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May 2016, Vol 34
www.issuu.com /FullSussa
Bike Review Page 16
Competition Page 29
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Gear Page 28
MTB
Dirt Diva Page 26
New Technology FS
The humble bicycle is not quite so humble anymore – especially when it comes to mountain bikes. As we enter the next phase of the MTB technology arms race, heralded by the arrival of SRAM Eagle and metric shock measurements.
T
he mountain bike has come a long way since its inception in the 1970’s (we’re simplifying here of course but there’s no time to delve into the history of the US Army’s Buffalo Soldiers riding from Missoula, Montana to Yellowstone in 1896). Though single speed aficionados might still crank up the mountain on an early 90’s rigid, steel framed Giant with 1.8 inch wide 26er tyres and cantilever brakes, the classic mountain bike is now largely relegated to the back of the garage in favour of its increasingly technology driven modern descendent. Steel has been replaced by aluminium and carbon. Tyres have got wider and tubeless.
MARK SAMPSON/CAPE EPIC/SPORTZPICS
T ECH
Darren Lill and Waylon Woolcock raced the new Cannondale Scalpel to the Absa African Jersey titles at the 2016 Cape Epic.
And fortunately for our safety, brakes are now hydraulic disks rather than dodgy old rim brakes – it even looks like roadies are eventually catching on, not that the conversion is without serious teething pains and opposition. But all of this you already know. You want new information.
The Eagle in the Room Let’s kick off then with the elephant/ eagle in the room. SRAM’s 12 speed XX1 and XO1 Eagle. Some say it’s the death of the front derailleur on mountain bikes… Shimano might disagree and while we love the simplicity of a one by set-up there’s times when two front chainrings
still have their benefits. But this section isn’t about that, it’s about the escalation of the drivetrain arms race. This is Gillette vs Schick with razor blades replaced by blades on your cassette. Do five blades provide a closer shave? We don’t know because we don’t bother with being clean shaven, but the new Eagle 12 speed cassette does provide a 500% gear range. Compared to the 418% range of Shimano’s new 11-46t cassette in a single ring setup, or the 504% range offered by running Shimano’s 11-40t 11 speed cassette with 36/26t double chainring. What the massive 50 tooth cog at the top of the cassette means to 1x
devotees is less of a, in fact virtually zero, compromise. With SRAM 1x11 on a 29er bike, with 2.1” tyres and 170mm cranks, your top and bottom end gear inches generated per revolution are 21.1 inches and 88.4 with a 32 tooth chainring. For SRAM 1x12 Eagle that shifts out to 17.7 inches and 88.4 inches with a 32 upfront. So it makes sense to now go with a bigger blade upfront to give you more gear inches for the flats and the descents. A 34 tooth chainring with SRAM Eagle provides top and bottom end inches of 18.8 and 93.9, which provides more
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