Bike Check: Briony Mattocks' Specialized Era
Briony Mattocks has been on the up, chipping away at her training and racing and making steps towards the top of the field in Marathon racing in Australia aboard her Specialized Era.
Briony Mattocks has been on the up, chipping away at her training and racing and making steps towards the top of the field in Marathon racing in Australia aboard her Specialized Era. With a win at the Dwellingup 100 in 2015, and 3rd place at the 2016 Australian XCM Championship, she’s well on the way to making her mark!
Her finish at the XCM Championships also meant Mattocks qualified for the Australian XCM Team, if she chose to go. Briony Mattocks brings a lot of enthusiasm across from her previous sport, soccer, and chosing to go wasn’t much of a question. Mattocks has lined up a few more races in continental Europe and the UK after the XCM World Championships in France.
Looking at Mattocks’ Specialized
Briony Mattocks has been riding Specialized since late 2014, with great support from her shop – Cyclery Northside. The best support for any rider is always their local shop – and Mattocks found a good one. In 2016, Mattocks has also become a Shimano ambassador, and her medium Specialized Era is adorned with Shimano Di2, XTR wheels and PRO finishing kit.
A few things stand out, like a 2.2″ Front tyre and 2.0″ rear, as Mattocks finds the combination feels faster, and the narrower rear aids with the tighter clearance in the Era frame. Mattocks runs a Stages power meter, and while she doesn’t always use the data in races, at races like Derby, she used it for pacing – and had one of the fastest finishes of the race.
She’s got the Brain set quite firm in the rear, and enjoys not having the Brain fork with the Fox 32 – although she runs that on ‘trail’ mode by default. Overall she prefers the feel of the Fox fork to the RS-1, especially in corners. But she did find the RS-1 offered more confidence in rougher trails.
The Di2 setup is really neatly done, with the battery held in the steerer tube using the PRO stem and steerer battery mount – although she used to house it in the PRO Tharsis carbon seatpost.
We’ll have a feature on the Australian XCM World Championships team in issue 156, and see how it all played out in Laissac.
