Aaron Gwin's 2017 World Cup YT Tues CF 24

While we were spending a morning with Aaron Gwin, recording his Inside Line podcast (which launches Wednesday, March 22), we were able to feast our eyes on his 2017 YT TUES CF downhill bike - the bike he'll be racing this year at the UCI World Cup.

An in-depth discussion with Aaron Gwin about his 2017 YT TUES CF

Aside from the subtle-but-stunning industrial silver and black paint job, there were a few notable items on the bike:

• Custom carbon seat stay that are 5mm longer than stock. Vital product geek, Fred Robinson, pointed out an interesting photo from World Champs in Val di Sole: one of Gwin's bikes at Val di Sole was fully stock and another had custom, aluminum seat stays. Gwin admitted that he rode the custom stays at World Champs on race day. He had ridden the YT TUES fully stock for the entire season until World Champs. The 5mm-longer rear end is for testing right now and he's not positive yet if he'll run it this season. He feels the length helps on some courses, but not necessarily all courses, and he only wants one bike to ride all season rather than different bikes for different courses. He will decide after Fontana this weekend and Bootleg the next on what will stick around for 2017.
  
• Gwin has actually trimmed his bars down 5mm to 785mm wide from 790mm.
  
• The TRP brakes are now the full production models.
  
• The Onza Aquila tires are the production models which should be available to the public around Sea Otter.
  
• Vital's other product guru, Brandon Turman, noticed the compression adjuster on his FOX 40 looks new, part of the FOX RAD program. He believes it is simpler to use, appearing to be a single adjuster versus independent high- and low-speed compression adjustments we've seen in the past.
  
• The most obvious is the coil shock, a FOX DHX2. Gwin jokes, "Maybe I'm getting old. I want a slightly softer set up." The coil vs. air shock, like the seat stays, are currently undecided, too.
  

Gwin's YT TUES CF build breakdown

• Frame: TUES CF, Size Large in Liquid Metal
• Fork: FOX 40
• Rear Shock: FOX DHX2 10.5 x 3.5 with 325-pound spring
  
• Rear Derailleur: SRAM X01 DH
• Cassette: E13 7-spd DH 9-21
• Chain: SRAM XX1
• Shifter: SRAM X01 DH
• Cranks: E13 LG1 Carbon, 170mm
• Chain Ring E13 LG1 32T
• Chainguide: E13 LG1 Carbon
• Headset: Acros AiX 326
• Stem: Renthal Integra, 50mm. 0degrees, 31.8mm
  
• Handlebars: Renthal Fatbar Carbon, 30mm rise, 785mm
• Brakes: TRP G-Spec Quadium
• Grips: ODI Pro Lock-on
• Wheels: E13 LG1 DH 27.5
• Tires: Onza Aquila DH 27.5 x 2.4
• Flat Tire Defender foam insert (stay tuned for our feature on this)
  
• Seatpost: SDG Carbon I-Beam 30.9mm
• Seat: SDG I-Fly 2.0, YT Mob Gripper
• Pedals: HT X2
  

Stay tuned for Vital MTB's The Inside Line podcast with Aaron, dropping Wednesday, March 22.