News just in sports fans, Sam Hill will race an enduro bike at this weekend’s UCI Downhill World Championships in Cairns Australia.
Sam Hill’s focus is on enduro these days and as unusual as it may seem to the old school fans, he spends way more time on an enduro bike these days than a downhill bike.
Regardless of his new focus, Sam raced the Fort William World Cup and scored 18th place which earned him a place on the Australian World Championship squad.
Sam has of course won World Champs 5 times in the past, so he’s not out of place on the start sheet.
To celebrate his place on the team, Nukeproof have brought together a special edition and one-off World Championship Nukeproof Mega for him to race.
The bike is a killer green to gold fade with gold leaf and flakes in the paint. The green is a little nod to Sam’s Ossie national colours and the gold is to recognise that he’s a World Champ and is leading the overall Enduro World Series.
According to Nukeproof, Sam is comfortable enough on his Mega to race World Champs but (just in case) will have a Nukeproof Pulse downhill bike waiting in the wings if he decides that it’s faster. The Pulse will also have custom graphics.
Sam’s World Champs bike is a Nukeproof Mega 275 C. The bike is a prototype version of the Mega and looks like it has an alloy swing arm and a carbon front triangle.
Sam is running the standard 160mm travel on the rear with a 180mm RS Lyrik fork up front.
Exactly as he would for enduro, Sam is running a dropper post. We’ll be interested to see if he gets a chance to use it on track!
He’s running 2.35″ Mavic tires, as he would at an Enduro World Series.
Gearing has been tweaked for downhill racing and is SRAM XO1 with a 7 speed cassette.
The custom paint job was created by custom frame painter Johnny at Refurbmybike, Belfast.
Sam’s signature Nukeproof Horizon pedals will have anodised green one-off pins for a little bit of extra ‘straya flair.
Sam will also run his usual signature Nukeproof bar and grips, the same as he would for enduro.
… and just in case you were wondering. Sam has previously won World Champs at …
- 2002 Kaprun, Austria (Junior)
- 2003 Lugano, Switzerland (Junior)
- 2006 Rotorua, New Zealand
- 2007 Fort William, Scotland
- 2010 Mt Saint Anne, Canada
Photos thanks to Nukeproof and Fraser Britton.
