Racers Rides – Chris Cockrill

Our first “Racers Rides’ for 2015 and we caught up with Chris Cockrill to take a closer look at this Kona Operator.

Who are your sponsors for this year and what category do you ride in?

Lucky enough to be sponsored by Crank Cycles who absolutely love fixing stuff when I miss landings and find the flat. Kona Grassroots, for bikes….of course. Spank Bikes Grassroots, and Eclective Clothing

Can you give us a break down of the full spec of your bike?

I’ll start at the front-

Kona Operator frame
Spank Spike Vibrocore bars with a Spank Spike Stem
Rockshox Boxxer World Cup forks
Rockshox Vivid rear shock
SRAM carbon crank jobbies
One of those new SRAM DH X01 7 speed rear mechs and cassettes
Shimano Saint brakes
Spank Spike rims laced to some Hope Pro 2’s
Schwalbe Magic Mary rubber

How much does it weigh?

She comes out at about 36lb’s

Have you done any mods to it?

I was really looking forward to having a good fiddle and maybe knock up some mods for the Kona….but it was just absolutely mint out of the box, I just cut the bars and seat post down to fit my midget limbs. Actually I did put an offset bushing in the rear to slacken it out

Any interesting or standout features?

The raddest stuff is the Spank Vibrocore bars, with that magic foam in the middle and the new SRAM X01 gears

Is there a particularly type of track or terrain where the bike really shines?

Not really, goes wicked everywhere downhill!

Where do you practice most?

I spend most of my time at Hindhead, Rogate, Aston Hill…the South doesn’t have very many hills so I end up at different places all over

Sum up your bike in three words

So freaking fast!

Thanks Chris. Good luck for the season!

Photos by Ross Bell