Apparently, the Cube action team didn’t use Schwalbe’s Procore system at this round – that's a standard tubeless valve - Seb Stott / Immediate Media
Lightweight spare inner tubes for the Cube team - Seb Stott / Immediate Media
Greg Callaghan and Nico Lau swapped between Fox’s lightweight and pedal-friendly Float-X shock and these coil-sprung X2 units - Seb Stott / Immediate Media
It was coil springs all round in the Giant pits - Seb Stott / Immediate Media
We spotted this highly cut-down Schwalbe Magic Mary in the Canyon pits - Seb Stott / Immediate Media
A master of disguise has clearly been at work on this tyre… - Seb Stott / Immediate Media
Curtis Keene ran hefty DH-casing Specialized Butcher tyres front and rear on his Enduro 650b - Seb Stott / Immediate Media
We spotted this Roval Traverse front wheel on Keene's bike. The oversized end caps look like they may be designed to take advantage of SRAM's Torque Cap technology for extra stiffness - Seb Stott / Immediate Media
BikeRadar has been out in Finale Ligure, Italy for the gruelling last round of the Enduro World Series. It would have been downright remiss of us not to have a nosey around the pits to check out the pro riders' tech – and here's what we found.
Damper switching
The newly-crowned champion, Richie Rude, has been using the new Fox 36 fork, which features an easy-to-use 15mm QR axle, and FiT4 damper. However, he swapped to the more adjustable RC2 damper for this round, as it offers better control. Teammate and victor in Finale, Jarred Graves, used a custom-tuned version of the standard Fit4 damper.
Champion richie rude's fox 36 fork – he switched to an rc2 damper for this round:
Prototype pedals
Cube’s Nico Lau was spotted with a prototype version of Shimano’s popular trail pedal, seen here on the right next to his teammate’s XTR trail item.
Nico lau's prototype shimano trail pedal (right):
Return of the coils
Greg Callaghan and Nico Lau swapped between Fox’s lightweight and pedal-friendly Float-X shock and these coil-sprung X2 units depending on the nature of the stages at hand.
Greg callaghan and nico lau swapped between fox’s lightweight and pedal-friendly float-x shock and these coil-sprung x2 units:
It was coil springs all round in the Giant pits though. A brace of Vivid coils for Josh Carlson and Yoann Barelli.
It was coil springs all round in the giant pits:
Wheel and tyre trickery
The label on the rim below says Procore, but that’s a standard tubeless valve. Apparently, the Cube action team didn’t use Schwalbe’s Procore system at this round.
Apparently, the cube action team didn’t use schwalbe’s procore system at this round – that's a standard tubeless valve:
The Cube team were however packing lightweight inner tubes taped to their frames. Every gram counts!
Lightweight spare inner tubes for the cube team:
We spotted this highly cut-down Schwalbe Magic Mary in the Canyon pits. The ramped cutaways are intended to reduce rolling resistance, but we’ve heard of this practice backfiring as the treads become further apart.
We spotted this highly cut-down schwalbe magic mary in the canyon pits:
Some kind of big-spender doesn’t want us to know what rubber they’re running. You can’t fool us!
A master of disguise has clearly been at work on this tyre…:
Meanwhile, Curtis Keene chose to run hefty DH-casing Specialized Butcher tyres front and rear on his Enduro 650b – an option unavailable to him on his 29er.
Curtis keene ran hefty dh-casing specialized butcher tyres front and rear on his enduro 650b:
We spotted this Roval Traverse front wheel on Curtis' bike. The oversized end caps look like they may be designed to take advantage of SRAM's Torque Cap technology for extra stiffness.
We spotted this roval traverse front wheel on keene's bike. the oversized end caps look like they may be designed to take advantage of sram's torque cap technology for extra stiffness:
Seb Stott is a former technical writer for BikeRadar. Seb's been riding mountain bikes for more than half his life, ever since getting hooked on a tiny 24Seven Crosser aged 13. He's raced downhill, enduro and cross-country, and while no athlete, still enters the occasional race. Seb studied experimental physics at university, and he's now happily using his degree experimenting with and testing different mountain bike setups, trying to work out what works best and why. You'll often find him riding the same track ten times in a day, changing just one thing to pin down the differences. Seb has also been a regular contributor to the BikeRadar Podcast and BikeRadar YouTube channel, and written for MBUK magazine and Pinkbike.com.
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