ED’S CANYON SENDER ( shipped) CF 8.0 £3,676.98
There’s only one way to test a thoroughbred race bike…
I put the Sender up against the clock for the first time this month, at the opening round of the new National Downhill Series, at Cwmcarn in South Wales. The ‘Y Mynydd’ track has been around for over 10 years now, and I knew it was going to be a rough, high-speed affair, especially with 300 riders hammering out runs. To help the Sender’s Fox 40 fork stand up to the pummelling dealt out by all the holes and braking bumps, I set it up a little harder than usual. A small increase in air pressure from 55 to 60psi (I weigh 75kg) was all that was needed, alongside a couple of extra clicks of low-speed compression damping to help me carry speed through the jumps.
Cwmcarn’s well-worn rocky surface and sandy soil mean it’s no place for mud tyres, so I whipped off the Schwalbe Magic Marys I’d been running all winter and slapped on some Onza Aquilas, which are Aaron Gwin’s signature rubber. I figured the all-round tread pattern would work well, come rain or shine, and that’s exactly what the weather did. Torrential rain on Saturday morning left the track running with water in early practice, but come the race runs on Sunday things were starting to dry out and the ground was tacky. While the chopped-up bits offered glue-like grip, there were rocks with dirt dragged over them that could easily throw a bike out of shape, especially under braking.
I’ve been testing Mavic’s Deemax DH wheels (look out for a review soon) and wanted to see what a carbon fibre set would feel like in comparison, so I fitted some of Reynolds’ new Bernard Kerr edition Blacklabel DHs. After a weekend of racing, these light (1,921g a pair), fast-rolling hoops were still running true, and although a few splatters of tubeless sealant gave evidence of some dodgy inside line choices, there was no burping of air or loss of pressure.
My race went OK. I rode a fairly smooth and fast seeding run, and hoped to shave off a few seconds in the finals, but instead I overattacked, made sloppy mistakes and, disappointingly, finished one second slower. Still, it was a whole lot of fun to be back racing and it felt good to be riding the Sender in the environment it was designed for.