INTERBIKE 2009 – In addition to the new Izalco Team road bike and Mares cyclocross bike, Focus had their new 2010 Raven Extreme carbon hardtail race-level mountain bike.
The Raven Extreme won a Eurobike Gold Award for it’s unique features, including an internally mounted rear brake mount and internal “tunnel” cable routing, which it shares (along with it’s rear stays design) with the $10,000 Izalco Team road bike.
It’s a hyper-efficient, lightweight race rig that’s gorgeous to look at…and look you may: plenty o’ pics, specs and weight after the break…
Fully built, it weighs in at 19lb 7oz…with bar ends!
One of the unique features of the bike is the internal cable “tunnels” running through the downtube. The tunnel creates a ridge along each side and guides the cables over the bottom bracket rather than under like traditional housing would. For the rear brakes, it pops out next to the tire. Normally, you may think “hmmm…shouldn’t it be running down the seat stay to meet up with the brake caliper?” Normally, yes, but…
…on the Focus Raven, the brakes are mounted in a forward-and-slightly-downward position. The extra space for the calipers is created by having a tall dropout section. This shortens the amount of housing required…
…which for the rear derailleur should mean more exact performance, not to mention slightly less weight.
The housing’s normal ferrules slide into the frame guides, then the cables run through the fixed internal tunnels. They’re Teflon coated to keep things sliding smoothly. The seat tube is a normal round shape, allowing for traditional derailleur clamps.
The Raven has a BB30 bottom bracket shell, and the downtube is nearly as wide as the shell.
Tapered 1-1/8″ to 1-1/2″ headtube. The front derailleur cable is internally run as well, but it goes along the top tube.
The seatstays flare out slightly in a wishbone shape and almost melt into the top tube where they meet the seat tube. Very, very smooth.
As shown here, the Raven Extreme is spec’d with DT Swiss XRC Carbon wheels rolling on Continental Race King Supersonics, SRAM XX, Rockshox SID World Cup XX, FSA carbon seatpost and handlebar, FSA alloy stem and a Fizik Tundra saddle. MSRP is $8,600 and it’ll be available in the U.S. in early 2010.
Frame only weight is a claimed 1,075g, but you can’t order that in the U.S. anytime soon…look for framesets for all Focus bikes to be coming later next year.
