Bike Check: Cedric Gracia’s Crankworx Enduro Santa Cruz Nomad Race Bike

Happy Easter!

take a crippled elephant over a fragile gazelle any day. w/8000ft of anything you still wanna come down pinned and grinnin

Considering that some of those downhill runs would make a lot of people think twice even if they were on a dh bike, the Nomad seems like a good choice.

I think that should show just how great of shape these guys/gals are in. 8000 ft. of climbing followed by 10K ft. of descending is pretty crazy.

@collinS – enjoyed the article.

@greg- i believe each organizer, working with ews guidlines, may adjust transfer times when they see it is needed. perhaps the format is still evolving.

Oh dear god. Has Cedric considered how he is going to get all those layers of tape off just so he can get to his spare tube and CO2 cartridge?

Seems a shame to be taping things to such a high-end rig. Cedric might be better off wrapping the tape around the CO2 cartridge for safekeeping and using an Awesome Strap to attach it and the tube to the bike. http://www.backcountryresearch.com

@ jbikes

by all means, please do organize such a race if you want to (sounds like marathon though), though i feel you are missing the point. The point of the enduro races is to put emphasis on the part most people find the most amusing – going downhill, while still requiring fitness by having the riders do the transfers and by adding flat and uphill parts to each stage. What you propose though, if we look at the bike in question here, is an mtb version of an extreme endurance race, which will either have piss poor mass appeal or be successful until all the xc racer domination would yield less than technical courses.

good thing is though that we all like different things, so happy trails.

@JBikes.

The races you envision would be won on short travel rigs because races are won on the uphills.

Enduro is racing for people who ride general purpose mountain bike, and 6″ seems to be the norm these days.

@JBikes – as a recently, let’s say “retired,” event promoter, I can assure you that it would be next to impossible to break even on the event you propose. People who love the kinds of rides you propose do not see the need to pay an entry fee to do it. It’s too long and tech for serious xc riders, too much climbing for just about everyone, and, while getting rid of all the stages will reduce your timing costs, would still be a massively complex and expensive endeavor. Look at how few 24hr and marathon events there are these days: people are just not interested.