Sam Hill’s Super D
We spotted this bike a while ago, but it was only at the recent Mt St Anne World Cup that we got to take a closer look at it. This is Sam Hill‘s Super D bike, basically think of a slightly shorter version of the Megavalanche but with a Le Mans style start, that is the basic deal. Six inches of travel, single crown forks but with a downhill spec. Aggressive and light. The bike is based on the Iron Horse 6Point, but with some major changes and a special ‘Sam Hill only’ geometry.
dirt issue 99 – august 2007
Words Mike Rose. Photos by Victor Lucas
Of course as the more enduro downhill/Super D/Mega type of races become more widespread this technology will trickle down to the bikes that you or I can buy in the shops. But for now this is a one–off bike, you can’t buy it…not like this anyway. We hooked up with Iron Horse/Monster Energy team manager Sean Heimdal to get the low down.
Dirt: Tell us about this bike?Sean: It’s a 6” travel Super D bike made specifically for Sam with his geometry (head angle, top tube length, bottom bracket height, etc.). Sam was looking for something like his Downhill bike but wanted to be a able to race it at Sea Otter and a few other Super D’s.
We don’t really have Super D here in the UK, what is the deal with it?Super D is a mass start, pedally downhill race that lasts anywhere between five to ten minutes. Most of the tracks are not that technical and seem to favour those who have cross country style fitness. One of the cool parts is the start. Everyone starts at once and you have to run to your bike, it’s crazy. It would be cool to see some technical parts added to the courses, that might even the odds between the XC racers and the DH racers.
It seems pretty much set up for downhill riding, but would you use this for any other kind of riding?It has pretty limited use because of the gearing, but Sam is DH riding, doing Super D’s and even some XC on it. If you’re willing to mash the pedals this bike can go wherever you want it to go.
