actually jumped,
out of the, stadium in San Francisco
and landed in the San Francisco Bay at the X Games
during one of the competitions there,
so pretty legendary bike. - [Adam] That's cool.
- There are, a lot more legendary bikes
that you see over here.
This is Ryan Dungey's bike
from one of his championship seasons.
Jack Bermick's bike,
and more of the classic bikes down there.
- I think today we're just gonna fit you in the new
Rampage Pro Carbon.
So, the first good guideline is just take a measurement
of your head circumference.
You definitely look like you have a narrow head.
- Yeah.
- And slightly longer.
- Yeah.
But that's--
- That's secure. - Pretty secure, yeah.
- I think that's more what you want.
- Yeah, for sure, mediums.
- Like, when Lloyd comes in, he's got the Carbon on?
Oh yeah.
And he's like, (head vibrating sound)
(laughing)
So everybody's got their own way of testing things,
you know what I mean?
Like when Nico Moralli was here, it was just like..
Oh, okay, that's good.
But then like, Lloyd's like, duh duh duh duh duh,
for awhile, so.
- Okay that's a bad test.
- Typically when we get athletes they'll come in
and they'll sit with us just like you're sitting with me.
We'll go through and we'll actually sit down
and come up with ideas one by one on each style
and how they really wanna make kits that feel special
and have a personal touch to them
for a race or whatever reason.
You can look at this and see what we came up with for Nico.
This version is actually just first version comp ideas, so.
This was the one that we're gonna go through
to a little bit deeper, a tieback to Chris Kovarik's kit.
Because Nico's on intense and it's FOX for this year,
we're gonna go with major tieback,
and something really cool for him.
- So Adam doesn't know it yet
but we're actually building him some custom gear.
So he knows he's getting setup with gear today,
but he doesn't know that Hugo and the team,
we're actually putting together
some custom gear sets for him.
So Hugo show 'em what it's gonna look like.
(beeping)
The Privateer, Adam Price.
He'll be out there looking good on the trails.
Right.
So we're gonna take you back to the sew hanger right now.
This is a unique, thing that we have here, at FOX.
We can actually sew up samples, show,
some different kits for athletes to test.
And we also modify products for athletes.
Who need them to a specific size during the seasons.
So we've got a couple of projects
that we're working on right now.
And, this is, one special one of the line.
- [Adam] Oh sick!
That's mine.
- That's for you.
And these ones.
What do you think?
- That looks amazing.
- This ones white.
There's white on both. - [Adam] Two.
- [Dave] All different colors.
I'm glad you put, my actual name on it.
That's a lot guys.
(electronic music)
- You owe zero dollars.
- Thank you!
So kind of you.
Well that's a stunning deal.
Definitely coming here again.
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- [Narrator] Adam's next stop, is Tempe Arizona.
To visit Pivot Bikes and meet with the CEO, Chris Cocalis.
- Hey.
How you doin'?
- [Adam] I'm doing good, thank you.
- Good to see ya'. - Thank you.
- [Chris] Welcome to pivot.
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- So at the beginning of production line,
we cut the brakes to length,
we put all the graphics on the suspension,
if the spikes got carbon wheels,
they'll put the graphics on the carbon wheels.
And also install the tires.
And cassettes in this area as well.
And then, down here they take the frames,
they install the suspension, put the bottom brackets in ,
put the headsets in, and then,
they come on down to this area.
And this is where the guys,
really finish the bike assembly on the bike, so...
The new Mach 4 SL, is getting done here.
And, the guys are actually, just like your Mach 5.5,
they're getting all the live wiring
on the inside of the bike.
- [Adam] Yeah.
- [Chris] That's really a big deal on the new Mach 4 SL,
and what it brings to the cross country racer.
And at this point, if it's a...
If it's a bike going to a dealer
it's not a complete assembly.
So they'll finish installing the rest of the stuff that,
needs to go on the bike.
And then the bike can get packaged from here.
If it's a bike...
Some of them for me or for some other uses will get,
finished 100 percent.
And that's what's happening down here.
- [Adam] Perfect.
(electronic music)
- [Chris] This is our whole prototype R and D area.
Mentioned up in engineering that once we do the basic design
all the suspension bikes, we build in aluminum first,
and, this is where all of that happens.
And then, the 3D printing stuff.
Right now, it's just printing a Pivot bird,
and then when we're doing, like you saw upfront,
frame sections, it's pretty easy to do something like this.
And we don't have to,
we can go a little bit faster on the print
so it's a little bit rougher,
because we're not really after surface finish.
One of the neat things we do on the prototyping
of the aluminum bikes.
That really isn't, transferable to aluminum frame production
Is, Kevin will do, FEA analysis,
on the parts.
And basically try and get the weight and the stiffness
similar to what carbon structure would be.
So, we'll machine these really, light, big, hollow parts.
Which takes an enormous amount of time in the machine.
But they're just, ultra-light and,
we can build these box sections.
For example, when we did the 28",
seven point five downhill frames.
The frame Bernard raced for a season only weighed 30 grams,
more than what his carbon bike weighed.
- Oh wow.
- There's obviously gonna be some differences
between carbon and aluminum,
but when we do it this way,
we've got a really strong idea
of what the bike's really gonna be when we get into carbon.
This is, our original first carbon fiber bike that we built.
So, the original Mach 5.7.
Mold's have actually gotten more advanced,
since this time but,
the technology is basically similar.
In that, there's a lot of pieces and parts.
Basically a live slide, as we call them.
- How much would one of these cost?
- One of them?
Basically if you're doing a whole project all in,
forgings, plastic, conjunction balling parts,
all the tooling that needs to happen on this level of bike.
You could be in for five sizes
and they're about 200 grand, which is...
- Yeah.
- So, um...
Over here, is your bike.
(upbeat music)
- My new bike!
That looks amazing.
- [Chris] So the live valve on the fox, basically,
it's an on-off system that electronically,
adjusts the suspension for the bump force.
- Wow that looks awesome.
Yeah I can't wat to give it a go.
That's good.
Cheers.
(electronic music)
(mellow music)
(reeling sound)
(upbeat music)
- [Narrator] Next time, on The Privateer.
We're out here doing a common clinic.
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