(rustling)
- So, this is Ivo, he won
the Santa Cruz Bike Build bike over on GMBN Tech.
Got himself on a bike yesterday, got the SAG set up roughly,
so we're going to go for a couple of laps now
just get him set up on the bike.
- Yeah, and I've joined the party as well
to do a bit of coaching for Ivo on his brand new bike.
(mid-tempo instrumental music)
- So, this is actually quite a cool day of riding
with Ivo for the first time.
You're getting to see how the bike's kind of set up for him.
Now what we've done, as I explained
in the workshop over on GMBN Tech,
was that we set the bike up
with around 25% to 30% SAG front and rear,
but we still don't know if that's right for him
'cause it is, like, a recommendation,
bit of a guideline, between 20 and 30.
And for Ivo, he's come from a Hardtail
and he's used to hiking for three hours
carrying the Hardtail and then descending on it,
so this is a whole new kettle of fish for him.
So at the moment we're just doing a bit of a shakedown,
just to sort of see how his position is on the bike,
see if we can adjust his brakes and maybe his bar position.
See how happy he is.
And at the same time, Neil's kind of just
assessing him as a rider
and see what points he can make
to kind of pick up on and help him improve,
because as we know from Ivo's competition video,
when he suffered that skiing crash
and he had a temporarily paralyzed leg
and he still has issues with the nerves
not really sort of working properly in his leg,
so he has problems with his foot falling off the pedal.
We're talking about using clippers pedals
but for today we're just working with flat pedals
and we're trying to identify when this happens
and see if there's any ways he could work around it.
- I can't really feel my leg,
so that's why sometimes it looks very strange
because I don't know what I'm doing, actually.
I just put my leg there and hope for the best.
- It's definitely going to add a level of difficulty
'cause I can feel my pedals and it definitely helps.
I shuffle my feet around a little bit as well.
But I've coached people
who have prosthetic legs in the past or just one leg,
and it's definitely doable, they can ride decently.
Yeah, it takes a bit of extra coaching
and a bit of extra thought, I guess.
- [Doddy] To begin with...
Suspension's working great, actually.
Bit of forged track in the ground there.
The sizing looks good.
- First thing I do when I get a new bike
is sort out my brake lever angle,
and it is definitely down to personal preference.
But as Doddy was saying, it can make a bit of difference
the way your weight is on the bike.
So if you have your levers quite low,
it brings your sort of wrists up and onto the bars.
And people can end up getting a bit of arm pump.
Then if you've got too much weight on the bars,
a bit higher does sort of bring you
a bit more comfy back on the bike,
but it can hurt your wrists
if you have your levers too high.
So yeah, it's all down to personal preference
but it does actually influence
where your weight is a little bit on the bike.
Have you ever tried riding with clip-less pedals?
- No, because I'm too afraid to, like,
this is the most difficult move.
- Oh, twisted, yeah.
Doddy, what do you think about clips?
- So, I had this chat with Ivo yesterday in the workshop
and I'm kind of in two minds.
I actually think clipping in might be beneficial.
So you get various different types of clip pedals,
but just get like the SPV type but you're locked in.
But the crank ones, you can have
various different amounts of float.
So you attach the pedals so your foot can't come off,
but you've got all this movement.
And I actually think when you're used to the bike
it might be beneficial for you to try it.
- That's probably the thing, isn't it?
Is you don't want to jump onto a new bike
and then get clipped in.
- [Doddy] So many new things for him to learn.
So we've actually given Ivo both sets of pedals now,
so originally I spec'd the bike with the mallets.
But we've got him on a pair of stamps at the moment,
so you can just get the feel of the bike.
- [Neil] So generous, Doddy.
(chuckling)
So, we were just talking about that, actually, Ivo.
Braking and cornering,
ideally you want to come off the brakes
when you're cornering, but actually
this is quite a good example
where you can see the braking bumps,
you can see where people
are braking quite hard in the corner.
And I find myself dragging my brakes
all the way 'til about here.
And that's when I try and look round the corner to the exit
so it feels like I'm really looking over my shoulder.
And then I try and release the brakes
to get as much grip as I can.
'Cause in fact if you let off your brakes up there
you'll be going too fast by the time we got here
and went over the back.
- Yeah.
- So let's have one, well, a couple of go's riding this.
Quick-ish on the way in and think about braking smoothly
to about this point, look over your shoulder,
and then letting off the brakes
and it should feel like the bike will grip nicely hopefully.
(mid-tempo instrumental music)
That's good. That is super smooth, Ivo.
Good speed.
Next thing, alright, coaching-wise,
I'll talk about the way your feet are.
Because this is quite rough on the way in,
we've got these braking bumps,
I'll stay up as you were then, level feet.
And then, as I get in the corner,
that's when you want to start rotating your pedals
to drop your outside foot.
Just want to try and get your weight as low as you can
for a bit more grip.
So weight that outside pedal,
then come back up to flat as you were.
And then do the opposite on the round corner.
Definitely two points to begin with
are make sure you're looking to your exit,
and try to get weight as low as possible.
And then we'll do one more thing afterwards.
- [Ivo] Okay.
- [Neil] Have a blast.
Ivo struggles to feel his foot after the injury,
and I know from experience after my broken ankle
that can make things difficult.
I really feel like cornering
does come a lot from the lower body,
and if you can't really feel where your feet are
that's going to make it a bit more difficult.
So, that was cool; looked nice and smooth.
Looking round the corner.
And the final thing is just to be really smooth,
I talk about this quite a lot with corners,
is sort of the inputs to the bike,
so brakes, come off the brakes, look in.
But also with the lines.
Make sure everything's really smooth,
nice slow motions on the bike
means you get a good amount of grip.
You've got some good tires on today,
so I should imagine you'll get a lot of grip
around this corner, and the conditions are pretty good.
But it's just look in,
weight low and to the outside,
and trying to be smooth on the bike
should mean good, fast cornering.
(mid-tempo instrumental music)
Whoa, nice one, Ivo.
That's super smooth round the corners.
Loads of fun, and that's the thing to try and remember
is try and be smooth, try and be fast
round the turns, working perfectly.
Alright, if you want to see a video
on how to brake to go faster, click over here for that one.
- And if you want to see a video
on how did we set up my bike, click over here.
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