Bionicon isn’t a household name here in the States (though they do have distribution here), but they’ve developed some pretty interesting technology over the years. The latest mighty morphing enduro wonder bike, the 2015 Bionicon Edison EVO, takes adjustability to new heights.
Featuring swappable rocker arms, seatstays, suspension parts and more, the frame lets you set it up with 160mm or 180mm of travel, 26″ or 27.5″ wheels, change suspension parts and adjust ride height and geometry…some of it on the fly. Oh, and it’s lighter than before. They say it’s their best ever bike.
At the heart of the bike is their Bionicon Effect travel adjust system. It pairs custom made forks and shocks with their pneumatic release button to let you instantly adjust the angles of the bike to suit climbing, descending or anything in between. It’s body weight activated, and works minimal effect on suspension performance thanks to their clever 2×2 fork air cartridges and an extending shock mount…
The travel and geometry adjustments happen by simply pushing this button and shifting your weight forward or backward. The button opens an air valve, letting air transfer from a chamber in the fork to the shock’s extending mount and vice versa. Put your weight over the bars and it’ll drop the fork and raise the rear end to help you climb.
The 2×2 cartridge gets its name from its dual positive air chambers. It’s a floating design, and you can fill each chamber separately to fine tune the feel and progression of the suspension. The upper chamber feeds the travel adjust hoses, too, while the bottom chamber is separate and only functions for the suspension.
The air is pushed from the forks upper chamber to the shock mount, which extends the mount to raise the rear end of the bike. Shock damping, spring rate and air pressure is unaffected, so its performance doesn’t change.
The seat and head angles get steeper, and the bottom bracket height also stays about the same, allowing better clearance than on bikes that are only lowering the fork.
The overall effect is that the fork is lower, the rear is higher and your body position is more neutral for climbing. That means less uncomfortable hunching to keep your weight forward.
The bike is built around that system, but they’ve made an adapter available to work with other shocks, too, including Cane Creek’s Double Barrel models. You’ll just lose the travel adjust.
Headset cups let you run dual crown or standard tapered single-crown forks.
Rear suspension travel is adjustable by swapping rocker links. Bionicon shied away from adjustable bolt positions for the same reason they left replaceable derailleur mounts off the table: Strength and stiffness. To switch wheel sizes, select the appropriate fork and swap in the appropriate seatstay. Each wheel size gets a dedicated stay so that everything’s where it should be.
MODELS
Shown above with the different wheel sizes, you’ll be able to pick one of two options for everything: Complete or frameset, red or gray, 26″ or 27.5″, 160mm or 180mm travel, and Spec 0 or Spec 1. All 26″ bikes get the Bionicon Double Agent dual crown fork and 27.5″ forks get a custom X-Fusion Metric HLR with 2×2 air cartridge. Both run a Magura TS RC shock.
Spec 0 gets a SRAM Guide RSC brakes, X01 drivetrain, DT Swiss or Novatec wheels (models vary by wheel size and travel), Schwalbe tires, KindShock LEV dropper post, Answer handlebar, house brand stem and Ergon GA1 grips. Retail is €3,500, but they’re running a pre-order special for €2,500 through August 31, 2014 for the first 200 orders.
Spec 1 runs X9, SRAM Guide R brakes, DT Swiss wheels and Schwalbe tires, Answer bar and Ergon grips. Retail is €2,900. Framesets get standard Rockshox suspension parts and retail for €1,900. Now, more pics:
