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Canfield Brothers Whip Out their First Carbon All-Mountain 29er with even Screamier Short Chainstays

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Canfield Brothers EPO

From the folks that don’t break the mold, but instead make it from scratch, Canfield Brothers have taken their pretty damn playful, all-mountian, hard tail 29er, the Yelli Screamy, and busted out with a carbon version. Does the new Canfield EPO (cause this thing is dope?) take what is already a proven platform to the next level?

Tailwhip past the kicker to see their reason for developing the EPO, to check its specs, as well as a video of Nick Simcik taking it for a little shred…

Canfield Brothers EPO 3

Canfield Brothers hit the full-suspension-littered, all-mountain world hard when they came out with the Yelli Screamy all-mountain hard tail 29er. The Yelli was the first ever 29er with a sub 17″ chainstay making it one of, if not the most playful 29ers on the market. The EPO is the Brothers’ first take on a carbon bike, and it was not without a lot of thought. They spent more than two years testing and developing a variety of carbon-fiber molds, weaves, and layups to ensure that the EPO was tough enough to wear their skull head badge. Despite it being a whopping 1.5 lbs lighter than their aluminum Yelli Screamy, Canfield have made it clear that the EPO follows suit with the durability and strength of their downhill and freeride heritage.

Canfield Brothers EPO 2 Canfield Brothered EPO 4

Keeping with the Yelli Screamy’s aggressive all-mountain geoemtry, the EPO’s headtube angle comes in at 66.8°, (with a 140mm fork), and likely due to the more flexible design attributes of carbon fiber, they managed to reduce those already insanely short chainstays by an additional 0.4 inches! The EPO’s 16.3″ chainstays built into the substantially lighter frame will surely enhance its playfulness.

Canfield Brothers EPO Blue Canfield Brothers EPO Red

The Canfield Brothers’ EPO comes in just a medium & a large in matte black with white, blue, or red graphics.

Canfield EPO 7

From the Brothers:

“As a high-end brand focused on technology and performance, carbon fiber is a natural evolution for our product line. But with our background in downhill and freeride, strength and durability will always come out ahead of weight savings for us,” said Lance Canfield, co-owner and designer.

“That said, you’ll find this bike climbs surprisingly well, but we don’t believe that just because you’ve got miles to burn, you should feel like you’re on a road bike. The geometry was designed to be fun and playful—especially when pointed down—just like all of our bikes. The EPO is all about ‘injecting’ carbon hardtails with some fun.”

 

Canfield Brothers EPO Geo

Like the Yelli Screamy, the EPO is designed to use 140mm, 120mm, and even 100mm suspension forks. They even break down the geometry by fork travel to give a sense of its impact on handling. The bike uses a 73mm threaded BB for trouble free setups, gets ISCG05 tabs, an integrated headset, and a 142x12mm rear end with a Maxle included. Canfield claims a weight of 1450g for the frame. The EPO retails for $1500 and is available now in their webstore.

Watch Nick Simcik shred the EPO.

CanfieldBrothers.com

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Tim
Tim
8 years ago

Awesome. I’ve always hoped someone would come out with a carbon fiber short chainstay 29er. Even better is that it is fully front derailleur compatible, so it leaves no one out in the cold. And the cable routing is external. And the bottom bracket is threaded. In other words, everything about the bike is practical and intended to be low maintenance.

haromania
haromania
8 years ago

Cool bike, and yet another review without mentioning how wide of a tire it holds. Inquiring minds want to know this stuff more than ever now.

boom
boom
8 years ago

@haromania +1. I’ve been geeking out on a Trek Stache lately, with the 420mm chainstays (and comes stock with a 3.0″ tire). This bike is intriguing, but seriously doubt it can fit a bigger tire with that short of stays and clearance for a FD.

Ck
Ck
8 years ago

@haromania – I went digging for this info because it’s definitely something that needs mentioned. At the very least i’m seeing a 2.35 Ikon on the back in pictures. Freehub Mag says they ran a 2.5 Minon with some tire rub before switching to a 2.35 Ikon. So lets just say 2.4 clearance.

TheFunkyMonkey
TheFunkyMonkey
8 years ago

Huge Canfield fan; repeat customer… No stealth routing is the most baffling thing. Ever. Otherwise, killer frame and nice that they dropped the price by $200 (early batch were $1700).

Myke
Myke
8 years ago

Tires don’t really matter since they are going to be changed. More important question is tire clearance. You don’t need to do any digging. Just ask the manufacture done

wuffles
wuffles
8 years ago

@haromania
On mine I can fit a 2.5 Minion DHRII on 30mm internal rims in the back, but there’s not much space. Could be an issue if it’s muddy, not so much in the dry.

Canfield Brothers
8 years ago

Thanks for the stoke on our new EPO! Our design goal with this frame was to take what we have done with our Yelli/Nimble 9 and push the envelope even further. We wanted a light and tough carbon frame that was stiff under pedaling, yet compliant enough to take the edge off when charging through rougher terrain. Add a slack HA and super short stays and you have the EPO. While we design for the most tire clearance possible, our short stays was the highest on our priory list of features. That being said, a Maxxis 2.5 will fit, however in muddy conditions you will most likely experience some rubbing. We have been running the 2.35 Ikon and 2.4 Ardent on our demos with plenty of clearance.

On the “+” side of things, there is room for a 27.5″ WTB Trailblazer 2.8 on 45mm Scraper rims. This is fun alternative set up for someone looking for a little more “squish” in their ride. Just be aware, the BB will drop a 1/2″, which may or may not work for everyone.

Cheers!

stefanroussev
stefanroussev
8 years ago

@Boom
I have seen picture of this frame with Scraper rim (27.5 size, 45mm) internal diameter and
Trailblazer tire that is 27.5 X 2.8 size.

bikeduder
bikeduder
8 years ago

This is a cool bike, but I think the geometry might be touch on the extreme side. How much time do you spend going downhill compared to everything else? and Since when were the yelli’s chainstays too long???

Hyper-short chainstays = highsider.

Tim
Tim
8 years ago

@bikeduder- 16″ chainstays on a 26er mean that the bike is very easy to wheelie, sometimes too easy for normal riding. But on a 29er, your bottom bracket axle is actually well below the rear hub axle, which means it’s going to be hard, even with 16.3″ stays, to get the front wheel off the ground.

TheFunkyMonkey
TheFunkyMonkey
8 years ago

@Tim – with regard to the ease (or not) of pulling the front wheel off the ground with 16.3 chainstays on a 29er, I’ve experienced the exact opposite with my Nimble9 with the sliders slammed. Easiest 29er ever to wheelie and manual FWIW. I warned my friend and even so, he ended up on his back… Funny for everyone in the parking lot – no so much for him.

TesSanchez
TesSanchez
8 years ago

its like a carbon version of the Kona Honzo! so cool!

James S
James S
8 years ago

I think it’s awesome – it looks like they increased the reach, which is a good thing. It’s also a lot cheaper than the new titanium version of the Honzo. But there’s one glaring flaw that keeps it off my dream bike list – not single speed compatible. For most people I’m sure that’s okay. But my dream bike would be a much lighter version of my single speed Honzo. Gears are a total buzz killer. I’m actually glad because I really can’t afford a new bike anyway.

Sspiff
Sspiff
8 years ago

+1 on the no SS. I was getting pretty excited there for awhile before the total buzzkill of gears hit.

Tim
Tim
8 years ago

@TheFunkyMonkey- I guess it’s partly relative. My current bike is a 12-year old 26er with a high-ish bottom bracket, 16″ stays, and a relatively short wheelbase. For me the EPO, with a bottom bracket that’s 2″ below the rear hub axle, is gonna be hard to wheelie or manual. My guess is that it’s easier to loft the front wheel on a typical 26er with 16.75″ stays than it is on the EPO, but I might well be wrong.

AbelF
AbelF
8 years ago

Vary cool. Checks all the boxes!!!

Juan Pablo
Juan Pablo
8 years ago

Amazing Bike!
Exactly my thoughts James S!

Ol' Shel'
Ol' Shel'
8 years ago

Nothing beats family money and other people’s good ideas.

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