#98 MARK WALLACE’S CANYON SENDER
Off-the-shelf downhill rig with a number of custom tweaks
Canyon Factory Racing are one of the most high-profile teams on the downhill circuit, with two-time world champ Fabien Barel at the helm and three talented riders on the roster. Their Sender downhill bikes are pushed to the limit every time they roll out of the World Cup start gate – often with a brand-new paint job. But just what’s different about CFR rider Mark Wallace’s bike compared to the models you can purchase on Canyon’s website? We were given a run-through by head mechanic Nigel Reeve.
“Well, first and foremost there are the 29in wheels,” Nigel revealed. “While this isn’t a 29er-specific frame, we have several different linkages across the team, serving different purposes. This one makes the frame compatible with bigger wheels. While it isn’t perfect, we feel there’s enough of an advantage to using this set-up while a specific 29in Sender is developed.” Mark seemed at home aboard the wagon wheels, riding them to ninth place at the DH World Championships in Quebec. His shorter teammate
Troy Brosnan was less content, going on to experiment with a ‘mullet’ set-up (29in front,
650b rear), before reverting to smaller wheels at both ends.
Another custom part on Mark’s bike is the Canyon direct-mount stem. Due to the bigger front wheel, the Canadian asked for a lower stem to keep his handlebar height where he feels most comfortable (1). The bike is decked out with titanium bolts. “Anywhere we can save weight, we do so,” explained
Nigel. “Everything is done to increase performance.”
You may be surprised to hear that the rest of the bike is actually pretty standard. “To be honest, you could buy most of the bike off the shelf – or rather, online,” Nigel clarifies. “It’s not what you’ve got, it’s what you do with it,” he adds, explaining that he’s spent hours getting the bike dialled in with all the tips and tricks a World Cup mechanic has – he wouldn’t pass them on to us though!
Boxing clever
The DT Swiss EX 471 wheels, Truvativ Descendant seatpost, Ergon saddle and Canyon G5 handlebar are available to anyone. SRAM’s X01 DH drivetrain, Code RSC brakes and RockShox suspension are standard-issue too. However, Mark is on SRAM’s BlackBox programme for testing new performance products (2). So while everything may seem fairly vanilla, he’s sure to be running a few prototype parts. Take, for example, his coil shock, which is visibly different to the RockShox Super Deluxe Coil Ultimate you might expect to see (3).
One thing we did learn is that Mark runs his BoXXer fork at a high 160psi. To put that into perspective, RockShox suggest running 145+psi if you’re heavier than 99kg (220lb). This just goes to show how hard elite racers are pushing their equipment, and how fast they must be going to require that sort of support.
Even with the speed and inertia of 29in wheels, Mark still runs 200mm brake rotors, not the 220mm size seen on some other pro riders’ bikes. “We didn’t run into braking problems with the 29in wheels, so we didn’t feel the need to change them,” says Nigel.
Another prototype bit of kit is Mark’s Maxxis Test Pilot tyres. These Minion DHR IIs use a special ‘ZK’ casing. “The new casing reduces the possibility of getting cuts across the top of the tread, which has happened to us before,” explains Nigel. When we asked whether Canyon use tyre inserts to help with puncture protection, Nigel gave us a sour look, confirming that they run a standard tubeless set-up.
Searching for seconds
One extra arrow Canyon have in their quiver is their telemetry bikes, which use Dave Garland’s (former mechanic to Danny Hart) Stendec data acquisition system. This allows Nigel to see precisely how Mark’s bike is behaving, thanks to the analytical data gathered from the course and rider inputs.
“If you look at the times achieved by riders in the top 10, they’re both incredibly fast and very, very similar,” he says. “If we can find just 0.2 of a second over the run, that’ll easily translate to a whole position on the scoreboard. These systems give us a ton of really precise and informative data that we can use to make those small improvements. It takes a hell of a lot of work to operate this technology and process the information that it generates, but we feel the benefits are definitely worth it for our riders.”
So, this bike does have some of those special features that make us so excited to check out factory race machines – and we wouldn’t expect anything less from CFR. But it’s good to see it also uses lots of standard, non-bespoke equipment that’s available to all.