Gas to Flat, the Keswick Kestrel, Leather Head, the man from the north with many nicknames, Adam Brayton. Ross Bell caught up with his mechanic, Daniel Bladon, to check out the Scott Gambler racing rig that rode to 13th place in Val Di Sole last week.
You can always rely on any Hope rider or employee (Hope provide all of their staff a bike of their choice fully pimped with their own parts) to have a bike that has next level of attention to detail and anodized goodness. Adam rides a custom painted Scott Gambler, with the majority of the components from Hope, with Öhlins suspension and Maxxis Tires.
At a claimed 5'8", (Bladon thinks he's actually shorter) Adam rides a medium frame, with a +8mm reach adjust headset. Mounted on a 50mm stem, the bars are cut to 760mm, but are closer to 770mm with the Hope lock-on grips. The suspension is now full Öhlins, and he has a 548lb rear spring. Yes, 548lb – every single spring is measured at the factory and the actual weight is printed on.
A V4 caliper is combined with a custom Tech 3 lever. Adam prefers his custom lever that has the same shape and size of the regular lever, just without the holes drilled into the finger contact point. Rotors are 183mm rear and 203mm on up front.
Ohlins front and rear. After running a BoXXer fork with a coil spring and Ohlins damper cartridge for years, Adam now has the full fork. He was shtum on settings, but they went up 10psi in the main chamber last week in Val di Sole compared to the setting they liked during testing. The first race on the new fork in VDS went well, with his best result of the year finishing in 13th.
MENTIONS: @rossbell
@SCOTT-Sports
Heavy but no flats and grip for days
He doesn't always get the top marks, but he's fun as hell to watch.
"would you like a whisky?
- oh yeah just a finger
- wouldn't you want a whisky first?..."
So that's where the gas to that comes from, he can't stop quick enough! ????
Bike's mint
I am a fairly heavy individual, and find that most suspension offering out there don't really cater to my weight and offer the performance that I would like. Should I go on a diet or is there something/a set up, out there for me worth trying? I would love to run ohlins on my bikecycle.
An ohhhh nearly had an accident over that bike of Adams. xx
No bash guard?
Who knows? I get freaked out when I hit it on things. . .
Maybe he's so rad, he doesn't need one?
Why? Genuinely curious.
But more practically, the Gambler comes in 3 sizes, each with the same swingarm. Therefore, Scott only has to invest in one carbon mold for the swingarm vs. three front triangles. Plus/but they are moving away from this suspension design (see Brendog's version).
I call bs.