In our Go Carbon or Go Home story, we asked a handful of smaller manufacturers if it was possible to stay relevant in today’s industry without a carbon bike. If you haven’t checked it out, it’s well worth a read as we got some great responses from Niner, Foes, Transition, Intense, Pivot, Moots, and Turner. While Turner said they would continue to create extremely high quality, alloy, made in the US frames, they did mention that they had made the decision to pursue carbon fiber. At the time of our story, Turner said they didn’t even know what kind of bike they were planning to build out of the new material but they did know it wouldn’t replace anything in the line stating, “We’re going to place the carbon bikes in our line where we feel they’re most advantageous to the type of rider they’re aimed at. We’re going to look at those people who are hyper conscious about saving every gram they can.”
Now, roughly 9 months later this carbon prototype has been popping up around the web. Jump past the break for another photo and more details.
UPDATES: We’ve heard from one person in the industry it’ll be called the Czar. And that fork on the top pic is a SID, which maxes out at 100mm for the 29ers, so it’s a good bet this is 100mm travel. Looks like the Rockshox SID will also be getting the black anodized stanchions along with the new Pike forks!
Supposedly, this carbon proto covered in a coat of orange was spotted being ridden by Dave Turner himself out at some local trails in California. Speculation is all we have for now, but by the looks of it, it is a 29er similar to the Sultan platform. However, while the Sultan has 125mm of travel, this looks like it may have a little less, maybe 100mm? Since the Sultan is considered a 29 trail bike, offering a 29 XC/Race bike would keep in line of Turner telling us the carbon model wouldn’t replace any alloy versions.
More when we have it.
Thanks to Dean for the tip.
