– [Kate] I think the season has definitely gone a bit better than expected. (upbeat music) (crowd cheering drowns out speaker) (upbeat music) The right bike set up can
make just a huge difference in terms of confidence and how hard you’re willing to push on race day. – [Brad] So, from my side,
instructions are as follows. Tell me how all this stuff
goes when you come back. – [Kate] Oh right, because I’m on a new bike. This year we’ve spent
a lot of time testing and that’s something I’m a bit new to, so we’ve tested tyres at
ridiculous tyre pressures, we’ve tested my suspension
at all different settings and on different terrain, and I think for me it’s
just about learning and understanding what works best for me, what seems to be the fastest and finding the best kind of balance
between those things to get me comfortable and able to
push the bike further than I maybe ever could before. (rock music) – [Brad] I’m Brad Copeland, I’m Kate Courtney’s handler and also occasional mechanic. When we get to a race, obviously we set the bike
up like we always do using the baseline settings
that we have established, and then I just turn her loose and say, “Go ride and tell me how
the bike feels today”. – [Brad] Bye.
– [Kate] Hey. Often on a new track we’ll
change tyre pressure, or we’ll change suspension set-up. A couple other things
we sometimes play with, if its not hot, I’ll
take the bottle cage off, especially for short track. Often times there’s just little
tweaks that need to be made. I think anything new takes
a while to get used to and takes some testing. For me one of the biggest
changes was just the, the layout of my cockpit,
so I have the SRAM AXS shifter on the right, I had the dropper post, we’ve done with the blip button under the grip, and I have the TwinLoc
suspension under my bar, on the left side. And so obviously that’s a lot of different buttons to be pressing, working with Brad has allowed
me to make those things really intuitive and comfortable and put them in places that make sense and where I can reach them and nail it every time when I’m in a race. – [Brad] When in doubt, go balls out. – [Kate] You just… – [Brad] I recommend not
stopping in this one though. Be better to stay on the bike
– no just stay down, I know. – [Brad] Our relationship
is more than just, you know, a rider and a mechanic. Way to go Kate, push hard now! – [Kate] I think for me the hashtag “fun is fast” is not just kind of a joke, I think it’s actually really true, and it’s true of how our entire team approaches elite performance. (rhythmic rock music) we never change my set-up on race day. By the time I take the start
line I know that I have the best set-up possible, and
I can take that confidence forward and be ready to race. (energetic rock music) (crowd cheering drowns out speaker)