Inside the Mondraker Factory Racing Pit: DH World Championship Andorra Exclusive

We’re at the UCI MTB World Championships in Pal Arinsal, Andorra with our Mondraker Factory Racing DH team.
Our resident tech fan Doddy checks out the latest team race bikes, chats to the mechanics and the racers ahead of the biggest race of the year!

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hi welcome to mrea TV I’m here in the pits for the downhill UCI mountainback world championships as you can see behind me we’ve got our massive mrea factory racing setup the bikes are just being prepped for tomorrow’s race we’ve already had qualification this morning the race is it in practice and they’re having full strip Downs so we’re just going to have a little walk around and might have a quick chat with some of the mechanics just find out a bit about what’s going on the bikes CU I’ve seen a couple of additions since we last reported on their bikes and we’re also going to try and find the racers as well before things get too stressful for them now trying to stay hands off an events like this because you know the name of the game in a world championships is all in for the title and right now this chap is in number two position in qualification [Music] wooo okay so as I explained we are here in the pits at Andor now this is super cool for me because of the fact we don’t even get to see the complete bikes at the moment because the mechanics right now are stripping everything down to make sure the bikes are perfectly assembled for the race runs tomorrow don’t forget it’s one run for the title and once you win the title of world champion you can we our Stripes Forever on New Jersey so as you can see behind me we’ve got Ronan dun’s very special bike here painted up with the Irish flavors of green on there as you can probably see towards the back of the bike there something special that a lot of people have been talking about so essentially it’s I’d say it’s Mass damper so I think of the resonance and the vibration that go through the frame on extremely long fast and rough desense it helps counter those forces uh so this is something the team have been working with along with the Telemetry and all the other cool stuff for well over a year now uh they’ve just decided now is the time to use it and it’s in its most finished state so I don’t know if you remember but if you go back to the for William video that I filmed from the pitch there I showed you the threaded Parts on the back of the frame that’s what it was for now also you can’t see on this one cuz has got the forks on here but as we move along you’ll see on I think maybe on Dax bike here you might see on his fork legs there’s a mount FR on the forks as well but they’ve not felt the need to use it on this particular track I say that but um his bike currently doesn’t have the forks on it looks like he’s maybe about to have an oil change on there and an overhaul I mean they’re meticulous they do absolutely everything on these bikes uh as you can see on dax’s bike here he’s still running those big 75 mil bars he’s actually got some scratches on the top of him I heard he had a pretty big crash today so fingers crossed he’s feeling right he’s going to be good for tomorrow and up here for number two bike of course uh this is Pinky’s bike and uh Mark’s working on it right now in fact I might try and poach him for a second see if he’s willing to chat to us for a minute could you just tell us a little bit about what you’re doing now um so the Riders have done practice this morning on the bikes and you know to what extent are you ripping the bike apart before tomorrow’s race I don’t really have to but we had a muddy run uh first day of practice and there’s still some mud in there and we have a lot of time in the afternoon don’t really have this STP it but hey so this is to maybe reduce just any chance of anything happening or any noises or anything like this I think I found 22 and a half grams of mud so that’s gone okay so they’re talking about grams of mud here um I also noticed that um the racers are back on their regular breakes I they’ve been testing some future products that don’t yet exist for Shimano been well dented is this a case of it ain’t broke so don’t fix it like it’s the one race you want to make sure you’re on a bike you’re familiar with is it that sort of vibe we know the San brakes work fine he’s so used to it and there’s no reason of changing your your fi that you had all year now for worlds or even next week you know we might just stick on this and uh keep testing the product for uh and in the future for sure you know works great but why change if it works so at the moment yes time so say literally is they’re making sure the bikes are exactly as they’re the most familiar with so don’t change anything big just focus on the head games you got to remember here in even in the top 30 of the elite races they’re all going to be very similar in terms of speed but it’s all about the their mental approach to the race you know it really does affect everything so if they’re on a bike that they just know inside and out that’s going to reap the benefits um what about things like oil changes and stuff in the suspension is there a need for doing that between races suspension gets service in the beginning of the week and that’s that’s pretty much it you know same with brakes we F that we refresh the oil we refresh brake pads and we check all the bearings and stuff in the beginning of the week and yeah other than that it’s just damage control throughout the week so when I was last with you guys would have been at Fort William the guys had a race bike and a practice bike I’m guessing it’s a bit different now because they got the special paint jobs for the world’s bikes is it just like the one bike for the wels Al so in the beginning of the Season we were testing some more stuff like it’s easier to go back and forth from one bike to the other if you’re testing bigger stuff and we’re at a point now where we really know what we want and the custom pain job obviously you know and we know what we want we’re not doing big changes anymore and um yeah we just stick to this and make sure it runs 100% awesome well not going to get in your way too much longer um I appreciate watching all of your work uh I’ve got to go somewhere and be somewhere um I was going to ask one final thing you you’ve all you’re all running Park tool boxes and all the kid but I noticed that your individual talk kits all different who’s got the best tool kit oh this is the most productive one not the prettiest one but hey I’m the most productive one I wonder if I go down there um if I’ll get the same response yeah you can try it okay well thank you for your time I appreciate it and good good luck to you and Ryan for tomorrow good so when I was just talking to Mark there about Pinky’s bike what I noticed in the background which I couldn’t get to was the tires now they’ve all got custom paint jobs and it’s a wellknown Well documented fact that all race teams do something special for the pros I tell you what nothing says I’ve made it like having your own Tire Hot patches how cool is that I want one of these tires that’s like the sickest thing ever what’ you reckon that they’ve all got them as well so we’re going to have a quick look at rona’s bike and have a look at his tires but man that’s so sick I believe and one last thing as well I’ve just noticed with the wheels are the hubs they’ve got the e13 Sid kick Cubs on here now you may have seen these being talked about so everyone’s trying to fight and combat chain tension and anything possible to basically make the rear end of bikes work and our bikes are pretty efficient they work really well anyway so our Racers have tried all the options out there you would have seen on our previous sumon um a prototype High pivot like adapter it didn’t change the pivot point of the bike but essentially it just changes the sort of the chain stretch on there and what they’re running on here is essentially it’s a hub that’s got a bit more free movement so it does something similar to what an oain does but enables the racers to not have to modify the cranks or the chamings on the bike so super cool seeing that haven’t actually seen one off the bike yet nice and we got ronan’s wheels here again looking at the hot patch on there I can’t think of many things as cool as that I’m going to say that’s cooler than having a custom painted bike and that’s saying something because that bike is a thing of beauty um in my hand here I’ve actually got the Hot patches I’m just G to have a little look here his mechanic SE just pass me these they’ve actually got the custom Hot patches for all the races so I can keep putting these on all the tires you’ve got to love details like this on World Championships bikes okay so internet is talking about the the mass dampers on the rear I understand it’s just trying to work with vibrations and things on a bike but you it seems to me that you guys are changing something all the time they’re always experimenting with the the reach and the head angles and all the stuff on the bikes yeah have you changed anything since you know like a few World Cups back or is it pretty settled World Cups back I think we Chang the all the link we change the leag because we need to not correct but maybe just only adjust the elbat rate of the bike only for Dak for example have a little different things about the bike and the other guys agree with when he tried or when they tried he agree with that and very happy and I think it’s the only thing that we change I think a big big big change is the only the only one yeah the the other one it’s the the dumper MK for sure and we try different things to put in different places and but we are now working on that and we don’t have enough time to make this you know it’s complicated oh no I can imagine I remember talking to Pablo at Fort William and he explained that there was there’s like many things behind the scenes that I think for me this is why it’s one of the more interesting teams knowing that you not only have the three mechanics but you also have Pablo working in a a different capacity so no he doesn’t he doesn’t but another team it’s a common question the the in these World Champs but other teams have the dumper mass but usually they put it in the here behind the the number plate okay it’s not visible but not so many but I think two or three I have in mind that they have in in the bik too and another place a common place to put it it’s yeah I’ve seen many people having weights on the down tube yeah similar concept I guess not similar not similar no no no and I think it’s it’s complimentary so um on so the weights on the down tube is this more about changing the sprung to unsprung mass exactly and put weight where is needed and in the correct place because if not this is a lighter a light bike it’s so light and sometimes this is not a problem but it helps a lot to put the weight in the correct place to make a a stable bik oh for sure I mean anyone that’s ridden a knee bike will understand that exactly you have to wait in this place and suddenly the suspension you’re like oh my God amazing this is the the perfect now for example we put the dumper mass and it change the the weight for example and we need to correct something but nothing more we need to have time to make test and not not only off season yeah it’s so short it’s getting shorter and shorter um I’ll leave you to finish the bike now but uh just just being here seeing you guys work on the bikes super cool thanks for your time no thank you to you thank you right in addition to the stress that the races already have to contend with One race event for the title of the world champion they’ve also got to do public appearances and stuff which might not sound much to many people but when you consider at this end of the game at the absolute top Elite level racing is a mind game and if they’re not entirely focused it can come tumbling down so I can only take my hats off if I was wearing one to what they’re doing now the day before the biggest race of each of their career they’re having to do autograph signings which is great it is part of the package I’m going to see if I can have a quick word of them when they’re finished but I’m not expecting too much CU I really don’t want to add to what they have to achieve in tomorrow’s race so how’s the bike feeling how are you feeling ready for the race yeah Grand yeah good uh good day today we got n in qualities which can’t complain it’s nice little start hoping for a bit more but yeah I just need to go faster but uh yeah good practice day feeling quick so yeah we’ll see you tomorrow how we’re doing uh there could be a bit of moisture tonight do you think that will help on the track yeah the track definitely needs some moisture like it just needs a bit of rain to pack the dirt make it less loose it’ll be faster would a bit of moisture for sure but yeah I wouldn’t mind a bit of rain now that should definitely make it Prime just admiring the bike up at the pinch there yeah I think you missed a trick with a little uh the little damper on the back that’s almost a mini Red Bull cam yeah I know nearly there but yeah the bike’s running really good like we said put in the work and yeah it’s feeling pretty quick so dook one keep you good luck for tomorrow cheers B Take Care thank you so I’ve just been admiring the bike uh Mark’s fully stripping everything down at the moment so feeling settled on everything yeah bike felt really good today today was a really good practice and I’m super excited for tomorrow do you think conditions could affect anything cuz I heard it might rain a little bit tonight if it uh if it rains tonight the track will be a little better but hopefully by tomorrow afternoon it’s just like it is now because I love it yeah and you’ve been on fire yeah just loving the track and just trying to go fast yeah well good luck so much take care thank you Dak I’ve been obviously big fan for a while now watching what you’re doing I noticed on your bike in the pits there’s a couple of scuffs on the bars did you ever crash today ah yeah yeah it’s been a rough weekend for sure um we’ve had our fair share of challenges I had a couple I had two huge crashes today and uh yeah didn’t really struggled with uh getting up the speed yesterday and uh we had you know some challenges in the morning and wasn’t able to like be competitive to put a quality run down and tried to come in with a fresh head today but unfortunately had a couple get offs so it’s World Champs it’s one run I only got to be good for two and a half minutes you can do it dude got faith in you um how’s the bike feeling how are you feeling on the bike other than the the stresses and stuff yeah for sure I mean um Andor is tough because it’s high elevation so the heart rate’s going to go up quick uh the track is super fast I mean we’re doing 50k an hour in a lot of spots and it’s uh it’s it’s getting really rough and the extended practice at World Champs tends to eat up the track and so it’s uh it’s tough man you got to really make good choices and uh get the suspension in a good place and yeah hope hope that you have uh the head to execute un race day yeah and um I mean the weather’s been pretty good so far I’m always concerned when the weather is this hot in the mountains thinking it could change but perhaps bit of moisture could serve pretty well yeah it could happen for sure we the first day of practice uh after 45 minutes of practice we got jumped on and it was super slippery and uh qu last time I raced here I qualified sixth pretty easy um and then got rained out in finals so uh yeah I hope it’s not the same tale of of uh races P yeah I mean i’ hope not to but one One race I can’t imagine what the pressure is like for everyone so good luck hope it works well good luck well I think that’s as close as we’re going to get to doing bike checks I was hoping to do full bike checks on them but actually seeing I think it’s quite priv position see World cut mechanics working on these bikes the day before the biggest race of the year that’s pretty cool and also finding out a little bit more about some of the subtle changes they make on them got love those Hot patches though super cool isn’t it well um that’s over and out for me for now I’m going to get back over to the other pits have a roam around see if we can find some other cool stuff to check out and there’s going to be another video popping up on mrea TV all about the cool stuff we have on the stand we got the 2016 Trio we got the 2009 prototype we got Beck’s 2022 World Cup winning bike from Brazil we’ve got a Podium prototype we got loads of stuff and I’m going to run you through all of that hopefully you’ve enjoyed this little Whistle Stop T the pits here in Andor I’ll see you another video soon t