For four years Seth Barrett has raced and ridden the wheels off a Scott Voltage. It has been a gem of a bike…
From Dirt Issue 136 – June 2013
Words by Steve Jones. Photo by Steve Jones.
As a juvenile rider he found the air Fox 36 fork up front and RP23 rear gave him the adjustment he needed for his seven stone build that might not have been achievable or available with coil springs. The results started coming in on the Scott, podiums even, but the time has come to move on from what was essentially a park/freeride bike into something more punchy and built solely for downhill.
A solid and proven bike, the Commencal Supreme DH comes in three sizes S/M/L but crucially we matched the Andorran beauty as closely to Seth’s Scott as possible factoring in the key downtube measurement, which has a big effect on reach. The medium Supreme turns out pretty close to his Voltage in that area. Mojo Suspension came up with a lightweight 250 spring on the rear and weakest fork spring option. I told Seth to remove the headtube spacers but I’m not sure if he’s done that or not. He bolted on his own bars, not that there was anything wrong with the stock ones, and off he went to Bala to the Pearce Cycles DH round 2, racing within an hour of taking delivery.
Even though Commencal reckon the medium is good for riders 5’6” to 6’, I still worried the bike might be a touch too big for Seth even though the chassis numbers are similar to his Scott, mainly because this is a downhill bike and is bigger everywhere, so to speak. I had a text off him from the race, “the bike is un real 4th place”. Whatever, he’ll grow into it no doubt and hell its not like he wasn’t throwing the Voltage around.
As a long termer I’m interested to see how quickly he’ll adapt to a triple clamp, coil dampers and heavier weight bike. With so much more support all round he’ll certainly be charging even harder into sections. I swapped out the hard compound Maxxis Minions for a pair of High Roller Super Tacky, but otherwise he’s on the hill on a standard bike. A full season awaits – it’s a proven bike, Gee Atherton took this bike to World Cup series glory, but hey, no pressure Seth.
Price: £3,499.99
