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INTERVIEW: Dave Weagle
30th December 2005 - James
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The IronHorse Sunday has taken off in the last year, from an unknown frame, to being up there with the Intense M3 as a benchmark for the perfect race bike. Sam Hill kicked arse on it this year, absolutely destroying the Elite field time and time again. And who do we have to thank for the revolutionary DW-Link? Dave Weagle.
He also runs Evil Bikes, who make some of the craziest designs you will ever see, and e.13 components who produce the best chainguides out there, ever since that 'plastic' bashguard came out its been raved about, and now the competition have realised perhaps its time we slid over the roots, rather than at them? But you cant beat an original.
And he gave up a steady job to make his ideas a reality, and these are the people who push the sport to the next level, those who believe in an idea and put money down to get it working. We pinned Dave down (he's a very busy guy) and managed to get a few questions in, read on...
FTMB: How did you get where you are now? Did you set out to do this from college, university etc?
DW: A lot of hard work really. I was always really into bikes. But when I left college, I never imagined doing what I do now. Going through school, I tailored my curriculum toward a career as an engineer for an F1 team. By the time I graduated, I had met the girl of my dreams and decided I didn't want to pursue the F1 time commitment. I was offered a position working for a defence contractor, started racing bikes, and from there, things just took a natural progression. I started playing with suspensions, eventually worked to develop frames to use them.
Evil Imperial
What makes the bike industry different from other things you were doing, why choose bikes?
There are a lot of differences, but there are a few parallels too.
For differences, the biggest is probably operating budget. Working for a defence contractor allows a certain degree of innovation, and the cost associated with it that is probably enjoyed only by engineers working for top-level race teams and rocket scientists. I operated programs with budgets in the millions of dollars. Exotic materials and new manufacturing processes were the norm. In cycling, I operate in a very different mode. Materials and manufacturing processes are more common, because at the end of the day, someone has to be able to afford to purchase a frame or product. If anything, it makes development more difficult, and I am constantly searching for that new thing that can make whatever product I am working on perform better without skyrocketing the cost. It's an art, for sure. For parallels, I still use the same CAD and FEA packages that I used to use, and the structures are still very optimized. From that perspective, it's a similar thought process. If anything, developing frames and components is a bigger challenge, especially when you really consider and work to optimize and integrate the often misunderstood complexities of suspensions.
The IronHorse SGS was hugely popular, I have one myself! What makes it different from all the other Horst link bikes?
Most 2003/04 SGS riders will say, the bike was/is a pretty special Horst Link bike from a rider's perspective. At the time when Iron Horse contracted me to revamp the suspension, I had been working with dw-link for a couple years, and I knew that there was room for improvement in that bike. I applied some of the design methodology that I pioneered during the development of the dw-link to improve the Horst Link tune on the SGS. There were a few things that made it different from the other Horst Link bikes on the market at the time. First was that from an acceleration standpoint, it had more anti-squat than the other Horst Link bikes on the market. When it accelerated, the bike counteracted mass transfer better than previous models. Second thing was the leverage rate progression. An Achilles' heel of the Horst line is its shock placement. It usually forces a far too progressive initial leverage rate, which lets the bike wallow in the beginning of the travel. I flattened out the leverage rate and tuned it to work with the Progressive shock that the team was racing on. Third thing was that I tuned instant center location to give more predictable braking characteristics.
You've just been to EuroBike, what stood out design wise?
There was a lot of pretty refined looking carbon out there. I've always been a carbon fan, so that was cool to see. All in all, I thought that a lot of the mountain frames on the show floor looked really polished over. For better or worse, there seems to be a trend in frame design to go toward really flowy organic shapes, mostly I think because the technology to do it is now available to anyone. There seems to be renewed energy in the mountain bike segment, riders are excited to ride, and the bike industry is responding with product that is better than ever before, for a better price than ever before. It's a cool time to be involved!
Sunday
Sam Hill is winning race after race on the DW-Link Sunday, what makes it so special? How does it work?!
Sam is just an incredibly gifted rider, one of the best that I have ever seen. He is just so smooth and controlled, it's awesome to watch and work with him. The bike is a tool for Sam. The Sunday and all of the dw-link bikes were designed to be an extension of the rider's body, not some beast that the rider has to fight to tame. The Sunday uses geometry that is pretty low and slack, but not too low and slack. As time moves on, I think we will see the Sunday's geometry emulated over and over and become the "standard" set of geometry numbers for DH bikes of the future. The dw-link suspension is the heart of the frame, and lets us build a chassis that absorbs the little imperfections and big square-edged hits in the trail without wasting energy or traction. The suspension system also makes for a very stiff and lightweight bike, so the end result is a pretty potent package. There is a ton of in-depth suspension information on the dw-link web site, www.dw-link.com.
You were the first to come up with the 'plastic' bashguard and accompanying chain device, but now theres a lot around, what makes the e.thirteen device better?
I think that our dedication to constant improvement is what gives e.thirteen riders the edge. On the bashguard side, we test a lot of competing products to help validate the changes that we make to our components. We've been building polycarbonate alloy bashguards since 2000, and honestly, we have never tested another competing product that can match our original Supercharger from 2000 for strength-to-weight ratio. Since then, we've been through three different and progressively stronger plastic alloys, with our Tuffmax alloy that we introduced at Interbike 2004 leading the way for us now. In addition to our proprietary plastic alloys, we use a proprietary manufacturing process that helps us keep a strong lead in the bashguard performance department. On the Chain Retention System side, The SRS and DRS have been strong since day one. Recently there have been a couple of pretty blatant attempts to "clone" the SRS and DRS, but it's pretty apparent from looking at the clones that the companies who built them didn't understand the problems that the systems work to address. We spend a lot of time and money testing new ideas with our race teams, and these ideas turn into refined products. The results of this process are at their most apparent in the 2006 e.thirteen product line. All of the single ring guides have been redesigned for '06, with all new composite sliders, more mud clearance, even simpler setup, a soft and silent stealth idler, all in a new lighter weight and fresh looking package. Our new LG1 lightweight chainguide won the World Championships, several World Cup Downhill and 4X races, and the European DH Championships. At 195g for a 44T guide, it's incredibly light, and it is 100% interchangeable with the '06 SRS too.
What we will see in 06 from IronHorse, Evil and e.13?
'06 is going to be a great year. On the e.thirteen side, we are really excited about all of the new products. With the LG1 and SRS the only chain retention systems on the men's DH podium at Worlds, and along with all the other wins this year; we really feel like the new guides have proven their worth and are ready for primetime. Worldwide, almost all leading frame manufacturers have adopted the ISCG05 chain guide standard (ISCG05) that we have supported along with all the other companies involved, and that is great for the entire bicycle industry. Colored bashguards are a reality, with translucent orange and translucent red hitting the market sometime in November or December '05. For '06, the Evil family of Lolli, Donahue, Nigel Q, and Hacksaw is still intact for a couple more years, and we will be welcoming a couple new members very soon. We're working on a Hacksaw bike that should be off the charts. I promise that, in true Evil style, it will be totally different than anything that has ever been built before. Iron Horse has a ton of things going on, too many to mention, but dw-link has really been coming into its own. Despite a lesser amount of advertising and marketing than some competitors, a lot of international press has gotten to ride the system now, and the reviews have been awesome, so that makes me feel good. There is a new 6 and 6 dw-link frame called the Type 6 that has been undergoing tests for some time, that promises to release in the spring, and now that all of the new frames are in their second year of production, things are going really smoothly.
 
Bashguards now in two unique flavours!
Suspension seems to be getting bigger and bigger, the 8" 888 was the start of 8 inch forks and everyone said it was too long, and the World Champs was won on a 7 inch 888 last year, is 8 the limit for racing?
I personally ride and race on an 8" fork. I was a little sceptical of the 8" forks at first, but I did some back-to-back testing at Whistler two summers ago, and it convinced me that the extra inch is worth it in front for me. Now I am not Fabien or Sam, so for them it might be a different story, but I really believe that for the majority of riders and courses, 8" is plenty travel. Anything more in the front or rear is generally excessive in my opinion.
Gearbox bikes are making a storm at the moment, GT have one, Honda have a cassette in a box (supposedly) and Nicolai have used them for ages, whats your thoughts on them? Is the rear mech nearing its end?
I think that gearboxes could have some merit in the future, but right now, I don't see any new transmission technology that I am overly excited about. I was an integral part of developing the G-BOXX standard, and developing G-BOXX and the 2013i frame (click here) gave me some insight into these systems that I probably otherwise wouldn't have gotten. Derailleur systems are very efficient and are getting better every day. It will take a very special gearbox system to match derailleurs for performance, cost, and maintenance ease. I have ideas that I am still working on and patenting, but as an industry, we are a ways off in my opinion. Just due to entrenched infrastructure, the derailleur promises to be a bicycle industry mainstay for a long, long time. I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing, but I am looking forward to the new options that time will bring.
Evil Prototype GBOXX
Where can you see bikes going in the future? Lighter with the same travel, or something radical?
As technology and experience grow, I see bicycles becoming lighter to a point, mainly due to the "trickle down effect" with components. Stronger and lighter parts will be available at lower costs, and will build lighter and stronger bikes. Shock technology will continue to improve, and I think that more companies will work to develop semi-passive suspensions more like dw-link for all levels of bicycles.
Big thanks to James, FTMB, and everyone who visits the site. It's support from all of you that keeps me going and keeps me pushing to do what I do. It's all about the ride; that's the most important thing. Keep that in mind and go out and have some fun on your bikes today!
Thanks,
Dave
Go ride.
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