The Transalp challenge has existed for many years, but the Transalp as a race has ran for only the last three. From southern Germany to northern Italy, the 8 day race covers 650km and 18,500m of climbing through the toughest of terrain. Many competitors spend more than 60 hours in the saddle, including a handful of heroic British entrants who successfully completed the route this year.
This extreme race is not just torture for human competitors, but also the bikes and equipment used. Many large companies use the Transalp as a testing ground, with Rockshox and Marzocchi, among others, distributing 2001 prototypes throughout the top teams.
This is serious testing territory, and I'm sure many of you would like to know what broke, what didn't break, and what new trends are upon the horizon. Whatever survives Transalp will survive anything! So here's what the manufacturers may or may not want you to read-
The use of hardtails and full suspension was split almost 50:50 within the Transalp field. 3% of the (already unhinged) start line, opted to make life harder for themselves by utilising a fully rigid rig. The lightest bike on the start line was a 8.9kg fully rigid Storck, but a full suspended German A, wasn't far behind at only 9.4kg. One competitor attended with 120mm triple crown forks, 140mm of travel at the rear and disc brakes at both ends; deciding that places were to be won on the descents.
The commonest marque represented was Cannondale, with Specialized and Scott not very far behind. Over half the entrants rode on RockShox forks, with 'Dale Headshok, Manitou and Marzocchi making up the minority places in that order.
Many of you may expect that disc brakes come recommended allround. Well, life ain't that simple! Only one in six competitors used disc stoppers, and the verdict was far from simple. Hope discs are a relative rarity among the continentals, apart from perhaps the Rotwild team, so little of this information is relevant to the UKs favourite anchors.
Due to the ultra-long descents of up to 1800m, overheating of discs was fairly common, with Coda and Magura commonly suffering from brake pump despite the open hydraulic systems. Coda brakes weren't too happy in the mud either, with braking power dropping to less than that of a good V-brake; with many competitors finding themselves taking enforced rests on the 20km downhills, due to cramped forearms. Shimano brakes achieved full marks, with massive power, good modulation & low maintenance reported from all corners.
This doesn't by any means say that V-brakes are the weapon of choice for Transalpers. Overheated rims lead to more serious consequences than lever pump; and melted tubes were common on the longer descents! Some competitors wore completely through rim sidewalls within the 8 days, and the alpine thunder storms resulted in many bikes losing brake power almost totally! Almost all V-brake users complained of poor modulation.
Nothing really much to say about gear changing itself, but rather the transmission and cables.
Non-Shimano chainrings (surprisingly) proved to be a problem with poor shifting and higher wear rates. Trutativ, Coda and Specialized cranks all suffered from broken crank bolts, meaning that they had to be removed by means of advanced hacksaw technology!
Cables were the main bug bear of gear users, and unsurprisingly no singlespeeders attended (anyone up for it next year?). The entire principle of the bowden cable is to blame, with water ingress from thunder showers causing problems during later days. Some manufacturers are beginning to specify internally routed cables, which helps significantly, but unfortunately production hydraulic shifting is many years away yet.
At least five examples of the Rohloff 14 Speedhub both started and finished the Transalp, with no mechanicals reported. The entire mechanism is sealed within an oil bath away from the elements - it must however be remembered that a professional Rohloff mechanic was present throughout the race!
RockShox, Manitou and Marzocchi all had professional mechanics at the event and none reported "real functional" problems, whatever that means! The resident RockShox spanner man reported that "most problems were simply caused by poor maintenance", which sounds like a fairly typical attitude(!)
SIDs came in for special criticism. Brutal disc braking can cause the left hand leg to bend backwards by up to 100mm. Yes, four whole inches! This terrifying deflection has been measured in the laboratory, as well as observed in the field (or Alp). Despite the SID featuring a disc mount, it doesn't mean that they can handle such savage additional forces, and they would be much happier mated to rim brakes. No SIDs actually fractured during the race, but it would be wise not to tempt fate.
As far as rear shocks were concerned, the only real problems encountered were more annoyance than failure. Some shocks clashed against seat posts or brake boosters at full travel, and the creaks from Rocky Mountain pivots drove grown men to tears. Nothing more than a little fork grease was required to cure this woe.
Transalpers tend to use water bottles rather than Camelbaks. Water bottles are much quicker & easier to refill from mountain streams - if your bike has space for them! FSR owners may as well forget them, along with many other full suspension users.
Large quantities of XT bottom brackets came to an undignified end during the 8 days. Due to a production problem earlier this year, many XT units unscrewed themselves en-route and had to be replaced.
Most manufacturers are content with examining failures and questioning customers to gauge the performance of their components. Two companies took bike science to a new a level, whilst torturing their test riders yet further. RockShox are investigating the accelerations experienced by an MTBer's body, in collaboration with the Sporthochschule of Cologne. Their human test dummies and bikes were dotted with acceleration sensors and a rucksack(!) sized data logger to interpret and store the results. Despite enough data to keep a Cray happy for a month, no fixed conclusions could be drawn, except that head and hands suffer the most (I could have told them that!) Work on the design of tyres & grips, as well as forks, may be the next stage in this research.
Rotwild were more interested in the stresses experienced by their bikes, than their riders. One prototype was absolutely dripping with strain gauges, as well as transducers to record braking and pedalling forces. The 2kg data logger mounted within the frame is a little less evil than a rucksack full of electronics, but hardly helped the chances of the Rotwild test pilot. The results of this in-depth study can be seen in the radical tube shapes on next-years Rotwild frames.
These words are an exact translation of what the Germans thought of our most controversial new bike, so don't blame me for any inaccuracies or controversial statements! Just compare and contrast with British reports of the same machine.
"TEST-RABBIT(?): The Englishmen Alan Sheldon & Aidan Leheup tested a hot prototype on the Alpine pistes. Formula 1 designer John Whyte has devised this unified rear triangle bike (doh!). The interesting features are the Telelever fork and the large diameter axle-end botch to the Shimano hubs.
A short test ride revealed good stiffness, but slow steering and poor suspension linearity." Hmmm, sound familiar? Unsurprisingly, the Germans have also noted a striking similarity to the patented BMW Telelever wishbone linkage fork!
This is the low down on what components the 700 plus competitors got through. Luckily for us number-crunchers the mechanics kept a log of what needed replacing. But if you think this is bad; I can get through this much metal in a peak district winter!
Polaris challenge too tame? Done the coast to coast in a day? Need to work up a real sweat? Then if you're fresh back from winning the KIMM and riding the high Andes, then get your name down for the Transalp and do us Brits proud. Check out the article in this month's (Dec'00) MBR, as well as the German 'Bike' magazine's website at: www.bike-magazin.de
Good luck - you'll need it!
Note: This artice is an adapted and translated version of an article which has apperared in the German "BIKE" magazine
Last Updated 14-11-2000
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