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00:00Cross-country fans, we have felt your pain. It's finally time for race bikes to turn its
00:12attention to the endurance side of the sport. And if you're gonna talk about cross-country racing,
00:17then there's only two names you need to think about. Nino Schurter and the Scott Spark.
00:30Welcome to Race Bikes, the show that takes you deeper into the world of mountain bike racing
00:44through its fastest machines. These are the bikes that redefined what was possible, pushed the whole
00:49sport forward and allowed the world's best riders to achieve the seemingly impossible. These are the
00:56bikes that matter the most. My name is Rip McLaughlin, I've been lucky enough to work in
01:03mountain bike media for nearly 20 years, and I am a dyed-in-the-wool massive bike geek. And over the
01:10course of the series, I'm going to be traveling around the world to track down, dust off and get
01:14hands-on with some of the most important two-wheeled projectiles to ever grace the racetracks of the
01:20Whoop UCI mountain bike world series.
01:29Normally, we travel the world to bring you a single really special bike. On this episode,
01:37we're in a rather nondescript little corner of Switzerland to bring you every single one of Nino
01:45shirts, race bikes ever. Cross-country racing, the rider in the lead at the end of a set amount of
01:52laps of a track comprising of steep climbs and descents wins. If you're new to it, then it's maybe best
01:59to think of Nino as the ultimate end-of-level boss in your favorite computer game. Sometimes numbers work
02:07better than words, so brace yourselves. 36 World Cups, 10 Elite World Champion titles, an Olympic gold,
02:17silver and bronze. Yeah, that's my achievements. And let's not forget that in 2018 he beat Roger
02:24Federer to the Swiss Sports Personality of the Year title.
02:28I think this is the very place. In here, I think we should find the man himself, Yanni.
02:47Well, I'm Yannick Kieger. I'm the head mechanic of the Scots Ram MTB racing team.
02:53Look at this, man. How are you doing, brother? Good news.
02:56Yeah, good, but look at your office, man. This is the home base of Scots Ram.
03:03It's a time capsule. Look at all the old bikes. All still covered in dirt from the races as well.
03:08I tried to, yeah. So originally the dirt from Canada, from Rio, Australia.
03:17I'm having bike geek overload because I'm like, there's a Lenzer Heider Worlds bike,
03:21there's the Rio 2016 bike. All the frames up the wall.
03:25All the frames. So I tried to keep one frame each season, just as a design.
03:33But we see all the designs. I actually want to go over, but I need some more.
03:39I think we have a problem here, Yanni. This TV show can only be so long, but this is overload.
03:46You know, as a mechanic, I'm actually always happy when nothing happens during a race.
03:52It doesn't matter which results they're riding. That's for me actually a win when a bike holds 90 minutes during a race.
04:02How are you?
04:03Good.
04:04It's been a great host.
04:05Always a good host.
04:06Always a good host.
04:10We are not the biggest team, but I think we always had like a really family vibe.
04:19I'm racing now for 22 years for the same brands. I think that's a nice proof that things are working well.
04:27Scott was for me a dream partner from the beginning.
04:32A Swiss cycling company that is really dedicated to racing was just perfect.
04:39And I also must say I was lucky I joined the team as a young rider.
04:44Having such a professional team from the beginning, I was also lucky.
04:48But yeah, then we had great success together.
04:51Right, Nino, I am now going to put you on the spot. Potentially the biggest challenge of your career to date.
05:01All your race bikes, all your custom bikes. What are your three favorites?
05:05I'm not going to be cruel and say one. I'm going to say three of them. Pick three.
05:09Okay, yeah, that's a difficult task. Pretty nice bikes.
05:14Are there any ones that you forget? Do you ever look at them and go,
05:17Oh, where did I get that from? What race was that?
05:19When I come back here sometimes to the warehouse, I'm like, ah, I forgot about it.
05:25But now to one of my favorites. Right, okay.
05:27This is for sure World Championships in Lancerheide.
05:32This is the third version of the bike, the 2016 sort of then after one.
05:37You've got your name on the saddle. It's a little cartoon you in here.
05:44Is this still Lancerheide Dirt as well?
05:45This is still Lancerheide Dirt. So we kept, or Yannick kept, keeps them all,
05:53when he can, all dirty from the race.
05:56Was there any other sort of technical little touches on this bike or anything different?
06:00It was actually my idea of the color. I was like, it would be cool if it's like
06:05one side red, the other side white.
06:07Oh, so it's flipped over.
06:09Yeah, I think it's really cool. The white and red, the one side,
06:12the fork, half-half, even the handlebar.
06:15At the beginning, I wasn't sure if this is going to interrupt me or like, disturb me.
06:21Oh, because they're different colors.
06:22Yeah, different colors.
06:22Yeah.
06:23It would take your eye to different places.
06:25Yeah, yeah.
06:25But look, like, still with the cable lockout and still with the solid.
06:31No dropper. I quite like it. It was a great success, winning world championships back home
06:38in Lancerheide in front of insane home crowds.
06:41Lancerheide has been somewhere historically that you've put big performances in, isn't it?
06:47Do you feel that home crowd thing? Is it a bigger thing for you in Switzerland?
06:53Yeah, I think it's always special to race in front of your home crowd, your family.
06:58I always could get some extra energy from racing back home.
07:02Jani just shouted through from the next door.
07:05This bike, which I did sort of clock earlier, was the same colorway as this.
07:11That's when we started to play around with more travel. So we were thinking to go maybe to 120.
07:21And then coming into Worlds, we were like, OK, let's try to have first 110.
07:27But they decided they are still to race with the 100 millimeter bike.
07:31But actually, just straight off the world championships, I went to 120.
07:36I get the sense that this may have been a busy period in Jani's life.
07:43It may have been a lot of bikes to get on with then, but...
07:45Jani is always busy.
07:49I'm a generous man, so I'm going to count this as one bike.
07:52You have to get your second one now. Let's put these away.
07:57And the number board on this bike kind of gives it away, doesn't it?
08:00Rio 2016, Olympic gold medal, winning piece of machinery, still with dirt from Rio.
08:09Still with real dirt all over it.
08:12And this is the bike that, like, the design process for this third version of the Spark
08:18was almost aimed at that one race, wasn't it? Because 2012 didn't go their way and they were like,
08:23right, 2016, everything for a gold. And it was all, and you and Jenny got them.
08:30Coming into Olympics, we did a lot of testing for rolling efficiency.
08:35And this was, back then, the fastest rolling tire.
08:38But then it was raining overnight.
08:41And I was like, we did so much for this race.
08:44And we were always thinking, Rio, it's going to be dry and fast and, like,
08:48one half hours before just freaking out what tire should I use now.
08:52And then it was, like, drying up. And I was like, you know what? I'm still going for my full dry tires.
09:03Send it. Send it.
09:06Let's pop this Olympic winning bike back. And right.
09:11Look at this thing.
09:14Like, the success I had on specific this bike wasn't so.
09:19Because I raced in Leogang straight after I won my 34th World Cup in Lenzeheide.
09:26And I got the record there on World Cup wins. And every single World Cup I won is in a timeline.
09:34It starts here with my first World Cup win in Yorkshire.
09:392010.
09:41And then, uh, it took a while until I won the next one.
09:46Peter Meritsburg, then once and then.
09:48Oh, the whole thing. I didn't realise.
09:49Novo Mesto, Val Nord, Novo Mesto, Windham.
09:53I didn't realise it was an actual timeline.
09:55The gaps between...
09:56It's a full timeline.
09:57And 2017, we got really close to each other.
10:02It's a good year.
10:03It was a pretty good year.
10:05It was a pretty good year by there, yeah.
10:06But then from 19, it took me...
10:13Until, uh, Brazil.
10:152022.
10:19And then?
10:19And then Lenzeheide.
10:21They told me actually they had this bike ready for, I think, two years.
10:25They didn't want anything.
10:29Is that a motivation?
10:31They think that they told you that after you won?
10:33No, no, it was like...
10:34Then after, after Brazil, they made this, this bike ready 2022.
10:40And then it took three until July 2023 to win another World Cup.
10:46But what a race win that was.
10:48I mean, I've been really lucky in that.
10:50I've watched you do some incredible things at bike races.
10:53That's what I love about this bike.
10:55It doesn't just celebrate that Lenzeheide win.
10:58It's your whole career.
10:59This is actually...
11:00Your whole win so far.
11:01That's the All 34 back then.
11:03Now I won another two.
11:05But this was to celebrate, actually, Lenzeheide.
11:09Have you asked Nino what's the bike he likes the least?
11:14That's a great question.
11:15Nino, what's the bike you like the least?
11:17I know.
11:19I know there is one he didn't like at all.
11:21We'll cut that and then it'll look like I've asked a question.
11:24That's brilliant.
11:25Nino, what's your least favorite bike here?
11:28Yeah, I think the design from this one wasn't so...
11:31The Crocodile.
11:32Is there a Crocodile?
11:34Which one are you?
11:35I can hear Yanni laughing from next door.
11:37And it says Croco Nino on it.
11:41Croco Nino.
11:41But I still won on it.
11:47That's a flex when you don't like the bike but you still won on it.
11:53The bike we're going to feature is this one.
11:55Nino's favorite of the latest generation.
11:58The fourth generation of the Spark.
12:00A bike custom built and painted to celebrate not just a singular record-breaking victory
12:07but a career studded with them.
12:09The new record holder never in doubt there has never been anyone like Nino Sher.
12:22The latest generation of the Scott Spark is a really, really clean looking bike.
12:27visually.
12:28And a big part of that is the shock is inside the front triangle.
12:34Now it's not just in there for aesthetics.
12:36It's in there for three very good reasons.
12:38The first of which is it allowed the engineers to move the weight of the frame
12:43lower down right down between Nino's ankles for better center of gravity.
12:48The second of all is that with all this frame material either side of it
12:52they can build much stronger contact points and put much bigger bearings
12:57in there around the shock to stop it from twisting improving the suspension performance.
13:02And finally cold wet day in Monsaint Anne on the banks of the St Lawrence river.
13:07Not unusual.
13:08120 millimetres of rear suspension travel.
13:11Outside of the grind.
13:13Outside of the mud.
13:14Perfect every time.
13:17Cross-country racing has seen huge change over the years.
13:20Courses have shrunk in length and grown massively in terms of average speed and technical features.
13:26Early race bikes were rigid, suspension-free machines before the suspension fork arrived.
13:31That was where things kind of stayed for a few decades.
13:35Those early suspension units had 80 millimetres of suspension travel to absorb roots and rocks.
13:41But when riders like Nino and his compatriot Yolanda Neff started pushing technical riding
13:46to new limits, more suspension was needed.
13:49The latest Scott Spark now leads the way at a tiring 120 millimetres of front and rear travel.
13:57Unthinkable even a couple of years ago.
14:03Now one of the things that has blown my mind a bit since being here is the realisation that Nino's
14:08Beijing Olympic bike is more likely than not going to be the lightest mountain bike he ever races.
14:15On that hardtail tips the scales at around about 8 kilograms.
14:19This, his latest Scott Spark, closer to 11 kilograms.
14:24But despite the weight difference, this thing, faster everywhere.
14:28And that shows you just how far these bikes have come.
14:32Yeah, my first bikes I was racing for the team was at World Championships in 2003.
14:40I was racing on a Scott Genius.
14:43It just came out then.
14:45But after that I went like for years, I was just racing hardtails on 26 inch wheels,
14:53no dropper post, narrow tires.
14:56Yeah, it's like, now when you, it's, it's actually not such a long time, but it's still,
15:03when you see the, the bikes, it's, it's a different, different machine now.
15:08Nino was at the forefront of developing this RockShox flight attendant suspension system.
15:15Now normally in a cross country bike, you have a shock lockout that can lock your suspension
15:19out for climbing and open it up before descents.
15:22Nino was using that around about 200 times per race.
15:27Now with flight attendant, the fork talks to the shock and between them,
15:31they decide exactly the right suspension settings that Nino needs.
15:35And that 200 adjustments per race become 1300 without him moving his thumb.
15:43The bike decides itself what is best.
15:47And that blows my mind a wee bit more.
15:52Nino was the first of SRAM's sponsored athletes to race on this, their Eagle transmission.
16:02Again, Bluetooth equipped, no cables. Instead, the rear mech, Toxler shifter up there,
16:0912 speeds at the back, plenty of range, single chain ring up front, almost very, very simple.
16:16All those things you really can now more focus just on riding.
16:21You don't need to think anymore when to shift. You just shift when you want. You can shift on the full power.
16:29Yeah. Back then you still had to take power off, shift, wait until the gear was on.
16:35And just to ensure that the only cables on this bike are connected to the brakes, Nino runs this also
16:44Bluetooth actuated RockShox Reverb dropper post with 100 millimetres of drop.
16:50The so-called dropper seat post is one of the biggest technical advances in modern mountain bike history.
16:56The device allows the saddle height to be dropped in some cases as much as 200 millimetres via a handlebar mounted lever.
17:03Whilst the second press returns it to maximum extension.
17:07The benefits? It allows riders to drop their saddle out of the way on steep descents,
17:12allowing them much more room to move their weight back towards the rear axle to avoid going over the handlebars.
17:18One thing that makes this sport so unique it's like it's also like the whole equipment thing.
17:25With having great partners that always believed in racing and that in racing can be a lot of development.
17:34Yeah, we were lucky to actually go through quite some changes on new products and sometimes having a
17:44a little bit of an advantage to others.
17:48What's one of the really interesting things about a lot of the bikes here is that Nino,
17:53like a lot of cross-country racers, was actually pretty late to the dropper seat post.
17:57These were available to the consumer 10 years before the goat took one on himself.
18:03His worry that was by being able to drop the seat out of the way that he'd over ride the bike,
18:08push too hard on the descents and risk getting more punctures.
18:13He got used to it pretty quickly.
18:15In a series full of incredibly posh bike parts, these are perhaps the poshest.
18:22These new Syncros wheels the team are using the Silverton SLs,
18:26designed by Radiate Engineering and Design in Zurich, are made from one piece of carbon fiber.
18:35Hub body, spokes, rim, all one piece.
18:39It's cutting edge, super fast, super light, just about as trick as it gets.
18:45If I were now to go back to an old bike and I could change something, it would be the tires,
18:52having a modern good tire, wide tire combination with a good rim.
18:56I think that made the biggest change for me.
19:00I remember I was racing on 1.9 tires, now I'm racing at 2.4.
19:07And just when you think we are running out of details on this bike, it's time to get
19:12really, really granular and really, really geeky.
19:17Cross-country tires normally have 120 TPI.
19:21What's TPI?
19:22Threads per inch.
19:24These tires, however, have 170 TPI.
19:29The more threads per inch they have, the thinner each individual thread is,
19:32the more a tire can move around and over objects, and the more grip it can offer to its rider.
19:39Very, very fast.
19:41Very, very Nino.
19:43Regardless if you know anything about mountain bikes or not,
19:46one of the most visually striking things about any of Nino's race bikes are these upside down
19:52handlebar stems.
19:53And they're here for a very good reason.
19:55In fact, they are one of the most definitive details about these bikes.
20:01Nino's career spanned all wheel sizes.
20:04He started off on 26 inch, then moved to 27 and a half,
20:08before ending up where we are now on 29.
20:12Sometimes he took a little bit of convincing.
20:15He worked really closely with the engineers at Scott,
20:18but his one non-negotiable was that his grip height, where his hands were,
20:23had to stay in the same height so that his body shape would fit the size of the wheels.
20:29Now, put a bigger wheel on a bike, the fork gets taller and that pushes everything this way,
20:34the exact opposite.
20:37The solution was as simple as it was ingenious.
20:40It turned the stem upside down, helping to keep Nino in the right position.
20:46And the result are these upside down stems.
20:49It mightn't be pretty, but it is a hell of a solution.
20:56Well, I will openly admit to being exhausted after that today.
21:00It was complete overload and that's not a collection of bikes.
21:05That's a time capsule that spans not just Nino Schurter's career,
21:10but the history of the sport of cross country racing,
21:13told through the bikes that raced it and won a lot of it.
21:16But I think the big thing I'll take away from that, the big thing I'll always look back on,
21:23is those moments whenever I was with Nino, with Frischi, and we were just bike geeks.
21:31We were just talking, could have been a garage, it could have been a shed anywhere,
21:35the way we all talk to each other about our bikes and our memories and
21:39the things that make them much more than objects and much more than vehicles.
21:42And it's exactly what I hoped this series would have been when we first started talking about it.
21:47And yeah, I'll never forget that.
21:48And yeah, I thanked them at the time and I'd like to thank them again.
21:51It was one of the biggest moments of my career that.
22:12I'll see you next time.
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