Bike vs Bike - Anneke Beerten's GT Force or GT Sanction 32

This doesn't concern the bikes, but didn't Jill Kitner get the Queen of Rotarua this year? Berten was overall Queen of Crankworxs in 2015 but right now, Jill is #1, Casey Brown #2, and Berten #3 in the rankings after Rotarua.

I'm not sure they do queen and king of individual events. I think it aggregate scoring of all three event and then the royals are crowned at the end of whistler. I'm not an expert, but that's my understanding of things.

Yes, and the article originally stated that she just won Queen of Crankworx in Rotorua, but now it has been edited out of the first paragraph.

thanks for the catch p-dub. i took out the rotorua reference you mentioned b/c like you said, jill won rotorua's queen title.

I love techology and its cool the cool kids can have so many cool toys, but the EWS is going the way of the UCI, maybe being forced by the industry, but it needs to fight back, no practice on courses it should be blind, at most a seperate day/s for a track walk only!

Key here in relation to this article is Bikes should be limited to one bike for the season for pros esp, this means the development of bikes will continue and provide closer competition rather than who has the most toys or most effective quiver of toys wins, of course courses should remain tough, this and other comparisons is showing the direction the nature of the EWS is becoming and imo fwiw its a bad thing for the disipline in the mid to longer term!

Sort it out before it gets to complicated and or too elitist if it hasnt already, as road biking racing and XC did to MtB in the previous decade, dont let Enduro destroy the rest of mtb and racing!

Berten has access to any GT bike she wants, because she is sponsored, not because the EWS is "going the way of UCI" (whatever that means). Most riders, that can afford it, have a few bikes for different types of riding. It's like having a quiver of surfboards because no board works for all conditions. It's become the norm in mountain biking and has nothing to do with EWS enduro racing.

Curios as to why the force has a top guide and the sanction only a bash, as the sanction is supposed to be the harder hitting of the two. Perhaps the fury has trouble retaining chain tension.

Only reason I could nominate would be the Force cranks are part of the moving suspension, through chattering sections the Force chairing is moving forward and back very much.

It is on the Sanction as well, though not quite as much. Both are varied designs of the independent drive train that GT has used for years.

Yeah i know, i have both suspension types on my bikes, the Pivot Link system (force) moves the bottom bracket more than the sanction, i would say this is due to the Pivot Link's (force's) far higher pivot point for the rear suspension.

That all said i am actually surprised there is no chain guide on the sanction as well.

For the Force it's not adviseable to mount a lower bashguard (no ISCG + a bit of rearward rotation). The bike isn't exactly meant for that anyway as it's more heavy duty trail than EWS race bike. She might just be covering up the FD nub with the guide. I'd have to ask the mechanics.

For the Sanction I can see that perhaps she's running just the lower guide for deflection and gliding over rocks. The BB on that bike is pretty low. It doesn't add a lot of weight but can give piece of mind.

curious what that unstated weight difference is....how much is that 10mm worth!?

half pound probably, if that

The 10mm is the minor diff here, the Sanction much longer, slacker and slower steering. The Force also has better pedalling platform, you can stand and mash the pedals on the Force and it drives well, where as the sanction would have more pedal bob. So the Force is more nimble and pedals better, the Sanction devours gravity trails.

Ahhh, gotcha.. didn't realize all that. Makes more sense given all that...
Thank you, Sir McShredface!

what's below the bottle cage of the GT Force? A multitool?

Yes correct

no carbon rims? but the bike industry has made me believe I have to have carbon rims..?
... my mind has been blown...

Sponsorship

Stans makes carbon Flow EXs, Gee was running them. Must be personal preference.

They don't make carbon flows. They make a carbon all mountain rim called the Bravo, which the Athertons rode as rebadged flows last year. They also make a valor lightweight xc carbon rim. As far as what each rider uses, I dunno probably personal preference.

What size are the frames? Is the Reverb on the Sanction the Stealth model?

confirmed size medium frames for anneke. from a product manager at GT - "The frame can be stealth; but due to shock placement, if the rider wants to run a longer drop post they might choose to run an external version so to allow more post insertion into the frame." - anneke confirmed she's running stealth on the sanction

c'mon dude! I'm not just "a product manager at GT" =P

The director of product...but titles don't really matter

Director > Manager, clearly

I agree with this completely. The cable guide on my medium sanction is next to useless and puts the hose at a funny angle. i just zip tie it to the inside of the frame

The guide is more for the external posts. We spec the LEVs on some models and this comes in handy.

Why does she use different saddles?

Anneke said she was trying different saddles, as she was new to WTB this year. These photos were before Crankworx NZ when her bikes were pretty fresh. She's going with the Silverado.

Thanks for the info.