Bike
See the Californian shredder’s Fort William race machine in all its stealthy glory.
When it comes to the race rigs of the elite UCI World Cup field, things don't get much trickier than Aaron Gwin's Specialized S-Works Demo. However, there's much more to this matte-black stealth bomber than meets the eye...
At the opening round in Lourdes, France Gwin piloted the Demo to the top step of the podium. A crash in qualifying meant that he started way down the order and had to sweat it out in the hot seat.
Unlike other pros who often keep a specific 'race' bike with the team and practice on a separate steed, Aaron has one bike that he both races and practices on to make sure that things are as consistant as possible.
The CNCd alloy upper link is different to the production machine and produces a slightly different leverage ratio. The Specialized Racing team readily experiment with various prototype parts to try and help their racers go faster and to further improve the bikes sitting in bike shops.
"We're just trying something slightly different," Aaron's mechanic, John Hall, tells us. "We're always trying something different. The geometry of his frame is the same as the production bike, but we've got a couple of different things going on with the carbon fibre lay-up process."
A seven-speed rear cassette is part of the SRAM X0 DH groupset. Downhill racers travel at speed, so the easier gears are simply surplus to requirements.
The newly-developed Renthal 1XR chainring features a special tooth profile that helps to hold the chain in place along with the e*thirteen LG1+ guide.
The Demo build, without any perceivable weaknesses, weighs in at an incredibly light 34lb [15.4kg].
Aaron is part of Fox Racing Shox's RAD race program and, as a result, his suspension is custom-tuned to his needs. He runs the Factory Series 40 FLOAT fork and swaps between the FLOAT X2 air and DHX2 coil shocks.
"We've tested both coil and air, and travel with both, but he's happy that the air shock feels as good as the coil and it's considerably lighter so we'll go with that."
In comparison to what he’s run in previous seasons, he’s actually going considerably softer!
When it comes to service or maintenance, John just drops the fork out, whips the shock from the frame and drops them off to Geordie at the Fox service truck.
"In comparison to what he's run in previous seasons, he's actually going considerably softer!" John laughs when asked about how stiff Gwin famously runs his bike's dampers.
"Brakes are one of the things Aaron is most particular about," John says. The 4-pot Avid CODE stoppers have metallic pads.
The Temecula native also runs custom 785mm-wide Renthal Fatbar Carbon handlebars. They're 5mm wider than stock. Rolling them quite far back is a relatively new set-up change he's made this season.
"He rides a lot of moto," John explains, "They roll them back a little further so transferring that over to the DH bike helps him with that transition."
Interestingly, John told us that Aaron and he tend to make comparatively limited set-up changes at Fort William compared to other tracks, due to the length of the track and the fact that pretty much every surface and obstacle is present. They may soften the suspension and tyre pressures slightly, but setting up the Demo to cope with one aspect in particular will only compromise it everywhere else.
"I've got notes from last year," John says, "It speeds the set-up process up, as I can look at where we were last year and what we're doing this year. Suspension is probably the thing we play with most but even then that's just a click at a time and usually done by the end of Friday."
John maintains that Aaron is a great rider to spanner for as not only is he pretty easy-going, but also highly sensitive to any changes – right down to asking for as little as half a PSI more in his tyres.
"People can say it's bull crap that he can notice that, and I used to be one of them!" John laughs, "But he really can! He'll come down and ask to try half a PSI more!".
Check out more of our 2015 MTB Bike Checks:
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