Bike technician to the stars, Evan Warner is SRAM's man on the road, travelling the world and tirelessly keeping some of the fastest bikes on the planet ready tor that next podium challenge.
"My Stumpjumper EVO was an incredibly nice hand-me-dawn from Jon
Cancellier. who's with the SRAM BlackBox programme. I've had great fun on this
bike and enjoy fhe balance it provides. There are so many frames available to
suit literally any desire that I get overwhelmed trying to constantly adapt to
something new Once I find a bike I feel comfy with. I usually hang on to it for
a while,"
"I always need to ride more. It's one of the greatest challenges
for me. It's funny but it can actually be intimidating to work with so many
incredibly talented riders. We have engineers, product managers and crazy-fast
PR guys to keep up with whenever we go out."
"The only special modification on this bike is the RockShox Monarch Plus shock. I love to work on special modifications for other people but tend
to slick with stock configurations myself. Except for stickers - I like
stickers a lot!"
"I get really fixated on cable routing when building up new hikes.
I definitely appreciate the aesthetics of internal routing, but struggle with the
execution on certain frames. I also get really concerned about setting up stems
exactly straight and the stupid cleats on my shoes being the same."
"In the next few years I think the distinction between all-mountain
and downhilI bikes will become even more blurred. Last season we kept watching
the Enduro World Series races and commenting on how it was basically a mini DH
World Cup on shorter-travel bikes. Then at the World Championships. Mitch
Ropelato qualified second on a single-crown 29er. Bikes continue to get more
capable at shorter travels."
"I think we'll see a massive surge of 650b DH bikes on the World
Cup circuit this year. It'll be interesting to track the results of athletes
and teams running 650b this year versus the 26ln programmes of last year."
"Staying open to new advancements is
valuable and can make riding more enjoyable. The top World Cup racers are now
so close that any potential advantage can have a huge impact on a race. It'll
take a little while to refine all the 650b products that have been released for
downhill, but I don't see the wheel size going away in the near future."
