THE SYNDICATE 2020 - Watch: Mixed Opinions

April 28 — 2020 | Santa Cruz, California

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Mixed Wheel V10s and Drippy New Paintjobs

You know it, the season’s on hold… for now. In the meantime, Greg, Luca, and Loris haven’t stopped rounding off Marshy’s wrenches or twisting all the knobs they can find on their V10s. Hell, they even took delivery of their freshly painted bikes—and two of the guys are rolling wheel sizes that don’t match front to back.

At first glance it might seem like part of an international cabal of World Cup downhill riders bent on making Jordi’s life as difficult as possible—or a gang of puzzlers delighted to stuff a 27.5 Reserve DH wheel into a stock frame, but you’d be wrong. Instead, this was all the result of testing that began late last year and continued on through the off season.

Every rider had access to try the mixed-wheel setup, and they all came to their own conclusion through a combination of personal test sessions, riding style, and how much mud they preferred to scrape off the seat of their pants. The options were open: 29”, 27.5”, or a combination of both. Once a decision was made, the bolt-on rear-ends designed for testing were stashed away into Dougy’s workshop and new frames were produced.

With the exception of Greg’s extendo bolt-on chain stay, the bikes that arrived in Lousa for suspension testing were full-on production, from front to back. These mixed-wheel V10s had their own fully tooled swingarm, designed specifically to correct for any changes to geometry from the big-wheel/small-wheel combination. At that point it was up to the Syndicate mechanics, riders, and the suspension expertise of Jordi to add the final touch.

Turns out the puzzler illuminati did have a plan after all, and maybe that plan is bigger still…