My New Downhill Bike And Return To Racing

Our Ex pro downhill racer turned GMBN presenter Neil Donoghue is back in the race paddock to take on his first proper DH race in 12 years! He grew up racing downhill with people such as Steve Peat, Josh Bryceland, and Brendan Fairclough, and made a living as a pro for many years! Let’s see how Neil does back between the race tape! 🏁

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I’m heading back to the downhill race Paddock it’s a place where I’ve spent a massive chunk of my life I grew up there I made some lifelong friends racing downhill I made a living out of here for a while but actually I feels like a lifetime ago now so I’m going to my first proper down race in about 12 years I’m excited I’m nervous but first i’m in Crawley to pick up a brand new bike [Music] so I’ve come to propane’s HQ in the UK this is in Crawley obviously it’s a German brand but they’ve got this whopping great setup in the UK so you can come and check out the showroom it’s a really cool place actually but also in the UK if you want to spec your bike online you can come here and pick it up in person if you want so let’s take a look around so it’s a really cool spot just to come and check out uh that’s one of gate env’s bike that he rode at Hardline but you can check out all the range of propane got the trick shot Dirt Jump bike obviously at jmbm we’re super lucky to be sported by propane they’re one of the companies that makes our Channel possible but I’m also checking out some of the bikes I have at home got the eano 2 my favorite he bike love that thing but also I’m I am drawn over to the kids bikes at that 14in Wheels disc brake on the rear and then that’s uh this this is a Yuma 24 Wheels with an option to run 26 so it grow with your kids as well I’m definitely looking at kids bikes closer now come through into the workshop where there’s a bit of extra curricular activities for the boys which pretty cool also a couple of Jon Jones bikes hanging there but I’m more interested in my brand new propane Rage 3 CF check that out that is their badminton color that’s called it’s minty green loving it so this is obviously the dino bike 200 mil travel got rock boxer up front direct M stem really cool 215 M travel in the rear Rock shot set up on this bike the Super Deluxe coil shock it’s got propane’s Pro 10 linkage system here so Progressive not ridden the rage before so I’m looking forward to setting this thing up don’t have much time before the weekend so I’m pretty much jumping on for practice on Saturday on this I’m going to cut the bars down and run like 7 60 mil bars on pretty much all my bikes um this size medium I’m 5’10 178 cm tall um yeah swap out a few bits and get this boik set up for clang gothen I’m heading up to clang gothen for the gravity events round two downhill race it’s a venue I’ve ridden a few times Steep and mostly in the open the race will be on the ride Portugal track it’s by no means crazy technical but still a challenge to ride fast it’s 1 km long with 240 M of elevation change an average gradient of 20% like so I’ve made it to Kang Goan for my first downhill race in 12 years got my bike set up well sort of obviously I’ve not rid the bike at all yet it’s my first try out today so there’ll be some messing around with settings I’m sure but as ever as you’d expect in the UK it is raining good thing about this place is it’s super Steep Hill it’ll drain but it’s going to be a modder so it’s going to be difficult to get used to a bike when it’s brand new and it’s is going to be pretty tricky conditions so I’m back at downhill race it’s been a long time but feels really familiar I suppose it’s what I do from the top of hill to the bottom as fast as I can people practicing now so uh yeah getting back into swinging things feels like I said really familiar fun I guess things will feel different tomorrow and race day but conditions are quite tricky it’s been really wet all morning now it’s dry night so it went from kind of wet and griffy believe it or not to digging out and then really really slick on top so hopefully it’s going to dry it and uh it’s going to be a fun weekend but I’ve gone from being in Elite to now I’m in veterans and I know is um the competition is hot some of the guys I used to race with a long time ago now in Old in the veterans were’re no longer the spring chickens so uh looking forward to a proper weekend of racing so this is one of the harder parts of the track actually super steep Ro and there’s loads different lines coming down [Music] [Music] [Music] three runs down with varying degrees of success but loving the sort of process of trying to work out the fastest way down track but I’m feeling something ni brand new bike obviously so feel something loose time to a bolt check well that’s Saturday’s practice done the bike set up as good as I think I can and it’s time for me to get fueled up and get a good night’s sleep ready for race day tomorrow all right it’s race day now so did five practice runs yesterday which felt like plenty I had loads more time but I thought I’d give it a rest the rain came in yesterday afternoon so I was like I’ll save my energy I thought the track was going to change a lot today it’s super sunny it’s going to be dry all day apparently so the track is probably going to be greasy this morning some new pots there’s some ruts already going yesterday so uh I think it’s going to build into quite an interesting race course today so uh we’re at a gravity UK event um where there’s two race runs today which is kind of different to a lot of races where we just have one one chance to do it so uh I’m quite excited about it really need to get a couple of good Banker sort of d uh practice runs this morning see how the track is already but like I think it’s going to dry out and uh save some eny from my two race F later [Music] on done three practice runs now and I’m feeling pretty good on the track the track is drying out quite a lot so it should keep getting faster throughout the day as long as those bottom rots don’t blow out so let’s head up for race run one [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] that run was pretty solid I very nearly threw it away I was so lucky the front wheel stayed gripping before going into the tricky woods but I did not crash 2 minutes 40 seconds put me in third place after run one 2 and 1 half seconds of second place James Hughes but 7 Seconds back from Le on Rossa in first I don’t think I have that up my sleeve even if I can correct that small mistake a couple of hours later I regrouped and headed up the hill once again Keen to take off a faster run going going [Music] only [Music] under race run two was better but not enough I took almost 2 seconds off good enough to finish in third place 5 Seconds off the win that went to Leon Rosser with James Hughes in second [Music] place well there you go what a fun weekend of racing that was it was great to be back in the pits and seeing some friends of old but also it was really nice being able to race and it basically not having any pressure like I used to when I was a pro of kind of my living depended on it I was there to just try and do a good run on the track it’s actually really inspiring as well to see those older guys how dedicated how fast they are and it’s inspired me I want to do some more racing and maybe get back into race shape a bit better and do some more of that that probably wasn’t the best part actually it was really cool to see my family come and watch me race it’s the first time any of my kids have seen me do the thing that I used to do and it was Father’s day as well so that made it extra special um but that’s not the end of it very soon I’ll be heading out to France and I’ll be testing my speed against the world’s best Pros that’s going to be a very different matter indeed but keep watching the channel that’ll be coming very soon thanks for watching see you later