Intense planning DH 29er for Cairns World Championships
Jeff Steber ready to unveil 29" downhill bike in time for World Cup event in Scotland
Australian downhill stars Jack Moir and Dean Lucas are set to get their hands on a 29er bike that is likely to be their ride for the World Championships in Cairns in September.
The Intense Factory Racing team hope to unveil a new machine at the World Cup round in Fort William at the start of June. And Intense owner and all-round bike guru Jeff Steber is currently putting the finishing touches to the as-yet unnamed bike.
Moir won the recent Crankworx Rotorua Downhill on a M16, but Steber believes bigger wheels could be vital at the Cairns course for the Worlds and says the Fort William track will also be a great place to debut his new creation.
“We’re always working on new stuff, so keep your eyes open because there is going to be some interesting stuff popping up this year,” Steber told AMB.
“We’ll probably bust something out at Fort William and I think it will work really well at Cairns too – unless they change anything. We’re always looking to push and develop new products. You might see some downhill bikes with some bigger wheels that are a little bit better suited for certain tracks.”
The admission by Steber simply strengthens the belief that this is the year that 29ers blast onto the DH scene.
Trek are believed to be on the brink of officially unveiling their 29-inch Session this week ahead of the opening round of the World Cup at Lourdes, with Rachel Atherton having posted an arty picture of a mystery bike on her Instagram page a few weeks ago mentioning the fact she was testing some "new gear".
Meanwhile Greg Minnaar has been strongly rumoured to have been testing a brand new long-travel 29er in development by Santa Cruz.
Intense founder Steber, always keen to push the boundaries, has long been fascinated by having bigger hoops on a downhill bike. He actually produced a 29” version of the 951 back in 2009, naming it the 2951, but it failed to make much of an impact.
“I think 29” bikes are really fun to ride and have some unique qualities to them,” he said of the 2951. “I think there is some kind of magic that happens when you combine the VPP suspension with the 29” wheel because it’s all about rolling momentum.
“A lot of the negatives of a 29er don’t apply to us in downhill. We’re not going to be climbing the bike, we’re less concerned about rotational mass. The bikes have incredible high speed stability and the ability to maintain momentum in the rough rocky sections.”
It’s possible we’ll see the first wave of 29” downhill bikes in action at Lourdes this coming weekend.
And despite huge skepticism about the performance of big wheels in DH, it seems the teams are determined to give them a go in 2017 – which promises to be an exciting season building up towards the World Championships in Cairns.
