Red Bull Hardline 2025 Bike Checks: Part 1

We go behind the scenes at @redbull Hardline Wales 2025, with a host of bike checks from some of the best riders on the planet!

We delve into their individual set-ups, to see how the riders are setting up their bikes for the world’s gnarliest downhill mountain bike race.

Part two will be on its way soon!

In this video we speak to;
👉 @MattJones
👉 Asa Vermette
👉 Lou Ferguson
👉 @50to01 Josh Bryceland
👉 @RogerVieira

#redbullhardline #hardline #mountainbike #downhillmountainbike #dhmtb #mtb #dhracing #mtbtech

00:00 Introduction
00:35 Matt Jones
02:28 Asa Vermette
07:33 Lou Ferguson
13:10 Josh Bryceland
18:38 Roger Vieira

I’m here at Red Bull Hardline Wales, the hardest mountain bike race on earth, checking out some of the rigs that are coming flying down this track. Let’s go check it all out. We’re here at Red Bull Hardline checking out some of the bikes that are coming down this incredibly gnarly course, including that one. Got it just right. So, yes, this is an invitation only race. It’s the best riders in the world. And that means there’s some really, really interesting bikes that we’re checking out in this video. Let’s get on with the bike checks. [Music] All right, we got Matt Jones with his Marine Quake. Matt, tell us about your bike. Yeah, this is my hardline bike for Wales 25. So, it’s my first time ever riding a size large Quake. I mean, bigger bikes just seem to handle a lot better on the technical stuff. So, I’m embracing that fully. I’ve got Halo wheels. It’s a mullet, okay? So, you can run a 29 front and rear on this bike, but I’ve got it as a mullet. Erlin suspension with a coil. This has got the highest compression kind of custom tune in the fork and the shock. This year I’m running an insert for the first time, a rim pack tire insert, which honestly feels amazing. It’s meant that we could let a couple of PSI out. So I’m running 28 at the rear. In Tasmania I was running more like 30, I think 25 in the front. Um, it’s also my first time running 220 mil Shimano rotors, so I’m getting so much more braking power. It feels brilliant. And stopping is one of the hardest things on this course by far. I’ve got 165 cranks. This is actually like a pro only saint crank that can fit this like floating O chain device which is sick. So honestly compared to where I’ve come from to now we’re putting so much thought into how we set this bike up and it’s really really I notice it so much. It’s incredible. I’ve got a tiny cassette but I do the whole track in fourth gear. I don’t change gear once. I’m not even sure if I’m going to pedal in my race run. So it’s a very unusual race. I’m embracing it fully. I’m a bit of a fish out of water here but I’ve got the bike for it and yeah, it’s a sick event. Love it. M appreciate that. Thanks obviously to Rebel for putting out some music while we’re doing that. So hopefully you’ve all heard all those bits and details. But um yeah, how you feeling about the course? You enjoying it? Yeah, honestly I think it’s the best it’s ever run. The trail builders have done a lot of work on patching things up, but even this morning now people are picking up the pace. It’s getting smashed to pieces. So the next 24 hours are going to be telling of how like gnarly it really gets. But yeah, I am actually kind of loving it. Yeah. Sick. Well, looking forward to watching it. Best of luck with the race and catch you on the other side. Thanks so much, Legend. Yeah. All right, we got Asa here with the frameworks. Pretty special machine. How’s it been going this weekend? First time in Wales. Yeah, first time here. Track’s insane. Bik’s working good. Yeah, the weather’s nice, so it’s been cool. Wales never fails, man. That’s what it’s always like here. I’ve heard. No, it’s cool. It’s been nice. Yeah. Have you enjoying the track? Hit everything. You’ve done a few top to bottoms already. Yeah. A couple tea to B’s. It’s been It’s been great. All right, then. Well, let’s uh check the bike cuz the bike’s kind of pretty special. So, yeah, for sure. Let’s talk us through it. It’s um one obviously that we don’t see too many of on the circuit. Pretty much just you, right? One of a kind. Frameworks racing chassis like rig here in the middle. Uh Nikomali hand well not handmil but it’s hand built out of Vermont from Frank the welder. We got Fox suspension. Suspension’s been working good. It works a lot this week at Hardline. You’re going to be using it a lot so it’s important. We got spank bars, TRP brakes. These things are working good. Envy wheels have been holding up. It’s definitely a big thing with these big compressions and everything. So, that’s cool. Got uh Conti tires with For this race, I’m running 26 PSI in the front, 20 or and 30 in the rear. Okay. So, is that that’s quite high. Yeah. I I’ve always ran a higher like usually for World Cups I run 24 and then like 30 29 in the rear. So, I just went up a bit in the front for like rolling off the front like for like top like just bunch of the jumps. the compression in the lip is like super gnarly and you don’t want the tire rolling, you know. Okay. Just kept it stiffer for that. For the suspension, I’m running um I got 260, no 285 in the rear and then 96 in the fork with six volume spacers. Wo. Okay. Something like that. Yeah. And then 11 cc, 12 cc’s of volume spacers in the shock. So, pretty stiff setup. Yeah, I like it. Definitely stiffer for sure. Yeah. Yeah. What does that give you then? like a better sort of pumping hitting the big jumps. So, it’s good for we really good for the compressions obviously in the jumps, but the stock suspension is still super soft off the top, so it doesn’t really affect much of the rock garden areas. Okay. So, you can run it that stiff and then Yeah, it’s been working great in the rock gardens, too. So, happy days. Are you running any inserts in there? No, I usually I’ve never ran inserts actually. I just don’t like how they feel. And usually you don’t run them with the NVs cuz the Envy rim has that rim strip that wraps around it. Yeah. And in terms of feel then, like what is it about the feel of an insert that they don’t particularly like? It’s just kind of like if you’ve ever ridden a moto and you like have ever ridden in like a moose. It’s just like kind of like a dull feeling you get whenever you’re really riding wherever. I just don’t really like it. I kind of like it when it’s like a like a sharp feeling on the tires. Like when you’re riding it just feels a bit dull to your like to your hands and feet. I don’t know. It’s a weird weird thing that I’ve Yeah. caught up on. But okay, you got the O chain down there that’s just like also really helpful. It just calms the bike down a lot, which is nice in like steep sections where you’re like maybe getting kicked forward. Okay. It could be like your feet and stuff. So, if it’s just makes the whole bike feel more planted. Sick. And then you’re on a full TP drivetrain. Small little block on the back and some what? 220 rotors front and back or Yeah. 220 Oh, yeah. 220s on there. Front and rear. Plenty of power. And there’s no no mass dampers or nothing funny on there. No added weights or anything. No, we took off the added weight on the bottom bracket. We usually run them at World Cups, but I mean here I don’t I don’t want any extra weight on the bottom bracket bringing them down. It’s just like I was thinking in the compressions and everything, I just wouldn’t want it like extra weight really. Yeah. And so yeah, we kept that. There’s some pretty cool machining on the rocker links there. It’s like it’s definitely like a handbuilt bike or like a a bespoke built bike. It’s pretty sick. Sure. Yeah. We got these sick little engraved like flames in the sides, too. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, I think there’s actually a thicker like bolt through there for just like this race just cuz the compressions are so gnarly. And you bottom out the shock and then you keep going through the travel. So, or keep going through whatever there is there. So, it’s definitely gnarly. We popped by your pits earlier on and there’s some guys doing some telemetry stuff on there. What What was that all about? Yeah, so there’s telemetry front and rear just to like measure the shock and fork obviously, but then I had there was like these sensors on the frame. I don’t know too much about it, but it was to measure like the forces going into the frame. And I mean, we did it on the gnarliest track so we could see the like just the biggest compressions you could possibly get really on a bike to see the forces going into the frame to be able to like test that in a lab for the other bikes that we’re that Nico is going to be making. Right. Okay. Which is like good idea. So, mate, really appreciate your time. No worries. Sick bike. Like proper cool to have like back to almost like the handbuilt sort of world. It’s it’s pretty sick, eh? So, yeah. Yeah. And my favorite part about it, if you crash, yeah, if you crash or like scratch up the frame, you’re not going to get like crack the carbon up front or anything. And if you get a little scratch, you can take it out with some sandpaper or something. Perfect. Old school. It’s the best. There we go. Some good old welds on there as well, man. Oh, yeah. Sick. Well, best of luck, man. Have a good race. Appreciate it. Catch you soon. I know it’s cliche to say, but in reality, this road gap is so much bigger than you can imagine. It is huge. Oh, I don’t think he was the only one going. All right, here with Lou Ferguson, straight up British champ. Congratulations on that. That was wicked to see. Um, and sounds like you’ve been ticking off everything here. Pretty sick. Yeah. So, we’re at Hardline and uh yeah, I’ve been loving it. Just trying to get through all the features and uh yeah, had a great day. Going to try and get full run this week. Sounds like it’s been going pretty well. Yeah, I’ve been loving it. Excellent. And you have been filming with uh our Max, our man over there, cuz you guys are doing a little mini documentary of the whole weekend, which is coming out in a few days time on MBK TV channel. Stay tuned for that, which is really cool. Yeah, I’m excited just to see all from someone else’s perspective. And yeah, keen to share everything going on behind the scenes. Happy days. Now, in terms of tech, uh you’re pretty lucky cuz you do have uh Intense M1 prototype hand welded by Jeff Steber. Is that right? I do. Yeah, there ain’t many of those in the world. That is pretty cool. So, we’re going to have a quick look. So, uh Yeah. Do you want to talk us about the bike? Yeah. So, this is my M1. Um it’s a size medium. It’s mullet. Uh we’re running the gearbox, which is uh brand new this year. So, I wasn’t actually meant to run the gearbox at the first World Cup and then uh it just kind of happened. So, I’m not complaining, but yeah, it didn’t take long to get used to it. And I’ve Yeah, I’ve just been loving the feel. So the extra weight is really good for racing and it’s just all in the right place. I can feel like there’s loads of traction. Um it’s not too like complicated as well. Like I’m not worried about my derail getting hit when I’m going through rock gardens. And the shifting felt a little bit strange at first, but it’s just so natural now. So you shifting under power or you can Yeah, you can shift at any point. So like during a race run, it’s pretty handy when there’s like a moment but it’s still kind of busy. You can just you don’t need to pedal. you can just change and then going into the next section, you’re in the right gear. So, yeah, it’s really sick actually. Um, then we’ve got EXT suspension. So, it’s my first year on EXT and they’re really they’re really really good. So, as soon as I got on, uh, I just felt like I didn’t get as much arm pump. So, loving the forks. They’re actually upside down. Have a look at that. Yeah. And the shock. We We haven’t changed much for hardline. We did talk about going a bit slower and stiffer, but when Casey, my mechanic, he changed it. I got on and I I just felt like it felt not like my bike, a bit alien. So, we ended up changing it back to my my race settings. And so far, so good. Then next thing, uh, so Joe Braden has designed these bar ends. Yeah, I’d recommend giving them a go if you struggle with like arm pump or like fatigue or like Yeah. you just want to rest like he’s blown his hand in rest runs before so he designed them just to like offer a bit more support on the old arms. So cool. Uh you’re running Max’s tire so we’ve got an as guy at the front and a minion at the back. Have you changed anything in terms of pressure? Are you running an insert in there? Uh no. So usually I run 22 23. Uh when I race last week at British Champs I did put my tire pressure up a lot but everyone was just killing wheels. So um I managed to make it through with both my wheels like intact which was meant. Uh but yeah, just usual pressure, so it’s a bit more predictable. And the tires I’m going ask and DHR, but I have been running the high rollers as well points this year. And yeah, they they hook up really good. Okay. But I just thought, you know, it’s not super loose up there. Like quite often it’s like hard pack or like slightly rocks. So I just thought these tires would be these would be pretty good. Okay. Trying to think if there’s anything else. Oh, Lewis Brakes. Louis Brakes. Those cuz they’re not particularly common on the scene. And uh yeah, an interesting an interesting company. Yeah, they’re really cool. Actually, I had never heard of them before. Uh Joel got them on board uh to support the team. And the lever feel is super light. Like I’m I’m a big fan. I always get questions about them and people seem a bit skeptical, but no, I like 10 out of 10 like love them. They feel really powerful. Got 220 roar in the front and then 200 on the back. And yeah, I don’t really struggle to slow down. Although I did struggle the other day hitting the cliff drop, but that wasn’t the brakes. That was me. I was That’s it. Yeah, that was just really fast into a shoot. But um but yeah, I love the brakes and um yeah, love the bike. I honestly Yeah, I quite often get told at races that it just looks like it’s working really well and and I believe it. Like I don’t have as much of a reference. I haven’t been ridden a lot of brands, but I got on this bike and it just feels so natural and like yeah, just feels like home already. So, but I’m super lucky. Like the whole bike styled. Um, I think of all the bikes here that we’ve seen, like this is for me like one of the most uh like the most lustworthy. Like that’s a proper a proper downhill machine that I’m Yeah, it’s it’s kind of cool cuz I’m not much of a bike node, but then everyone always comes up to me because it’s Yeah, cuz Joel is and and Jeff like has done such a good job and like yeah, ex like not new to the scene, but they’re definitely new to the downhill forks and yeah, there’s just so much good feedback on all of the products. So happy days. Yeah. Also the oneup bars. Oh yeah. Yeah. Love them as well. Yeah. So loads of comfort. Yeah. Yeah. Just like super nice. I like Yeah. I wouldn’t I wouldn’t run anything else. So yeah. Okay. Lou, thanks so much. Best of luck for the this weekend. Congratulations on last weekend as well. Thanks. And uh yeah, appreciate the bike check. Thanks a lot. No worries. Cheers. Thank you. Hello. Little frog. He flew a long way off that. That was pretty wild. All right, Josh. Here with your prototype Cannondale. How’s it been going so far? Yeah, really good, mate. This is um tracks very similar to last year. My bike’s very similar to last year and we just had a few little upgrades. We’ve got the XTR brakes on there now and I’ve got the Michelin tires. Very flash. Yeah, loving it, mate. Loving it. Coming in with a few improvements. Let’s have a look at the bike. So, uh yeah, it’s the uh prototype Cannondale downhill bike. Tell us about it. It is indeed. Yeah, this thing’s uh been around for some time and we, you know, still in development with uh the Lab 71 edition downhill machine. Um I can’t go into too much detail, but I have been changing a few bits. I changed some settings for when I went to backyard battle on it at Barrows. Um probably a couple months ago now. Made it a bit more agile, shall we say. And last year I came here and I hadn’t had loads of time on it. So I had it in my longest, slackest, safest, stablest setting I could. And um I actually found when I got tired, I was struggling to move the bike as much as I needed to through the tight corners and a few bits. Um so anyway, I’ve made it a bit more agile with a few of the flip chips and whatnot. And um well, I didn’t have a Michelin tires last year, so absolutely love him, man. I’m able to run a a much softer pressure in them. Okay. Um, roughly what you’re talking I’m 22 on the front and 26 on my back, which is sort of normal on the back, but way softer than I would run on 2 PSI softer than I would run on the front. And in winter, I was down to like 18 on the front. Crazy. And the grip’s just phenomenal. So, feeling really comfy on them. Have you got inserts in there or No inserts? Okay. Yeah. Not needed them. No, I haven’t. I’ve never I mean not one flat on the tires and I’ve been on them months. So really good. And then um yeah fresh hookup from Shimano um the guys at Madison. So absolutely buzzing with the XTR brakes. Formula sent me some new suspension. Okay. So it’s it’s an old it’s you know it’s an old machine with some fresh bits and it’s feeling good. Well everyone likes the look of it though. You’ve got a little sticker on the back with a few um little details on there. What’s that all about? Yeah, that is the guys in Wilton have been using this bike briefly before it came to me. I mean, it was it was as good as new, but that’s to do with some of the linkages and things they’d been running. Um, which is the same as what I run. Um, it’s my preferred setup of the stuff I’ve tried. Okay. Can’t go into too much detail, but that’s some of them figures. Um, so that’s like the frame progression and things like that. Yeah. Yeah. That sort of thing. Okay. And then I’ve got my 65 mil bars on. So they’re feeling mint. I’m able to like trim the steer right down. Run the crown. I’ve only got 5 mil of stansion poking out of my um top crowns. I’ve got a 5 mil stack under my stem and a 65 bar. And I think these twiglets, you know, I’m like I sort of favor the back end of the bike a little bit and it gives my upper body a bit more um well a less, you know, put Exactly. Exactly. And then I’m so grateful when it gets steep down this bottom section, man. You’re just in the chop and it’s just big impact. So grateful for that. By the time I’ve got down, right, is there an 80 mil rise as well on them? There is. Yeah. I’ve been running them out of my hard tail. Um, but most, yeah, 65. I mean, typically I’d run the 50 with a bit of a stack beneath my stem and then it’s like, well, I can just go flush with that, keep it all clean, run them 65s and everything’s looking lovely. So, yeah, buzzing with that 80s on me um, hard tail and the sir on days. Yeah. Yeah. What else can I think of? 160 crank or 165 cranks actually. Um, yeah. So, my um my father-in-law comes from an engineering background and he actually has um classic motorcycle showroom, but they they make their own bits and bits and bobs. And I fell in love with my SL so much n right around the 19 kilo mark. Like, I just think the bike rides so well. So, we’ve we’ve made a little um cradle around the BB and goes to the ISCG tab. Um, and we’ve waited we’ve waited this up to match the weight of my SL. So, I’m pretty much riding an ebike with no motor. I was going to ask cuz obviously a lot of downers use ebikes to train. Yeah. And if you’re using it so much, is it beneficial having a bike that feels the same as the ebike? Well, we just did some backto-back runs where I took the weight off, took it on, played about with different weights and like the the stability and it sort of took out some of the chatter and um I just really really like having that balanced especially down low and um yeah, so that’s where we’re at. We’ve got the custom weight block and it’s yeah about 19 kilo bike which is you know he on the on the heavy side but I absolutely love it. Wicked. All right. Well, thanks a lot. I appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of the weekend and uh best of luck man. Cheers dude. All right then. Man of the moment Roger Vieira is being taken on to Factory Racing for the season. Must feel pretty good. How’s it going? Oh yeah. It’s like a dream coming through. Uh really yeah really happy for the opportunity. Yeah only thank like all the pivot team uh Bernard uh and everyone else involved and uh yeah enjoying and yeah trying to have fun. Uh so you got your Pivot Phoenix. It’s a pretty cool machine actually. But um do you want to talk us through some of the setup stuff you’ve got for Hardline and the bike itself? Yeah. Yeah. Let’s do it. Um so yeah I’m running the Fox 40s in the front. Uh we changed a little bit the settings from the World Cups. Obviously here you have like huge jumps and you learn quite heavy to the jump. So uh I closed up a bit compression went up 2 PSI on the forks. Um I went on the forks uh coil shock on the rear and I went up in spring as well spring rate and I also close the back low speed compression just to to have a little bit more support when like you learn deep into the into the jumps and yeah like suspension wise that’s pretty much it. the all the changes. And then we are on the Conte Crypto tires and we have like a insert on the rear uh the Punzer insert and yeah, we’ve been using that like pretty much all season which is pretty dialed. What sort of pressures are you running in there? So I went up a little bit from what I normally use in World Cup. So I’m 23 PSI in the front and 27 in the rear. I only went 1 PSI like higher cuz I am already like on the kite high spectrum on like the World Cup. So, I went 1 PSI each each tire and yeah, feels good. Okay, so um pretty cool setup down here. Dual chain there. Can you talk us a little bit through that? Yeah. Uh so, yeah, it’s it’s literally does the same job as a high pivot bike. Um but it’s just like Yeah, just a different way of doing it. So, it’s like an idler and uh in there. Uh in terms of wheels, you got I9 her hubs, Rainald’s whims, and you’re running Shimano setup on there. XTR brakes, same at the back. All running nicely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Everything pretty dialed. Like can’t go wrong with Shimano. Uh super reliable, super strong, and yeah, super good. Same thing with the wheels. Like these Reod rims are really, really strong. Um yeah, like super like impressed with them. Um the Industry 9 hubs as well. Really, really good. Enjoying so far. And uh yeah, and then to top up with, we got like obviously the rental cockpit, which is yeah, really nice and tidy. And um yeah, some WTD saddle. Um and yeah, that’s pretty much Oh, Cranky Brothers Crunker Brothers as well. Crank Brothers pedals. And uh my favorite grips or the eyes, the lock necks. Yeah. Now there is something uh zip tied to the bottom of the bike. Yeah. So like the Pivo is a quite very light bike compared to all the other downhill bikes. So, we have strapped down the bottom bracket like a kilo there. Um, a kilo. Yeah, it’s a kilo. It’s quite a lot. Yeah, it’s a lot cuz it’s just a light, really light bike. And I’m on the small as well size, so it’s even lighter. And I’m a small guy, like light. So, just trying to get like that weight. Uh, so it carries a bit more speed like on the fast stuff and it’s just a bit more stable as well. Okay. Um, but yeah. And feels good. Yeah, it feels amazing. Yeah. Yeah, you you definitely notice the difference. It’s like the bike is super agile without and like super nimble which is really good. But then on the word cups when you’re going flat out like the extra weight like helps a lot. Okay. No two mass dampers, no fancy chain rings, just straight stock other than a bit of weight on the bottom bracket. Yeah, that’s it. Yeah. The only thing I have different is like a 6 mil headset angle. Uh so just 6 mil forward. Ah, okay. Um so because it’s a small bike, it’s quite short but like the gap between small and medium is quite big. door. Um yeah, 6 mil forward. Um that is like nice spot for me. Happy days. Yeah, man. Roger. Been a pleasure. Thank you. Best of luck for the race. We’ll be watching and love to see it on pivot as well. No, thank you, man. Appreciate it. Cheers. Cheers, dude. Cheers. That’s the end of our first Red Bull Hardline bike checks video. There’s Lori going past. Pretty cool. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed this video. In a couple of days, there will be another bike check video, so check that out. And in a few more days time, we’ve been following Lou Ferguson throughout her whole Red Bull Hardline weekend. Fingers crossed she makes it all the way down in a wana. It’s going to be a sick vid. Keep subscribed to the channel. Check it out. Like, subscribe, comments down below. You know the score.