The top four production carbon downhill bikes, all with a vintage of World Cup or World Championship success, go head to head in the hills above the Italian Riviera. Relatively close in terms of angles, revered for their form and function, well–known brands at the forefront of competitive downhill racing, each with what they consider to be the finest equipment available…
From Dirt Issue 136 – June 2014
Words by Steve Jones. Photos by Steve Jones and Ben Winder.
Just take a look at what’s being said here about these bikes:
“The lightest and strongest race frame in the world” Santa Cruz Bicycles
“The overall best downhiller the scene has ever seen” Trek
“The worlds hottest downhill bike” Devinci
“The ultimate race bike” Specialized
The talk might be king size, but the titles are real. Aaron Gwin steered his Trek to overall World Cup victory in 2012, Greg Minnaar was on the Santa Cruz in second (and took the World Champs win), Steve Smith on the Devinci in fourth and Sam Hill on the Specialized in fifth. The only bike missing from this list is Gee Atherton’s GT in third…but it seems that GT have new plans for 2013/14!
All four bikes, and four test riders, headed south to the character–building terrain north of San Remo to fight it out for title of best production carbon downhill bike 2013. There can only be one winner…right?>>
