Like Rachel Atherton whose Trek Session we featured earlier in the week, Aaron Gwin also took a repeat DH World Cup win over the weekend in Leogang. While Gwin had also raced for Trek as well as Specialized in recent years, this season he is aboard the consumer-direct carbon Tues CF Pro downhill bike of German company YT industries. Being on a new bike doesn’t look to have slowed down Gwin, who rode to his 2nd win of the 4 races so far this season, and has built himself a good lead on the series so far. Like the Women’s DH World Cup leader, Gwin’s bike is fairly straightforward, but having not focused too much on YT yet, we take a closer look and get a bit into the details of his special setup…
The YT Tues CF Pro that Aaron Gwin is racing is pretty much the stock 208mm travel carbon downhill frame available to the public, right down to the build kit, plus a bit more pro attention to his suspension setup. Like most bikes that were being ridden on the wet DH course ahead of last weekend’s race, Gwin’s bike got completely stripped down to overhaul the rear shock, bleed the brakes, replace the bottom bracket, and make sure everything was clean as a whistle ahead of what turned out to be a fairly dry course for the Elite men by Sunday afternoon.
Another bike that earned it’s World Cup DH series leading number 1 plate, Gwin’s Tues was in the workstand after Saturday qualifiers getting all-new cables and housing as well. The Tues CF Pro has a large bolt-on downtube protector that keeps rocks from hitting the frame proper, and as we shot the bike Gwin’s mechanic was just putting it back in place after routing the new cables. Gwin rides with a carbon Renthal Fatbar riser handlebar that gets a nice paint finish to look like their classic anodized aluminum bar.
His race crankset is a By the Hive LG1+ aluminum deal, while his B-bike was sporting a carbon LG1R version. Both were matched up to LG1+ chainguide, also with aluminum backplates.
Gwin’s YT rolls on one of the new e*thirteen LG1R rear hubs and their 7 speed 9-23T cassette, paired with a SRAM X01 DH rear derailleur and trigger shifter. The hubs are laced to carbon LG1R rims, and the tires he had mounted up were the 2.4″ Ibex Onza.
We took a quick look yesterday at the new prototype TRP Quadiem brakes on his bike. Up on the top of his ride he has something very pro that we hadn’t seen in the DH pits before. ODI makes this neoprene grip cover that lets Gwin’s mechanic work on the bike without worrying about contaminating the grips with either mineral oil from brake bleeds, bearing grease, or chain lube. Underneath are a set of single clamp lock-on ODI Elite Motion grips.
Gwin races on HT X2 DH Team pedals, and was in fact the rider that introduced many of us to the new brand. Overall Aaron Gwin’s YT Tues CF Pro is a mostly stock 27.5″ DH bike that means you can just click over to YT’s website and be riding like a World Cup champ pretty easily. Sure it takes a good suspension setup to dial in the Fox 40 Factory fork and Float X2 Factory shock, but you’ll be riding on the same gear as Gwin.
