fitness
Breakthroughs
Greg first started to get noticed as a world class
downhill racer at the age of 17, in 1999, racing select
World Cups (including one in his home country of
South Africa, in Stellenbosch) on a local shop team,
aboard a Kona Stab Dee-Lux bike with a Marzocchi
Monster T. fork. In 2000, he was picked up as a junior
by British international team Animal Orange, which
used Orange frames (222 for downhill and Ms. Isle
for dual slalom) and RockShox suspension. That year
Greg podiumed at a World Cup points series race for
the first time.
The following two years Greg rode for the
Global Racing team, aboard similar bikes to the previous years’, and on this team, at the age of 19, he won
the overall World Cup points series in the Elite downhill. In 2003 Greg switched to the Haro Lee Dungarees
team, which used Intense designed and built DHR
frames for the dowhill and their own short travel Werx
trailbike frames for Four Cross, with Manitou suspension. It was aboard this team that, at the age of 21,
Greg became World Champion of downhill.
In 2004, Greg was offered a spot on Team G
Cross Honda, which used one-off internally geared
frames made by Honda, with a Showa suspension. He
accepted and stayed for four years, winning his second World Cup points series overall victory in 2005.
The 2007 season ended on a bittersweet note with a
dislocated and fractured shoulder early in his winning
World Championship final run although Greg got back
on the bike to salvage a painful 4th place finish. In
addition, Greg was forced to switch teams yet again
when Honda pulled out of the sport and he chose the
Santa Cruz Syndicate team, alongside riders Steve
Peat, Nathan Rennie, and Josh Bryceland for the 2008
season.
Minnaar has won the UCI Downhill World
Championship three times - in 2003, 2012 and 2013.
He has finished second three times (2004, 2006 and
2009) and taken the bronze three times (2001, 2005
and 2010).
Minnaar has been crowned Downhill World
Cup champion three times (2001, 2005 and 2008) for
winning the Mountain Bike World Cup points series.
He was also crowned Downhill World Champion in
2003 for winning the season end ing event. He has
also done well in the Four Cross event, with one win
in the 2003 World Cup points series, in Fort William,
Scotland, and a fourth place finish at the 2005 World
Championships.
In the 2008 World Cup, Minnaar podiumed
at every one of the seven events in the series, taking
the win at Fort William, Mont-Sainte-Anne and Canberra. This gave him a comfortable lead going into the
finals at Schladming, Austria, where he placed fifth
and clenched his overall lead to take the well-deserved
title.
In 2009 World Cup series, Minnaar took first
place at Pietermaritzburg South Africa, Fort William
Scotland and Bromont Canada. He also came 6th at
La Bresse in France, 3rd atVallnord in Andorra, Maribor in Slovenia and in Schladming Austria. Greg also
came 22nd in Mont-Sainte-Anne leaving him with a
2nd place overall. In the World Championships atCanberra Australia he lost 1st place to his team mate Steve
Peat by 0.05seconds
Minnaar has twice (2003, 2004) been crowned
the champion of the NORBA points series. Having
won BikeRadar’s Most Wanted award in 2013, the carbon Santa Cruz V10 continues to be the lust of many
downhill fans, despite its debate-leading 26” wheel
size. On top of this, at just over 15kg and with many
trick modifications, Greg Minnaar’s bike is as good as
they get.
While in Cairns, Australia for round two of the
2014 UCI World Cup, we caught up with Greg Minnaar’s mechanic - Jason Marsh - who talked us through
the intricacies of Minnaar’s bike and the modifications
made to suit individual courses.
Minnaar usually runs a high handlebar setup,
and has the reputation of experimenting with bar
height depending on the steepness of the course. In order to reduce the amount of weight on the front wheel,
Minnaar went with a huge 32mm stack of stem spacers
and raised the crowns on the front fork. This wasn’t
an easy process; with Marsh having to get some long
bolts custom made for the adjustment.
All of the Santa Cruz Syndicate team, including Minnaar, Steve Peat and Josh Bryceland tower at
around 6ft 3in, and even the production extra-large
frame size isn’t quite enough for Minnaar or Peat. To
help with this, Chris King’s ‘Buzz Works’ prototype
shop made some custom offset headsets to give even
greater reach, placing the 1 1/8in steerer tube 8mm
forward of the stock position in the 1.5in headtube.
Providing the 250mm of rear wheel travel is a
Fox ‘RAD’ (Racing Applications Development) rear
shock, a more refined version of what Minnaar used
to win the 2013 world championships. This prototype
rear shock is looking rather polished and could be a
hint at a future production shock from Fox.
Greg was running a softer 400lb spring, seeking greater traction in the slick mud. With this spring change,
he had to settle for a heavier steel spring, instead of the
usual 450lb titanium spring he’d normally use.
At the front, a Fox 40 Float RC2 fork offers a huge
40mm stanchion tube diameter and air-spring preload
adjustment. It features a few hidden ‘RAD’ modifications that Marsh couldn’t tell us much about, but did
hint at the Kashima stanchions being even slicker and
the inner bushings polished for next-level small-bump
compliance.
Further customizing is seen with Minnaar’s
Shimano Saint drivetrain and brake setup. Normally
10-speed, Minnaar uses a parted Shimano Ultegra
cassette to provide just 7 gears, in a 11-19T ratio. Sitting in place of the cassette’s lower gears is a custom,
drilled ring to reduce weight. In addition to the clutch
style rear derailleur, a special edition Gamut Greg
Minnaar P30’s chainguide ensures the chain stays
on the less-common 37t size chainring. This guide
uses friction slides instead of pulley wheels to keep
the chain secure and is sold in limited quantities with
a piece of Minnaar’s clothing. Minnaar unusually
chooses resin brake pads over the more often common
metallic’s. These softer, far less-durable pads provide
greater initial braking bite and far less bed-in time. The
mud in Cairns had Minnaar quickly burning through
pads and Marsh had set aside his last pair of resin pads
for race day.
The Santa Cruz Syndicate team don’t use Shimano’s latest R99 Ice-tech rotors as they aren’t offered
in the six-bolt mount pattern that the Chris King hubs
require. Instead, Minnaar uses XT/Saint RT86 203mm
rotors. At just over US$2,700, Minnaar’s carbon
wheelset continues the dream-bike trend, consisting of
487g (claimed) Enve 90-Ten carbon 26in rims, Chris
King ISO hubs and DT Swiss double-butted spokes.
These wheels were setup tubeless. Maxxis DHR II is
the normal tyre choice in the dry, but the slick mud
in Cairns had Minnaar on Super Tacky Maxxis Wet
Scream’s in 2.5in width.
Greg first started racing BMX at 4 yrs of age.
He soon moved over to motocross and raced for 11
years before his parents bought a bicycle shop and his
path to DH stardom began. Greg was initially inspired
by the rivalry between Nico Vouilloz and Steve Peat.
He worked his way up to the Santa Cruz Syndicate
team to eventually ride alongside one of those childhood heroes. With back-to-back World Championship
wins on the Syndicate, Greg’s goes from strength-tostrength. Widely recognised as one of the smoothest
and most consistent DH racers on the circuit.