Hottest Bikes Of Hardline 2024

We’ve got all the best behind-the-scenes tech from Red Bull Hardline 2024, including the race-winning bike, two prototype frames and a rear hub with disengaging pawls for better suspension action!

The race is the brainchild of former World Cup downhiller Dan Atherton, who decided World Cup tracks were simply not difficult enough! 2024 marks 10 years of Hardline in Dyfi, and every year the riders get better at setting up their bikes for the mammoth challenges presented by the course…

We talk to the riders to examine race winner Ronan Dunne’s prototype Mondraker, Tahneé Seagrave’s Canyon Sender, Jono Jones’ custom-painted Propain Rage, Josh Bryceland’s prototype Cannondale Lab71 DH bike and Brendan Fairclough’s Scott Gambler.

Let us know which is your favourite bike in the comments!

#MTB #mbuk #mbukmagazine

Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:22 Ronan Dunne’s prototype Mondraker
04:29 Tahneé Seagrave’s Canyon Sender
07:01 Jono Jones’ Propain Rage
09:19 Josh Bryceland’s prototype Cannondale
13:14 Brendan Fairclough’s Scott Gambler
16:19 Outro

He Thought MTBing Was A Joke! | Sergio Layos Shows Us How It’s Done
👉 https://youtu.be/n3c37WmjEzI

How To Become An MTB Influencer | A Lap With @BenDeakinMTB ​
👉 https://youtu.be/uKyA-UZ3o40

Flats Vs. Clips | What’s Fastest?
👉 https://youtu.be/5hBDN6FVPpw

2023 Prototype Downhill Race Bikes | Lenzerheide World Cup
👉 https://youtu.be/R9iDfw6BHyI

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we’re here at Red Bull Hardline bringing you the hottest spikes from the fastest Riders including that man the winner Ronan [Music] dun we’re here with r and Dunn Fresh Off win in Hardline Tasmania and just taking a win on the last World Cup in Poland Ronan how’s it going yeah pretty sick uh just out finished quality day today and yeah can’t feed it fastest qualifier here uh can you tell us a bit about the bike you’re riding here at Hardline yeah so this is my new uh M drer downhill bike and not a sum I don’t think we’ve gone on the name yet there’s some really interesting stuff about this bike so I’ve been told that you and the team are all on the same size frame yeah but you’ve got chips behind the headset to change the sizing yeah so we have a headset cups here to like adjust how long and slack you want it so right now I have it fully maxed out I think the reach is 495 so it’s a big old bike really um what are these crazy things uh in in the back end in the swing on yeah so back here we have the rear braces obviously to adjust the flex of the bike so we drew in the brace here for our qual runs and just to give a bit more stiffness it might be a little bit looser but it’s faster and then on the middle brace we have three different ones so there’s a obviously thick medium which is this and then a thin one and which is on My World Cup bike and then also we have a top brace and a bottom brace you can really play around it but right now I’m loving it that sounds fascinating that’s proper fine tuning yeah it that’s really fine tuning not with suspension it’s with flex so it’s kind of quite cool and unique really another thing we’ve seen about this bike is there’s two bolts under the down tube and you’ve actually got a big metal plate in your frame can you tell us about that so our frames have a hole here we have 500 G of um I think steel under there just to give a more um weighted feel to the bottom bracket and because it just keeps the bike planted and just when you start to get Loos it will kind of like a motocross bike and an ebike ride if you ride ebike bike feels amazing give that kind of uh planted feel does make it a little bit heavier for jumping but overall it’s just way more planted fantastic well let’s move on to the suspension so what tune do you run at Hardline based to your compared to your World Cup settings yeah so right now actually we didn’t change a whole lot crazy this bike’s actually hand like I’ve never hit this bike and jumps this big and I was kind of curious ious to how it would respond but right now it’s actually giving me really good feedback but we put on a slightly harder tune on the shock where those big gouts really World Our World Cup tune is a lot lighter more sub up so we just put on that hard tune just because you have the 90f Footers you have the drop off after the Renegade where are just huge impacts and you just would blow out and then on the fork I usually run 88 PSI for the World Cups um now I’m on 92 uh with an extra token so just a little bit more support cuz this track is if you don’t and you’ll just yeah the bike’s not going to recover in time uh we can see you’re running a mullet wheel setup on this bike and you got carbon e113 wheels is that right yeah so Carbon wheels which is first time on Carbon wheels which I’m really liking to be fair the e13 aren’t too stiff no problems at all yet so it’s quite nice youve got a rather exciting rear hub on this bike what can you tell us about that yeah this just gives you that like no chain feel while riding no pedal Kickback whatsoever but it only kind of engages when you start to speed up so on like off the start line you’re not going to notice it but once it starts to speed up it’ll be gone so your mechanic told us it’s a system where the ratchets disengage and that isolates the suspension from the drivetrains movement yeah that exactly that I I don’t know how to describe it but I just say she doesn’t give me any pedal Kickback and that’s perfect so uh but yeah it is pretty sick like you said just for the viewers at home there’s a bottom bracket shuttle that bols into the frame so you can actually change the bottom bracket height without changing anything else yeah so yeah just literally bolt out put in a new one and you have a lower bottom bracket so it’s pretty sick to play around with that it’s like so much to adjust um and then also we have flip chips here on the shock that we can play around with to make how Progressive and linear the shock is as well so much usually setup isn’t my thing I just ride the bike but this year we’ve kind of been fine- tuning it and it’s definitely showing its place it’s pretty sick Happy Days thanks so much for sharing that with us and best of luck in the race tomorrow thank you very much cheers [Music] we’re here with t Seagrave who’s going to talk us through her Canyon sender T you’ve had a heck of a week looking at your social media how’s it been up there yeah it’s been amazing actually we managed to take off a few more features of the course so there’s not actually that much left before there’s a full top to bottom tell us about the bike you’re using us to tackle this course here yes so I’m using the canyon sender in the size medium mullet and a lot stiffer suspension than usual can you tell us how much stiffer um well I’ve gone up I think two or three spring rates in the um rear and then I’ve gone up like 15 psi in the fork and a lot of compression as well that’s a big change yeah massive changes so how does it feel on the technical stuff cuz presumably you’ve made those changes to deal with the jumps it’s horrible on the tech stuffff it’s like almost unridable but there’s just so many big features here and heavy Landing so I want to make sure I’m safe and I’ve got the speed to yeah hit them and land properly wow fair play okay and what about tire pressures do you know what you’re running here um I’m not actually sure I think they’re just normal like I usually run 23 in the back and 21 in the front so and no problems with pinch flats or anything like that I haven’t personally no so that’s good yeah I don’t think I’m riding fast enough I find that hard to believe okay and do you run inserts inside the tires no so just as they are and what tires are you running uh strawy Magic Marys they’re my yeah goto trusted tire for like all around stuff and especially here cuz like the weather changes all the time and it’s like sometimes super wet and you drag all that mud onto the rocks and then you’ve got so much slate it’s just yeah the perfect allrounder so geometry wise uh are you doing anything different on this bike compared to your World Cup bike yeah well the World Cup bike is a prototype so obviously went back to the old frame for something like this and then yeah I’ll be back on my prototype for the World Cup season is there anything else you’ve changed on the setup compared to your world cut bike uh no I think that’s it really just the suspension is a huge difference it’s like I said stiffer and it is slower as well so just in case I get a big Hefty case it’s not going to ping me over and stuff so yeah that’s happened before and yeah that’s it literally everything else is the same fa thank [Music] you we’re here with Jon O Jones brother of Matt Jones and Rider here at Hardline tell us about your setup for Hardline how do you like your bike set up for this event I think I’ve done this four or five times now with mixed success few injuries a few cancellations and I’ve always as everyone says had a harder setup big jumps big impacts set your bike up for those this year I’ve been riding the down bike a lot more than previous years I’ve been really happy with my setup and I came here hoping I could get away with that same setup the bike seems to be dealing with it and I think I’m happy now your bike’s being washed that’s why it’s not here with us uh but can you tell us about the custom wrap and your Custom kit this weekend I can I think I start with a bike because it’s the first custom painted bike I’ve ever had it’s not even a wrap that is hand painted and it took weeks to come up with a design I wanted something personal I came up with a few sort of patterns that I liked it was actually olle Wilkins I was chatting to him in Fort William just a few weeks ago and he said what about mind the gap you know with all the big gaps here and then we came up with a tube idea it is a tube map of London but each line has its own meaning each line has a different sort of um explanation behind it and the stops on that are relevant to that line I’m really over the moon with it so thanks to yeah g technique propane for coming together to sort it out and Cherry Customs for hand painting that stenciling all those little letters putting all the crossing over well it looks fantastic and you look fantastic on it as well what are you wearing today so custom bike but also Custom kit Matt and I wanted to do custom kits for Hardline didn’t know what to do and for some reason just thought of baseball they’re like wear uniforms it’s kind of like kites so that’s what we went for with the Pinstripes Flames why not got my sponsors on there big number on the back number 12 was the number I got at world World Champs when I was a junior and I’ll obviously never do World Champs again cuz I’m not fast enough so I’ll hang on to that number love it to bit Matt went for the number 13 unlucky for some but we were born on the 13th of August so a good number for him and it’s cool to be matching jonno thanks for taking the time to speak to us and hope you knock out the park this weekend thank you will we’re here with Josh Bryson Josh last year we saw you on a canondale jackal running mullet setup you’re on something a bit different this year can you tell us about your bike I can I can only tell you so much it is lab 71 prototype downhill bike the jackal’s a fantastic bike but I did feel I was really pushing the limits of it at this event just going onto an actual purpose design downhill bike it’s really confidence inspiring this year yeah loving it so tell us a bit more about what this big bike is I can see you got there for a a second shock is it yeah you can experiment with a lot of things on this bike I can’t go into too much detail but there’s a whole lot of adjustment for reach chain stays yeah your shock your suspension curves there’s all different lengths and carriers and it gets very technical you were saying last year you were warming to bikes that were a bigger size so what size is this one yeah this is bigger than what I had last year there’s one size but there’s a lot of adjustment so I’ve got it maxed out there’s a few turns where I feel like I need a reverse siren and a three-point turn but it’s amazing it really is a monster truck what fork and shock are you running on this bike Josh so I’ve got the formula mod coil on my back and we’ve got a custom tune on my Fork I’ve been working closely with formula we’ve been doing a lot of testing we’ve been doing like different shim stacks valving and we’ve come up with a completely custom tune we got they have a CTS valve which is like you can swap yourself my favorite thing is to have loads of Small Bump sensitivity and then a really good ramp up that’ll be something that might be available soon as well it’s is exciting oh class so last year you were running a mullet setup is is this set up the same this is full 29 I really enjoy mullet and there is times when I definitely feel the back tire being quite close to my bum on steep stuff but the breaking power you get with a 29 is one of the things I noticed the most yeah for slowing down on the Steep or the fast after a big drop up top and you land and Miss Thing you just jump on the brakes got a 220 rotor up front yeah it just anchors up really well and I think that could be down to the geometry as well but yeah that’s one of the big takeaways from 429 that I get Geometry wise you were saying off camera that it’s got quite a low BB um do you find that pedal strikes are a problem no I don’t I try not to Pedal you know me you just got to be a bit more careful where you put your bike especially here there a lot of like V shaped sort of rocks you thread him a needle through and stuff like that so you have to be a little bit more precise but no it’s not something I find a problem with okay and you said you’re running shter cranks on this bike how long are your cranks yeah 155 i’ pretty much got them across the board now on all bikes I think they just feel well better you definitely lose a little bit of um talk you feel that when you’re setting off in a harder gear but obviously you can adjust your gear into suit but A5 of the future have you got any other prototype Parts on this bike you’re not allowed to talk about there’s a few little bits and Bobs going on from Berg Tech all yeah the two major contact points are yet to be released a little bit bigger than traditional it’s like you’ve got more feel cuz you’ve got more contact area what’s your favorite part of the bike that you think is going to give you the edge this weekend probably my handle bar 50 mil rise 5 mil underneath for St and it’s nice and high and ready to go fair play right well cool thanks for that let’s share your bike top man Che well we’re with Hardline veteran brenon Fair cluff Bren talk us through your Scott Gambler uh yeah this is um actually a pretty stock Scott Gambler um with the exception of uh me rushing around and we wrapped this bike in this cool yellow color and actually wrapped carbon uh seats there as opposed to the aluminium seats say pelli t series on the back with the new MV M9 DMR cranks pedals Death Grips so all around again deity cockpit and seat up front again we’ve got the pelli Scorpion M series on the front that’s a 29 up front 27 at the back and uh obviously the new flashy gold grip X2 um Fox 40s up front and X2 coil yeah at the back yeah and there we there we have it really it’s a real quick quick run through of what we’re going on so when you went to the new Fox suspension with the grip X2 damper on the front and the new dhx2 on the back and the aluminum seat stay for the 27 and A2 inch wheel did you notice any difference honestly like setting up Downer bike is one of the hardest things to do cuz you just you blame everything apart from the bike and there could be a rock in the way or a different weather condition or the track could have deterior at there to many different variables but um I think when you have an engineer telling you that that’s Prime that also really helps in your head and then you can really have that as a base setting and then work off that so like the aluminium rear swing arm is to help lift the back end of the bike up when it’s um in 27 29 like mix the setting so that helps keeping the bottom bracket off the floor and keeping it a bit more balanced like that keep my weight forward um a new suspension is just Game Changer so excited with that it just feels like so much Small Bump sensitivity off the B bottom so um yeah really stoked on them pretty much all I’ve changed for this race is I slow up the rear of the bike a little bit cuz I feel like there’s so many big hits consistently on the way down getting bucked is uh not something I want to experience and what about pressures and spring so your suspension pressures and your tire pressures do you change them at all for Hardline the forks are on pretty similar between 92 and 95 PSI um pretty high 550b spring um I have gone like I said before a little slower on rebound to avoid those bucks and uh tire pressure same 22 27 so reasonably low with pressures um do you run inserts or do you find the pelli tires are tough enough as they are honestly I think the tire and rim combo are just absolutely unbelievable like with these new um m9s there’s like um a plastic strip that goes on the inside so even if you were to Dent your Rim you’re never going to lose pressure so um yeah it’s incredible like you you you’re never going to get a punch with this and when it comes to geometry of the bike things like cockpit height angles do you run it the same as at Hardline as you ran at say World Cups last year uh yeah exactly the same just got a 10 mil spacer underneath here pretty pretty stock setup no 80 mil High Riser bars or anything cheers B thanks very [Music] [Applause] [Music] much if you enjoyed this video please do give it give it a like And subscribe for more and let us know which bike is your favorite by leaving a comment below and if you want to see other great Hardline bikes like the bike Bernard Kerr was riding last year click the link here