Eric Lawrenuk takes a spot on the podium at his first event of 2009, topped by only Brandon Semenuk (Whistler, BC) and Darren Berrecloth (Parksville, BC)
Landing his first decade in competition, Eric could hardly keep his composure through the rest of the jumps as the crowd roared. Riding his Cove Foreplay kitted with Chromag, Shimano SLX, E.Thirteen and Fox Racing Shox parts, Eric couldn’t have been happier with how his new components and Fox 32 Float performed.
Eric Lawrenuk putting impressive style into his decade (Photographer: Ian Hylands)
Out of 18 riders, Eric managed to assert himself as one of the leaders and rode his way to 3rd place. Graham Agassiz and Jamie Goldman placed 4th and 5th respectively, rounding out a world-class podium.
Ryder Kasprick No-Foot Can (Photographer: Ian Hylands)
Cove Bikes athletes Ryder Kasprick and Luke Fulton also made their presence known, but with Luke coming back from a wrist injury and Ryder taking a nasty spill during competition only Eric was able to get on the podium.
North Vancouver (Canada) - Cove Bikes is proud to announce the signing of Canadian slopestyle athlete Ryder Kasprick.
Nose Dive Three
Ryder who turns 21 today, the 6th of March, hails from Nanoose Bay on Vancouver Island. “I’m very excited to be working with such a great local company.” Commented the former breakout rider of the year (2006) “The Staff has been awesome and I’ve have always wanted to ride Cove bikes. This is a great opportunity for myself and I cannot wait to ride more of these great bikes.”
Ryder with his Cove Bikes
Riding on Cove’s Foreplay, Hooker and STD frames as well as our redesigned G-Spot set to enter production in late 09’, he will be promoting Cove Bikes primarily at North American competitions. Confirmed events include Teva Mtn Games, Highland Claymore Challenge, Creston Goat Style Bike Jam and Colorado Crankworx among others.
Kasprick will be attending events with Cove Bikes team rider Eric Lawrenuk who was ecstatic to see the Island kid sign, “Together we’ll be able to bring the best out of our riding. He’s been killing it since the Bicycle Rocker’s and I’m stoked to see him kill it harder at all the comps we hit together” Ryder has proven in the past that he is capable of winning any competition and was one of only a handful of athlete’s to trick the 25’ drop at Whistler Crankworx 2006.
Crankworx Tailwhip Drop
Cove Bikes has been leading the way since it’s inception as Deep Cove Bike Shop in 1981 to an industry leader in boutique handmade frames. Hosting a line of 10 frames ranging from titanium cross country hardtails to freeride and downhill bikes, Cove Bikes will continue setting the standard of North Shore proven bikes with the newly redesigned G-spot.
Cove will continue on as we have for 25 year’s, finding local youth and helping them develop into some of the biggest names in the industry. Glad to have you here at Cove Ryder!
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Product Test & Review: Cove Shocker DH Text from Decline magazine, March 2008 issue.
Based out of Vancouver, British Columbia the frame manufacturer known as Cove Bikes has designed a hot downhill whip dubbed The Shocker DH in addition to a full line of mountain bikes inspired by the North Shore. With feedback from former Canadian DH Champ and “consultant of cool” Tyler Morland, Cove successfully produced its downhill race-specific bike. Although the Shocker is going into its second year of production, we’ve been anxious to test this Canadian beast. The Shocker has been on the podium a lot these days, including JD Sanguen’s silver medal at the Junoir Worlds, so we wanted to find out for ourselves what the buzz is all about.
THE TECHNOLOGY
Breaking away from their previous single-pivot designs, Cove engineer, Brian Kelly, developed a Dual Link rear suspension platform , designed to have a rearward axle path using a 3-inch stroke shock to produce 8.75 inches of rear travel. Now when you do the math, 8.75 divided by 3, you get a 2.9:1 average leverage ratio, which makes for an active and predictable feel in the suspension. One of the most impressive aspects of the bike is the construction of the frame and swingarm. The front triangle uses Easton RAD tubing for the top and down tubes that connect to a sturdy head tube with two gussets for structural support and at the tail end, two round tubes make for the interrupted seat tube. You’ll notice the lower seat tube is kinked forward, if your curious as to why they did that, the answer is tire and linkage clearance. From front to back the swingarm is clearly constructed with a mix of intricate machined yokes, links and dropouts with simple lightweight rectangular tubes. Finishing touches of the frame construction include high-quality sealed bearings at the pivots, a 83mm bottom bracket shell and 12×150mm rear axle spacing. Cove blended a mix of simplicity and intricacy resulting in a downhill race frame that they say weighs a tad short of 13 pounds, with rear shock and a steel spring.
Specs Our Cove Shocker came equipped with a SRAM build kit, including a Hussefelt bar/stem combo, Holzfeller OCT cranks, X.O shifter and derailleur, Avid Code magnesium brakes (rotor size 203mm front, 185mm rear) with RockShox suspension front and rear, E.thirteen SRS chainguide, Mavic rims and Maxxis High Roller tires. Cove sells framesets and complete bikes with a choice of two build kits. Build Kit 1 comes with high-end goodies and retails for $2,880. Build Kit 2 consists of mid-level components and retails for $2,400. Check the Cove site for exact parts and details.
Suspension We were lucky enough to have a prototype RockShox Vivid rear shock matched up with a Boxxer Team fork on our test rig. The adjustability of RockShox suspension is so easy to understand and even easier to set up. The Boxxer Team offers 203mm of travel and adjustable compression, rebound and Floodgate. The Vivid shock is a bit different than most shocks due to its adjustments. There is one compression adjustment and two rebound adjustments, high-and-low-speed. Once you figure out the proper spring to run based on sag, fine-tuning the Vivid is a breeze.
THE RIDE
Like a hippie at Woodstock, we were surprised how quickly we adapted to the Shocker. After just one run, we felt like we were at home due to its familiar geometry. Designed as a downhill race bike, the Shocker is more than capable of taking big hits. We rode a variety of downhill tracks and boosted some big-bike jumps, in doing so we noticed that the Shocker excels when the terrain is really rough, high or low-speed. You really feel how well the Dual Platform suspension works in tough situations. Effortless and nimble would be good words to describe the Shocker in rugged terrain, especially when you get into a groove of pumping through the trail; this bike carries momentum like no other.
Geometry The geometry of the bike makes for a pretty relaxed ride. It’s important to stay towards the back of the bike, we found this posture to be the sweet spot on the bike. Our test sled was a medium sized frame, so the 22.5-inch matched with a 17.5-inch chainstay length suited us well. Due to the kinked seat tube , the Shocker has a very relaxed 60-degree seat angle and it balances out the cockpit. Some of us tend to sit down a lot through corners, so an even slacker seat angle would have really lit our fire. The static bottom bracket height is 14.5 inches and the head angle is 65 degree, by the time we throw our tubby legs over it, the Shocker squats right where we want her with the bottom bracket hovering just about 13 inches above the ground. Needless to say the familiar geometry of the bike suited all conditions we rode.
Braking With the four-piston Code brakes providing the power, the Shocker slows down quickly with predictable traction. We found ourselves using primarily the rear brake to moderate speed coming into sweeping corners and front brake was used for last minute shut downs.
Pedaling If we were to describe how the Shocker pedals in one word, it would be efficient. We found the Shocker to excel in quick bursts, linking up flat spots between ruts was where the pedaling ability was really noticed. While sprinting, the chain pull puts the suspension into a neutral position, which minimizes pedal bob. The Shocker also allows you to pedal over rough sections with minimal pedal feedback, and excels at what we like to call “monster trucking.” From the rough bits, flat sections, and quick sprint out of corners, the bike proved to be an excellent pedaler.
Jumping The Shocker is no slouch when it comes to jumping. Initially we were worried that the bike wouldn’t have much pop with the Dual Platform design but we were wrong. The Shocker proved to be very lively off lips and in the air. There is plenty of room to move around and adjust when you needed to whip it out or get the nose down. All in all the bike was a blast to jump.
Changing Direction The cornering ability of the Shocker has to be the bike’s highlight. Once you figure where you need to be on the bike, what we referred to earlier as the sweet spot, there are no guessing games as to how the bike is going to handle. There were countless times when we found ourselves saying, “I think she can lean a bit more,” and sure enough she could. Drifting the Cove is very predictable, the front end will push a little bit on high-speed flat corners but for the most part you hardly even feel like you’re breaking loose. Under harsh bermed corners where you basically come in and slash your way out, we felt very confident with the overall stiffness of the frame; there’s little to no flex at all coming from the swingarm. On board the Shocker, you can get yourself in and out of some pretty squirrelly scenarios and come out on top with a smile from ear to ear.
OVERVIEW
Cove banged out a grand slam with the Shocker DH. There’s no downhill track, jump or big hit this bike can’t handle. Made with high-quality tubing, machined parts and bearings, the construction of the frame is very durable and gives you one less thing to worry about. We really enjoyed riding this bike and honestly have very little to complain about. In fact, we’d say the Cove Shocker DH is probably one of the best downhill bikes we’ve ever thrown a leg over.
Way back in 1981, When off-road rippers were all on the the single speed cruisers, and gnarl was slick and slippery singletrack... Cove Bike Shop owner Chaz Romalis and his Brothers had a little shop in North Vancouver, BC - a front they used to convince the queens cowboys that they weren't high on crank, just high on bikes. [Continue...] More Photos >>
