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“The right bike set-up can make a huge difference in terms of confidence and how hard you’re willing to push on race day.”
– Kate Courtney
Set Up for Success
Suspension, tire pressure, cockpit design - getting bike settings dialed is an integral part for an XC athletes’ performance. For World Champion, Kate Courtney who is racing at the highest level, that means that she leaves no stone unturned when it comes to her bike being 100% ready on race day. Find out what that means in Episode 3 of Rising.
Why Testing Matters
Testing equipment is not only about getting the best bike set-up possible. It is equally important to find out what works best for you, and finding the perfect harmony between the athlete and the machine. In racing, every detail matters. That’s why you want every detail to be sorted, and that’s why it is highly important to spend a lot of time testing multiple set-ups. Every race course is different, and conditions can change overnight, so Brad and Kate must adapt and modify the bike set-up prior to a World Cup race accordingly.
Get the Right Suspension Set Up
To begin, Kate and SCOTT-Sram Team Mechanic, Brad Copeland work to form a baseline set-up by establishing pressure, compression and rebound settings that they can adjust to suit different weather and course conditions.
During the off-season, or when evaluating new equipment, Kate and Brad test the bike’s suspension settings until they arrive at a happy baseline number for pressures and damper settings that they can work from at every race. This allows for a consistent reference point for the bike’s handling and feeling that makes it pretty easy to detect what changes they may want to make if the course or conditions warrant it. Usually after just a few laps on course and they have the desired settings sorted.
Dial your Tire Pressure
There’s a fine line between just enough and too low! Typically, running lower pressures yields better grip, lower rolling resistance over rough terrain and a bit of added comfort as well. Of course, taking it too far exposes you to increased risk of pinch-flatting the tire from hard impacts when there’s not enough air in the tire to keep it from bottoming out in the rim. Like with suspension, Kate and Brad spend time riding together and adjusting pressures to test the feeling and bike behavior, sometimes stopping throughout the ride to change things for immediate comparison. Again, they work from an established pressure as their baseline for each tire option and make small changes depending on course conditions or if they experience wet weather.
Organize your Cockpit
Everyone is different and has their own preferences for the feeling at every contact point on the bike. With shifting, dropper post switches and suspension lock-out controls all at your fingertips, it’s important to make sure the feeling and function feels natural and easy. This allows a safe and comfortable manipulation of the bike to ensure that the rider experiences the most efficient operation, which minimizes time spent searching for the controls and makes the bike feel like a natural extension of the body.
“Kate’s cockpit reflects many adaptations that were necessary to accommodate her small hands and limited reach— we cut grips shorter, run a custom dropper post switch and dial lever reach in much farther than “normal,” but I track her control placement to the millimeter because we have arrived at a perfect position that we mirror across every bike she has, including her Custom Spark RC WC.”
- Mechanic, Brad Copeland
Dial your Relationship with your Mechanic
Easier said than done! Having someone you trust 100% to prepare the equipment a rider uses during a race is a special type of trust. Trust that it’s safe, to begin with, and that all settings are deliberate and set with intent after extensive testing and communication between rider and mechanic have led us to the chosen specs. Beyond that, the mechanic’s job is to be able to quickly assess and make rapid and sometimes improvised repairs swiftly mid-race, even when the pressure is on.
“Fortunately for me, Kate is wonderful to work with and shares the success we’ve been working so hard for. Our friendship and trust in one another has been in development for five years now, and we both appreciate what the other one does. That’s very important in a sport in which so much of the outcome can be determined by performance and integrity of the equipment! And because I know Kate is going to show up ready to give 200% effort, I derive lots of motivation to make sure the bike is perfect and replete with little details that I hope make her feel special when she looks at it.”
