This video by Bay Area rider Amado Stachenfeld features Specialized/ Chromag rider Curtis Keene shredding some Santa Cruz dirt on a 5″ travel carbon StumpJumper trail bike. Look closely and you’ll get a good look at how a Pro DH rider sets up a top-of-the-line Carbon XC/ Trail bike for full blown ripping. Add a very DH-based cockpit with Chromag controls, a single ring with a chain guide up front, and flat pedals, and watch Keene pilot a fully loaded carbon ride as fast as that bike can go. For those that haven’t had the joy of sampling it yet, dirt in Santa Cruz is fairly comparable to a lot of the stuff we have in the Northwest. If Keene travels up for the local Super D series, watch out. For the record, Amado isn’t a slow poke either- last time I rode with that kid in Santa Cruz he was ripping. Keep an eye out for him as an up and comer- a protege of riders like Keene and Ryan Condroshoff, he has been getting faster every year.
All this gets me thinking- what is the ideal trail ripping setup for the northwest? More on that one later; until then, check out the vid!
Chromag Presents Curtis Keene from amado stachenfeld on Vimeo.
