There can’t be many brands that can boast a National DH title on a first outing of a bike, so announcing that Joe Connell has just taken the 2024 Masters Scottish National DH title on a Privateer Gen 2 161 is really something! Even more so when you consider this is Joe’s first race of the season after his major injury, which ended his season early in 2023.
Over the off-season, Joe has been rehabilitating both on and off the bike and while he still has some pain in his leg after breaking both his Tibia and Fibula in Chatel ahead of the EDR last season, he’s managed to get back up to race pace already.
This is Joe’s second podium on the Gen 2 Privateer 161. His first was to take the win at Ard Rock 2023, and now he's added the Scottish National Champs to his accomplishments.
The bike Joe raced and won at Ae Forest is a pre-production Gen 2 sample frame, using a custom link on the standard 161 shock to produce a whopping 200mm of rear wheel travel to match the Fox 40 dual crown fork up front. The Gen 2 161 platform is dual crown rated out of the box and with a simple modification (simply removing the spacer from the stock rear shock), you can increase the rear travel from 161mm to 174mm. In fact, we expect Joe to race certain UK downhill rounds in this configuration, one that all Privateer Gen 2 161 owners can easily take advantage of.
But we wanted to really push the Gen 2 platform's capabilities, and we’re keen to help Joe race at more European downhill races throughout 2024 to prove the durability of our latest hard-hitting enduro rig.
We’ll be releasing more details of our prototype DH bike over the course of this year, so be sure to keep an eye on the Privateer socials and website for more details coming soon.
Well done, Joe! And thanks to @digital_downhill for the photos!
