Downamics

World cup level data acquisition & analysis service available for every level of racer & rider who wants to go faster & find the optimum setup.

10/03/2026

The first proof print of the book has been ordered!

Although the editing stage is still on-going, a proof print allows me to check the formatting, image quality, colours and cover artwork. Meaning if there's any issues here, they can be addressed now and reduce the chance of delays.

It's really exciting to know a physical copy will be in my hands in a week's time.

I want to give a huge thanks to everyone who has already pre-ordered a copy. Currently there are 112 copies already allocated to people, which blows my mind! 🤯

There's also only 5 days left to secure your pre-order at the early bird price of £74.99. From March 15th the book will then sell for the retail price of 94.99.

06/03/2026

I posted a story earlier this week to see if anyone could guess what these white dots are for.
There were some very creative guesses but no right answers.

These are NFC stickers, which are basically stickers that can hold a small amount of data. So in the case of these ones, they hold all my current shock settings and service info, front end geo and cockpit setup and fork settings and service info.

These are only as good as your ability to keep them updated, but if you're out testing, then you can make changes, update the sticker and then you don't lose track of anything.

Most don't work when stuck to metal, like these ones, so you need another material to put them on or get metal friendly versions, but these usually have less memory.

Not essential, but I've found it a very useful way to keep track of changes I make and especially service intervals.

05/03/2026

A few changes to the rig, and an awesome sunset obviously means we need another video!

The Sego now has the benefit of running the very impressive Telum.
The frame has also gone through the Downamics Factory Race Programme, resulting in a bike that now says under its own weight.
There are additional parts currently being manufactured which should bring further gains...keep an eye out for these later.

There are now .mtb Advocate brakes, running Green pads but now with Hel's own rotors.

haven't just booked me up with new helmets and goggles, but also their grips and pedals.

The Dorado fork has also had extensive work again, with an improved 3 stage stanchion polish, bushing resizing, improved lubrication and an additional 48 dimples drilled into each stanchion, which has led to a fork that has sensitivity like no other.

There is currently an extensive testing programme planned for next 6 months which largely involves running the bike in this spec, which is certainly no bad thing.

04/03/2026

The Curse of Moto...but this comes from a fan of Moto too!

Mountain biking has spent years trying to apply motocross solutions to mountain bike problems. The trouble with this is that the physics are very different — a World Cup downhill track averages 22-25% gradient, whereas a motocross track is fundamentally flat. The mechanism to drive the vehicles are different, which impacts the behaviour of both masses (the rider and the bike), and those masses interact in vastly different ways with each other. This is to just name a couple of the issues. Not everything from Moto translates to MTB, and arguably, very little is actually relevent to MTB if you analyse the two sports correctly.

We can learn a lot from Moto, and we have done, however mountain biking needs its own engineering language that doesn't rely on what happens in Moto as the blueprint for the direction MTB needs to be heading.

Chapter 30 of Data Driven Descents makes this case in full. It's the most opinionated chapter I've written — and I think it's one of the most important.Pre-order link in bio.

03/03/2026

People see the race runs, but they don't always see the hours before — the sensor checks, the data review from practice, the setup changes between runs based on what the numbers are saying and conversations with the riders.

Chapter 27 of the book covers the full trackside workflow. What you check before the day starts, how you review data between runs, and how you make setup decisions under time pressure.

Pre-order at £74.99 — 13 days left at this price. Link in bio.

02/03/2026

THANK YOU! 🤯

When I put the pre-order up I genuinely didn't know what the response would be. 93 of you have already placed an order. That's 93 people who will have this on their shelf in April. 👊

It's literally blown my mind the level of interest that's been shown in the book and I can't thank you all enough. 🙏👏

If you've been on the fence — the early-bird price of £74.99 is open until 15th March. After that it moves to £94.99. Link in bio.

01/03/2026

The Downamics Chassis Flex and Dynamics report!

This allows for easy and quick analysis of various combinations of chassis variables.
We can see how much energy is in The System, how that energy is transferred throughout the chassis, how related the various combinations are and across the 3 different axes available.

It makes understanding chassis dynamics a much easier process.

As with all these tools, they're constantly a work in progress, but this one is pretty exciting I think.

27/02/2026

Data Driven Descents as well as my own career in mountain biking is largely down to this man, Dave Garland.

Dave built the Stendec system — the first DAQ platform designed specifically for mountain biking. He's the main reason I got into this, why Downamics exists, and the reason this book was written. He tragically passed away in November 2020, before he could see how far data acquisition in mountain biking had come.

He was incredibly generous with knowledge and time, and spent countless hours on the phone with me. He would teach me about reading graphs, valuable combinations of channels and sharing his experience as one of the best mechanics in world cup racing.

If this book does what it's supposed to do, it's in part because of what he started. Pre-order link in bio.

26/02/2026

Here's a look inside the book!

460 pages. 31 chapters. 8 parts covering everything from DAQ system selection and installation through to frequency domain analysis and race engineering workflow. The first book ever written on data acquisition in mountain biking.

Pre-order at the early-bird price before 15th March — link in bio.

25/02/2026

Your suspension isn't just moving up and down. Every compression event, every rebound, every impact — it's all measurable. This is the kind of analysis that's been in motorsport for decades 🚙🏍️
Chapter 22 of the book breaks down exactly how to read it on your own bike. Part 6 (chapters 24, 25 & 26) also cover working with raw data and analysis methods outside of your systems software. This means you can look at suspension outside of position and speed and start to look at frequencies and energies 🤯

Pre-order link in bio with early bird price until 15th March.

datadrivendescents

22/02/2026

The System GG Diagrams:
Every single moment of a descent, plotted.
Each dot = one instant. Colour = speed. The further from centre, the harder the force.

Key numbers:
→ Front axle peak: 8.82 g longitudinal / 3.22 g lateral | 95th-pct: 9.31 g.
→ Frame peak: 3.84 g longitudinal / 2.41 g lateral | 95th-pct: 4.40 g
→ Rear axle peak: 5.91 g longitudinal / 2.95 g lateral | 95th-pct: 6.51 g

✅ Front axle to frame assembly is isolating 56% longitudinal and 25% lateral — more than half the trail forces never reach the rider
✅ Rear axle to frame assembly is isolating 35% longitudinal and 18% lateral — less prone to the same forces as the front.
🚲 The frame is subjected to around half the forces that the axles are.

This is as a combined result of the tyre compliance and deformation, spoke/wheel flex, fork stanchion and rear triangle flex, bearing and bushing play, frame flex and yes, some suspension contribution (mainly vertical, some longitudinal via dive/squat).

The tall, narrow shape means this trail is brake-heavy and steep — way more stopping forces than side-to-side cornering loads. Technical chunk, not flow.

17/02/2026

not only look after my head, eyes and limbs, but now I'm testing some of their parts too.

We've got flat pedals, clip pedals, grips and stems to plan into the testing programme now. I really enjoy product testing, feedback and development. it's just as rewarding as working on setup, chasing performance gains and optimising The System as Product testing plays into all these aspects.

Massive thanks to for the refresh on helmets and goggles and keen to see how these other bits stack up.

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Andover

Website

http://www.downamics.com/

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