DirtTV: 661 Gravity Enduro – The Riders, The Bikes

Author: | 17 May 2011 | 54

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Continuing on from the Enduro feature in Dirt #111 Steve Jones grills the UK’s top enduro riders about all things enduro.

We’ve got Ae Forest 661 Gravity Enduro round one overall winner Rob Cooksley, first Elite rider Neil Donoghue, second Elite rider Martin Astley and enduro guru Rowan Sorrell.

Filmed and edited by Liam Murphy.

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54 Responses to “DirtTV: 661 Gravity Enduro – The Riders, The Bikes”

  1. Cool vid. Would be nice to get Fab’s Mondraker Dune on there too.

  2. Interesting

  3. Brilliant, basically do whatever you want with the bike, any setup between 140-160mm travel and any old bar/pedals will be fine. “If you cant stand up and sprint for 3-4 minutes, you need to take a look at what you are doing” genius.

  4. Enduro racing is basically for anyone who can’t cut it on the DH circuit and not fit enough to do a full xc race.

  5. I’m utterly addicted to Enduro .. best feature in Dirt ever too !! … Gotta get myself out to Les Gets soon … TracerVP with CCDB and Fox 66 Talas .. It’s made specific for Enduro

  6. Love it, always great to see what people run and how they setup their bikes. Definitely my favourite content type.

    …but your interviewing/camera skills need work Jonesy! Give the interviewee a clip-on mic and look at the camera!

  7. 36 ^^

  8. so err most people who come on the internet and slate things that they see; whilst sat down on their fat arse is that lads of chad?

  9. There must be some craic in doing an Enduro, would love to get to one eventually

  10. Hidden due to low
    May 17th, 2011 at 2:59 pm

    Great informative video. Really like the comparison format! Would be great to get some more of these for different set-ups, both DH and All Mountain.

  11. Lads of chad i think you’ll find Barel, Amour, Wildhaber, Absalon, Weir, Vouilloz would easily compete strongly at World Cup level in either discipline. Neil Donoghue has top tenned a World Cup. You’re totally right about the mic business Speshman

  12. At last!!!! Yes. Yes. Yes ;)

  13. what is the white thing on rowans left handle bar grip?

  14. Awsum video, got to get me an enduro bike and do some races on it. What a sport!

  15. it’s padding for his broken finger

  16. Great to see some top pilots running flat pedals ! unlike DH , in Enduro almost averyone run clips, fist time I went for an Enduro Race ( Open Metabief) I felt a bit a stranger with my 5.10′s ..

  17. ^ Row’s got a broken hand at the mo i think

  18. By the way, my Blur LTC is 140mm travel. I am a dumb ass.

  19. Lowick: Was that this year? Missed it but its a great course!
    The other races its just better with clips. More power on pedalling. More time to loose on pedalling than to gain on DH part.

  20. Now there is definately a case for Lycra in Enduro racing… mmm, snug.

  21. Best Dirt video ever? I reckon. Well done Jonsey and the boys! Could have been even better with a clip on mic, and longer interviews to really get into every detail.

  22. Great to see Steve touch on the technical side of Enduro, its the main thing Tally and Myself noticed at Ae, different set ups, the way people approached the race, what they practised etc etc…..
    Oh and defo no lycra allowed :-D

  23. Nice feature, and some great video – nice to see ‘normal’ trail being ripped as well as the usual DH stuff.. somehow the impression of speed is even greater when you take the incline out of it.

    Good to get some validation on my own bike setup too – if 140/160 is good for the Don, it’s good enough for me.

    I went for flats at Ae because of the technical/DH nature of the seeding/final run – normally run spds for maximum efficiency. Oh, and i can’t stand up and sprint for 3-4 minutes because i’m unfit and overweight!

  24. Quality

  25. That’s an awesome feature and the speed of the guys at FOD just makes you want to get out and ride!

  26. Steve…

    What about Al Stock not present at Ae but possibly the UK’s only full time Enduro Rider…

  27. Think he was shopping that weekend or possibly doing some roundabouts with Bryceland in his new Porsche apparently. But yes one of the country’s best…where were you Al?

  28. Excellent feature, and nice to tie in with the stuff that went to print. Well into all the set-up stuff, and the thinking behind them. Finally glad to see riders bringing bar widths back down too!
    Now how about you get half a dozen 4X riders, with their bikes, take them to a 4X track (not just up FoD), and run that both in the mag and online as interviews

  29. great stuff dirt

  30. Steve

    Fishing with Dale is his new thing haha

  31. love the stooges – down on the street. doesn’t get more badass

  32. As for bar widths, all 3 of the riders interviewed seems on the smaller side so I take it overly wide bars simply don’t fit their frames… or is Jones just a freakishly large giant? :D

    My 780mm Renthal’s are very comfy on my Enduro, almost as comfy as the 850mm Renthal’s on my dirt bike.

    Still, love the video and always love hearing about top rider’s bikes so keep up the good work.

  33. Very nice feature,everybody loves details on the bikes,and listening to what riders have to say about their rides.
    Jonesy,you have to work on your talk show host skills,man,never turn your back on the camera! :)

  34. Great vid, “cut the bullshit” as usual with Jonesy. Neil is ripping it apart, with that “small” bike. I have a 160 bike, thought of changing to 140, for some time, after that vid I have no more hesitations if it’s a right move… So can we officialy say that this vid ends the era of bitchin on AM bikes as All Marketing for fat rich basterds? :D

  35. So good to see Box on top again! Such a safe guy and really knows his stuff + his way around a bike. Need to see him on the DH circuit again!

  36. Awesome vid! Dirt has come a long ways since the very beginning of the mag. Keep it up! PS: I’m a tech geek…

  37. ‘Need to see him on the DH circuit again!’ Did you watch the video? :)

  38. diggin Martin’s set-ups

  39. Yes RHS, it was this year , great experience !! Good atmosphere between riders, great trails, lot of free time to enjoy the chairlift and even great weather ! Was a great week end, I’ll be there next year yep ! I’ll try clips if I manage to borrow some, I was told so many times that with these there is much more to gain on pedalling than to loose in DH

  40. Loved that video, mind you I’m a right bike geek! Good content there for everyone. Dirt are throwing alot into this Enduro explosion this year. Are they sensing a turning of the tides from DH? As for Jonesy’s presenting skills? Who gives two hoots. Its not the BBC guys! At least he asked the right questions. Keep up the good work.

  41. excellent video. can’t wait to get the bike out for a good rag.

  42. I really enjoyed that and it was a great way to tie in video content with the excellent feature in the magazine. Steve Jones presenting style is his own and why would we insist it to be any other way? – very informative and he’s raising some interesting questions. It would be good to see more of all of the dirt guys in the videos if I’m completely honest…and for some reason hearing Steve Jones talk makes more sense of his writing!

    Enduro – or All mountain has always been up there with DH in my opinion and it is just coming of age in terms of competition. I always like to see content with top riders as well…can’t say enough good stuff about this really. These are the kind of bikes most of us ride and the terrain most of us ride as well…Dirt have hit the nail on the head with online/mag content…and like the Box, Dirt is on top…..

  43. That was hands down the best bike tech vid I’ve seen on net. It’d be good to do something similar with the DH guys at a World Cup (although probably not as much interesting variation as Enduro/AM bikes) and everyone at the Mega/Downieville.

  44. Its exciting times for Enduro/All Mountain. Will there be a UK representation at Enduro des Nations in Italy this year? Al Bond, Sorrel, Astley, Cooksley and Donoghue…Could challenge some of the other Non-French teams (French are so far ahead its silly)

    Lowick. You should try either the All Mountain series or Enduro Series in bigger terrain.

  45. Great video loved the interviews with the lads Cooks is a top guy ,not a single gnarly,stoked,or pinned. word in sight.
    just your plain old Tits up , brutalize,Dicky line.
    best interviews if seen in a long time

  46. so what is the best enduro bike?? I’ve got an old reign but it doesn’t seem to go as fast as those bikes. maybe if i bought a similar bike to those i would be really fast???

  47. I love how the guy with the longest travel “balanced” bike gets bucked into an uncontrollable nose wheelie off a bump while the others just soak it up.

  48. Best Dirt Vid I have seen yet, and the Article in the mag was great too.
    Two thumbs up.

  49. agreed with all the props here – awesome video – in depth, interesting, funny – more please!

  50. Loved the vid, loved the cup of tea in the interview!
    You guys are lucky to have enduro racing in the UK, it hasn’t reached Norway yet!

    Yeah GDH, that nose wheelie looked REALLY uncontrollable… personally I let the rear end buck for fun and pump the track, probably not as controlled as Box though.

  51. Great video – done the Avalanche Enduro last year at Ae and loved it despite it being a painfest all the way through :) Good to hear a bit of Death in Vegas.

  52. Nice work Jonesy, very impressive stuff and I can’t really believe you managed to stay so professional, for so long! Enduro is the buzz word at the moment and a great mixbag between two previously opposed cycling camps. It can only strengthen the sport and increase riding opportunities..

  53. [...] Santa Cruz Blur LTc is the perfect bike for this racing/ riding. The Dirt bike check video seems to have gone down really well and people are really interested in the bikes we are running. [...]

  54. [...] Santa Cruz Blur LTc is the perfect bike for this racing/ riding. The Dirt bike check video seems to have gone down really well and people are really interested in the bikes we are running. [...]

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