Are Pro MTB Race Bikes THAT Different from Stock? We Asked a Team Manager
Singletracks Mountain Bike Podcast
Singletracks.com
4.7 • 574 Ratings
🗓️ 21 March 2023
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ryan Gaul is the Trek Factory Racing DH team manager and technical director. He’s been at Trek for about 10 years and is based in Madison, WI.
- How close to stock do DH and enduro riders run their bikes?
- Which aspects of a bike are modified to suit track conditions, and what stays the same for every race?
- Do World Cup racers take many risks when it comes to equipment, or are they pretty conservative?
- Is it common to run test parts, or prototypes in races?
- Is it difficult to convince athletes to try new components on their bikes?
- What type of race information is useful for product designers at the brand? How do you collect and communicate that information?
- How many spare parts/bikes do you bring to a World Cup race for each athlete?
- Are most athletes pretty involved in working on their own bikes?
- What’s the most stressful part of a World Cup weekend for you?
Keep up with the Trek Factory Racing team at racing.trekbikes.com.
The Singletracks podcast is brought to you by TPC -- The Pro’s Closet. Spring is the perfect time to upgrade, and TPC has an industry-leading selection of new and Certified Pre-Owned bikes, plus frames, wheels and accessories. Each Certified, Pre-Owned bike is inspected, tested and serviced, and every bike includes thirty day returns. Visit tpc.bike/singletracks and enter code Singletracks40 to save forty dollars on every order over two hundred.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Single Tracks podcast is brought to you by TPC, the Proz Closet. |
| 0:05.0 | Spring is the perfect time to upgrade, and TPC has an industry-leading selection of new and certified pre-owned bikes, plus frames, wheels, and accessories. |
| 0:15.1 | Each certified pre-owned bike is inspected, tested, and serviced, and every bike includes 30-day returns. Visit tPC.bike |
| 0:23.7 | forward slash single tracks and enter code single tracks 40 to save $40 on every order over 200. |
| 0:31.0 | That's the pros closet at tpc.bike slash single tracks and look for the link and coupon code in the show notes. |
| 0:39.3 | Hey everybody, welcome to the single tracks podcast. My name is Jeff and today my guest is Ryan |
| 0:45.2 | Gall. Ryan is the Trek Factory Racing downhill team manager and technical director. |
| 0:51.4 | He's been at Trek for about 10 years and is based in Madison, Wisconsin. |
| 0:55.9 | Thanks for joining us, Ryan. |
| 0:57.4 | No problem. Thanks for having me. |
| 0:59.2 | So how'd you get involved in the world of professional mountain bike racing? |
| 1:03.7 | Man, it started off as, you know, when I was a teenager, even before that growing up, |
| 1:10.4 | racing BMX in Minnesota. That led to me working in |
| 1:14.2 | bike shops. From there, back in 96, I relocated to a small ski town in Colorado, Breckenridge. |
| 1:24.7 | I ended up being there for 13 years, working at predominantly just one shop. |
| 1:30.5 | But some of the connections I made at that shop, there's a lot of, you know, high level |
| 1:34.8 | athletes that are in those little mountain towns. |
| 1:37.9 | And I started working with, you know, some people that were doing, what was it, like |
| 1:42.6 | the Eco Challenge? |
| 1:46.7 | There were some crazy adventure races that they got into and then just helping out like a lot of the local downhill racers through the shop |
| 1:53.5 | and then eventually traveling with them to races back when the Norman Nationals were a big |
| 1:58.4 | thing here in the United States. So going to a lot of those races with just friends and people I bet through the bike shop. |
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