ROCKSHOX FLIGHT ATTENDANT
It’s good practice to be completely disinterested when a new gizmo arrives, that way you’re not influenced by preconceptions, only the thing in your hands right now. That was hard to do with SRAM’s Flight Attendant, I pretty much hated it on principle. An illiberal nightmare, it’s a series of sensors, tracking your every move and feeding them into a databank. No thanks. With my tinfoil hat off though, it looked like little more than an expensive lockout. Until I actually tried riding it.
Flight Attendant is simple in its concept, but fiendishly complicated by design. It automatically adjusts the compression damping at the fork and the shock, the idea being to maximise your pedalling efficiency without compromising bump performance. Like a lockout. It does this with a series of sensors, principally a gyro and accelerometer in each component, and unlike a thumb operated lockout, it can adjust extremely quickly, 200 times a second. It’s this that makes it for me; Flight Attendant doesn’t try to predict what’s coming up, as so many active suspension systems have before it. Instead, it’s quick enough not to need to.
Flight Attendant works best on bikes with plush suspension, it can turn bikes that really don’t want to go uphill into consummate pedallers without compromising their descending prowess. And very importantly, and unlike a regular lockout, you’ll never forget to flick it to open.
Jamie Darlow
SPECIALIZED BUTCHER GRID T9
£50 • specialized.com
I’ve gone with the Butcher because it’s better damped than pretty much any other tyre out there, sticking to the ground instead of bouncing you off into the bushes. This is quite a comeback from Specialized, because just a few years ago the brand was producing mediocre tyres, at best. The tread patterns haven’t changed, but what’s new is the compound called T9 rubber, it’s tacky enough to rival anything from Maxxis, but has slower rebound when things get fast. Speed comes from confidence, and confidence comes from control.
Specialized is a brand renowned for making high-end bikes and components, with high-end prices too. The Butcher, and indeed
