(upbeat music)
- I'm Tom Bradshaw and we're here to meet Ethan Shandro
and take a look at his brand new,
fresh out of the box Trek Session downhill bike.
For those who don't know Ethan, he's a name to look out for.
With a second place Junior World Cup finish in 2019,
and now part of the Trek RockShox Racing Team.
I'm looking forward to seeing more
of his unreal style on the bike soon.
Let's go have a yarn.
Ethan, great to have you here today, mate.
How you doing?
- Good, man. Thanks for having me.
- Oh, good.
So we've got this, this beautiful new Trek Session
machine in front of us.
I want to hear a little bit about you and what's up,
what you're up to this year.
But first you've just unpacked this.
What are the first thoughts?
- [Ethan] Well, definitely first thoughts out of the box
are how good that all-black's looking,
and I'm super interested in the high pivot,
so, yeah, it's going to be a fun year
of trying some different stuff out.
- You're a tall dude.
How tall are you and how did you decide
what frame size you're gonna go for?
- So I'm 6'2" and usually for me, it's just the extra large.
This here's the R3, so for me, the bigger, the better.
So, yeah.
- Bigger, the better. That's awesome.
So, you mentioned the wheel size, sizes before.
There's three options on this bike.
You've got full 29er, a mullet or 27.5.
I'm interested to hear what your starting on
because we know Charlie's on the full 29er.
He's a taller guy
whereas Reese and Lorasa are going to start on the mullet.
- Yeah.
For me, it's just since
like you said, Charlie's tall, I'm tall.
Those guys that obviously have shorter legs.
So I think, the issue with them is them buzzing their,
their buts sometimes from big compressions
but for me, it's not really an issue, so.
29 front and back is what feels most natural for me.
- Nice. And then, what would make you perhaps think
about trying the mullet sit up in the back, like obviously
early days with the bike, but yeah.
Is it track specific
or your styles specific or just interested?
- For me, it would be just mostly track specific
but also to see how it corners would be interesting
but I like how the 29er rides.
So, it's not something at the top of my mind right now.
- And then kind of going into the, your process
of jumping on a new bike for the first time.
Like the big change to the high pivot in this new bike.
Does that going to affect the way you set
up your suspension to start with
or any contact points or anything like that?
Or is it, or is it
are you going to start where you were on the old session?
- I think I'll probably just start where I was
on the old session, kind of go
from there and see how I like the high
the suspension with the high pivot.
- [Tom] And there's also got the,
the flip chips in this frame.
Have you had any thoughts around where you're,
where are you going to start with them?
And again, like what might make you change them?
- For me, I think I just keep it at 25% just because the way
that I ride, I feel like the
more progression the better.
- But what would make you change this
top Minolink at the top of the seat stay there?
- [Ethan] I think just a flatter track.
Yeah. I would keep in the Slack position most of the time
but if there is a track that was a really flat
and maybe a bit slower, but for me, I just keep it,
keep it there.
- Awesome. And then maybe
for those who haven't set up a downhill bike before
like maybe paint us a bit of a picture
like how long does it take, does it ever finish?
- Oh, that's such a good question because I feel like for me
I go and ride and I'll be always
changing a little click here and there
but setting up a downhill bike,
it really depends person to person.
I'm, I'm pretty chill.
I just put, I usually start maybe a little softer
on the suspension then kind of go up from there.
- [Tom] Awesome, in this, so this
Session that we're looking at here
is specked out for you on the Rockshox trek team.
So talk us through kind of a little bit, let's start maybe
at the suspension, what suspension you're running here
and the rest of the team will be on this year.
- [Ethan] So yeah, we're obviously RockShox front and back.
And then the code breaks.
For me this year, the only real changes are
the Ergon grips, the Maxxis tires and the DT Swiss wheels.
- [Tom] Perfect. Perfect.
And then what's your kind of riding weight and do
you know what suspension pressure you'll have to start with?
- For me since I haven't raced in a while
it'll probably just be my last pressures
from the last couple of World Cups I did, which is I think
like 1.25 in the front and like about 2.20 in the back.
- [Tom] Perfect. And yeah, I mean,
is that something you'd be doing kind of a
you'd really do the suspension testing properly with the
with the team and the mechanic?
- Yeah, totally.
Yeah. The like the mechanics are so good these days
and you can come down and be like,
Oh, I don't feel like I'm getting enough from
the fork in this certain part
of the track.
And then they'll do the, put their little
magical touch on it.
You'll be like, 'Oh my God, this is crazy'.
- Yeah.
And we're talking about the, those RSE code breaks before.
Talk us through that kind of contact points set up.
Like, is there anything particular you'd like
to do with the breaks there?
- Yeah, a little bit for me, it's like on the front brake
I like the contact point to be a little further out and then
on the back a little further, and it's just
personal preference for me where I
where I like that contact point, but nothing too crazy.
- Upstairs in the cockpit, Ethan.
- Yeah.
- What, what bars are you running and what length snip?
- [Ethan] So the bars are 800 and stems to 50,
50 guy on there.
Yeah. That's how I've always, always run it.
- Nice. And so let's take it back to 2019,
the three World Cups
and second place at Maribor, which was, which was awesome.
Talk us through that season quickly.
- [Ethan] Yeah, that season was crazy.
It was like we did Tennessee and I like qualified first
in pro and that was like, Whoa, what's happening?
And then, yeah, I won that race.
And then I came home and I had a little training crash
and then I took about a week off and then we left
for the access cup in Maribor a couple of weeks after.
And I did that race and then I did the race, came second
and then had a little, had a beverage after.
And then my, all my symptoms came back
and I then was feeling really shitty
but I did race the Maribor World Cup.
And then from there I did Fort William and Leogang.
And then we finished Leogang and I was pretty written off.
So, went back home and just
kinda had to assess things a bit.
- Yeah. And I think, you know
it's a severe lingering concussion.
What do you think about where the sport is
in terms of like concussion awareness now and having gone
through nearly a year and a half, if not more
of dealing with this concussion, like what would you share?
- I just think it's just like, for me
it was like I had this concussion
and I felt like I was putting a lot
of expectation on myself to keep racing.
Cause I was like, Oh, this is just
like this opportunity I have and I had a good result
but I just wasn't really thinking
about the longterm effects of it.
And I just say for people to just be more conscious
of how that's going to affect them, you know what I mean?
So, concussions are a huge issue that I feel
like, are a little bit looked over
just cause it's not a visible injury.
But I think it's getting better and better
and helmet technology is getting better.
So, hopefully we can get
to a place where people are feeling more
more safe in their helmets and at the races.
- So then, maybe just to put a bow on it
and to someone who's watching this who might be
thinking they've got a head injury or have had one
like what's one thing you might say to them?
- Be vulnerable, be able to go and seek that help.
And even if it's like not your tough guy, macho, ideal
who cares, you know what I mean?
You want to feel good and be healthy
and be able to go and do the stuff you love.
- Perfect. Thanks Ethan.
Well, it's been awesome talking to you
check out the new bike, but hearing
hearing that story and that it's not easy and yeah.
Being vulnerable as part of it.
So thanks heaps and hope to see out in the black scene.
- Totally. Thanks for having me.
- Thanks to Ethan for sharing what he looks
for and how he sets up a brand new downhill bike.
And also for opening up the important conversations
about head injuries and mountain biking.
I hope you took something away from it.
We've got tons of videos coming up
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if you like what you're watching.
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