The Syndicate boys came to town in January for some pre-season testing of the Santa Cruz V-10’s and a little pre-season fun. They were pleased with the new modifications and excited to be on their 2009 mounts. With a couple of days of testing with SRAM’s Jon Cancelier and Syndicate mechanic Doug Hatfield, the bikes were dialed in and the days following were filled with photo shoots with Forrest Arakawa.
Prior to arriving into Santa Cruz, Steve was in Laguna Beach on a family holiday enjoying the unseasonable sunny weather. Greg and Josh arrived into So Cal early to have a bit of fun. A highlight for them was an enduro ride on Friday in Murrieta, courtesy of Jason Gardner, which took them through ‘Jason’s Crazy Den’. On Saturday they met up with Steve and Rob Roskopp at Anaheim for the third round of Supercross. Sunday and Monday were spent doing photo shoots for DT Swiss, and a fun highlight of that was stumbling across a private skatepark in the hills of Murrieta and invited to come in. Thanks to Jim and Amber Sheffield for flagging us in and giving the guys skateboards and a bmx bike to play with. The boys had a blast and we are thankful that they picked downhill for their sport.
Arriving into Santa Cruz on Tuesday the guys were anxious to see the new bikes. Wednesday morning they were unveiled and the guys were so excited. The new paint jobs were dazzling, thanks to Doug Hatfield’s efforts.
“The new bike is so cool, once I’d managed to lift my jaw over the new paint job I had loads of fun riding it. Also getting the new forks and so on dialed in. It was good fun,” said Josh.
Two days were spent in the hills above Santa Cruz doing downhill shuttles and testing. Things got really fun when Jon got the freelap poles out and the timing began. With 13 runs on the second day the boys were so pleased with the bikes and pretty stoked with their times. “Old School” shows why he’s still the New School, as he had fast time after fast time.
Dr. Steve Peat says, “Testing went spectacular in Santa Cruz, we had a slight insight into what we would be riding at the end of season test in Tahoe last October, but this was the first time we got to ride our personal rigs with the new mods. The modified rear end and longer shock combo gave us so much more feel to the rear. Jon from the Blackbox Sram program brought us lots of juicy bits and bobs to test which, to be honest, were all mint. I am looking forward to the season now as I think the combo of Blackbox parts and the new rear end of our bikes is a big leap forward"
Greg comments, “I think on the equipment side our bikes have changed quite a lot which is one of the reasons why we are here testing and I feel really comfortable on my bike now. We changed the frame sizing a bit for myself so I could fit just that 10% better. I had nothing wrong with the way the bike handled so we kept the handing and the way it rode all the same. We just lengthened the bike a little bit so I can fit on it better and that’s probably the main change. We’ve been working with the guys since October last year so to finally be on the bike and do some rides on it I feel really good on it.”
After the testing, weather was rainy but photo shoots still went on and Forrest kept cracking away at the action shots, getting some minters. Steve went home, and Greg and Josh stayed on for a few more days of shooting. We managed to get in a few good evenings of relaxing in the Roskopp’s spa, and huge thanks go out to Rop and Lepa for their hospitality in hosting us and for Lepa’s amazing meals.
We all look eagerly forward to rejoining in South Africa for the first World Cup. The guys are on their new bikes, a very unusual circumstance to have bikes this early in the season, as most years go, so they will be training on them for the next few months and should be ready to go come April.
Check out this link on Littermag for more test camp info:
http://www.littermag.com/2009/exclusive-2009-santa-cruz-syndicate-v10-downhill-bike-prototypes/
and Whistler Mountain Bike site:
http://www.whistlermountainbike.com/wmb/index.php?content=020209-sitting-down-with-the-syndicate
THANKS TO THE SYNDICATE SPONSORS:
Santa Cruz Bicycles
SRAM
RockShox
Truvativ
Avid
DT Swiss
WTB
Crankbrothers
Lizard Skins
Clif Bar
Troy Lee Designs
Chris King
Five Ten
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photo: Kathy Sessler
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