TRAIL TUNING WITH FOX

With Ride Fox Australia we ran a competition for readers to win a day on the trails learning from two of Australia’s greatest riders.

At the start of this year, we held a competition with Fox Australia where lucky winners would get the chance to come out for a day on the trails. But it wouldn’t be any old ride day, the winners would get an updated suspension tune to their Fox-equipped suspension, some fresh Fox digital shock pumps to take home, a catered lunch (and dinner) with Bent Spoke Brewery, and the chance to ride and learn from 2015/2016 Gravity Enduro National Champion Chris Panozzo, and skills master Dylan Cooper from RideTechnics. Yeah, we think that makes for a pretty good day on the trails.

With a crew of four riders keen to improve on their cornering, jumping and drops, our prize winners first had their suspension inspected. Fox had a team of four on hand, with a complete mobile workshop on site at Mt Stromlo to make the process as fast as possible – even when one rider’s fork clearly needed a rebuild after going way past a service interval.

On the trails

With groups split in two, riders got a couple of hours each with Dylan and Chris. Learning techniques like trail reading, pumping for more flow, body positioning on the bike, how to take drops and not just huck off them, and how to control their bike in the air. They learnt how to jump with control, how to pump over tabletops for speed and safety, and how to climb and descend switchbacks and berms with greater efficiency and speed.

Riding tips and EWS-informed race insights were gleaned on the trail and over lunch. And while we ate and rehydrated, the Fox mechanics made a few further changes to rider’s bikes, after a little more trail time on their new settings.

While the idea behind the day was to help riders get the most out of their Fox suspension, having the input from Chris and Dylan to get the most out of their riding really set it off. There were smiles all round when people took bigger drops, jumped with confidence, and manualled sections of trail that they hadn’t thought possible at the start of the day.

“It was great working with the four enthusiasic AMB competition winners alongside Chris, to improve their gravity riding skills, “said Dylan from RideTechnics.. ”As well as Fox tuning their suspension, they got to tune their jumping, drop-offs, cornering, pumping, manuals, and other key riding techniques. An excellent day out with fun people.”

“This was a great way to catch up with everyone at Fox and AMB and to meet the riders who participated in the comp, “said Panozzo. “It was awesome to see their enthusiasm for mountain biking. It was a fun day out and everyone who didn’t enter should be kicking themselves!”

In the end, the day was just as much about hanging out with some new faces, and sharing our passion for mountain biking. The bonus was what we all learnt along the way, with one rider even saying it was up there with one of his best days on the bike – ever.

Thanks to Fox Australia, Chris Panozzo and Dylan from RideTechnics for making this day possible. And thanks to everyone who entered for the chance to be a part of it!