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PBE14: Tricky Fenix Full Size, Folding Travel Bike Switches Easily Between Road & Mountain Builds

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The Fenix Macleod is just plain different in the best possible way. They’re the green bikes in the foreground and they use the same frame, yet can be set up with road or mountain bike parts. Or any combination of the two (think monster cross). Why? Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes ya don’t. Either way, they’ll travel with you in a very compact package and give you the freedom to not only bring your bike with you, but bring exactly the kind of bike you’ll need!

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That’s a complete bike in a fairly small box. Here’s how it works:

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The rear triangle detaches at the top then pivots around the bottom bracket’s inner shell, which holds a standard threaded BB.

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A brace behind the seat tube helps stiffen up the rear triangle. It’s designed around mechanical disc brakes and 1x drivetrains. There are cable couplers throughout for front and rear brakes and the rear derailleur, which not only makes packing the bike up easier but allows the switch between road and mountain bike shifters and handlebars while keeping the rest of the drivetrain the same. They say there’s no degradation in shifting performance using a coupler on that cable, and there’s an inline barrel adjuster to help ensure everything’s fine tuned.

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For road drop bar setups, they offer a universal bar end shifter of their own design. Above is a prototype, below is something closer to production.

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The bar end version mounts where its name suggests. The one on the right is for downtube mounts, similar to how some slopestyle riders sometimes mount their mountain bike trigger shifters. So, these parts could see use outside of their own bikes, too.

Or you could use a traditional road shifter/brake lever or, as seen in the video at bottom, they’re running a standard SRAM mountain bike trigger shifter.

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Or, you could set it up with Di2 and make it even easier to plug ‘n’ play between road and mountain bike, like they did here:

Framesets are available in medium, large and XL for $2,175. Complete bikes will be available in the future.

FenixBykes.com

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Tim Mallard
9 years ago

Just to add some info. the bar end Shifters pictured are 3D printed on our Makerbot Replicator 2X out of ABS Plastic. Its a great tool for Fenix Bykes to leverage. This winter we will be CNC machining the final version of the shifters our of aluminum in house! Check out http://fenixbykes.com/ for more info to come.

Gunnstein
Gunnstein
9 years ago

Not a folding bike, but a take-apart bike. Personally I prefer a folder since it folds quickly, even with racks and fenders, but as far as take-apart bikes go this looks like a smart concept. Hard to put a full size bike in a smaller box than that.

Mr. P
9 years ago

Road / gravel / mtb? Pretty cool.

So am I reading correctly that to switch from MTB to road is just tire changes and a handlebar change?

You got your chocolate in my peanut butter!

P

mudrock
mudrock
9 years ago

Having to remove the tires is a deal-killer. And you would have to remove the crank to take it apart. They don’t show those minor details. I’ll take the Ritchey over that.

mudrock
mudrock
9 years ago

Looking again, i see the two frame assemblies pivot on the BB, after unbolting the seatstays at the rear dropout! very clever, But they still have to fix the tire problem.

pdxfixed
pdxfixed
9 years ago

i don’t want my road bike and my mountain bike to have the same geometry.

Gunnstein
Gunnstein
9 years ago

@mudrock Yes, but to get it into that little box they still did remove the cranks.

Scott@Fenix Bykes
9 years ago

@pdxfixed The Macleod has PMW sliding dropouts so the chain stay length and wheelbase are adjustable. Here is a link to the Macleod’s frameset page that goes over the frames geometry in great detail: http://fenixbykes.com/macleod-frameset-3
The Macleod also has an eccentric BB so the BB height is also adjustable. To prove out the Macleod as a both a road and mountain bike over the past two years I have done the following big organized rides:
2013: Prouty (road century ride), D2R2 160K (gravel century ride with 10,000+ft of climbing) and the VT50 (50 mile mountain bike race).
2014: Prouty Ultimate (2-day, 200 mile ride)

In addition to being able to adjust the frames geometry, local framebuild Ted Wojcik is building the frames to order so custom geometry is also available.

dually
dually
9 years ago

The geometry is a compromise between the two. The chainstay length can be adjusted. Longer for mtn, shorter for road. It took a couple rides to get used to riding a rigid bike, now I’m PRing a ton of my segments on Strava with this rig! Cranks are easy to remove, its a single 8mm bolt. You dont need to touch the BB.

slambo
slambo
9 years ago

But..but..N+1

Andy
Andy
9 years ago

How do the account for the approximately 3″ difference in top tube length between equivalently sized flat and drop bar bikes?

mplsrider
mplsrider
9 years ago

i don’t want my road bike to have disc brakes.

Veganpotter
Veganpotter
9 years ago

As the owner of an S&S coupled bike…I don’t need to take my cranks off but I do anyway. Why? Its easy enough, and it makes the boxing go much more smoothly. Tires? No biggie either. You’re always welcome to leave your bike at home, rent a decent bike for $75+ per day or pay $150 each way to fly with a normal bike box.

MPLSRivers
MPLSRivers
9 years ago

One of the best things I’ve seen on BR in a long time.

jt
jt
9 years ago

Also note… brake rotors removed. Disc brakes not ideal for travel bikes. Too much work to take them off, too easily damaged if left on when packed.

dually
dually
9 years ago

rotors do not need to be removed. flip the wheels so the rotor faces towards the inside of the case.

buriedundersnow
buriedundersnow
9 years ago

I, on the other hand, like the thought of my road bike having mountain geometry…different courses for different horses, I suppose.

King County
King County
9 years ago

Super clever.

Ol' Shel'
Ol' Shel'
9 years ago

Don’t forget to factor in the added inches of reach that come with drop bars.

Drop bar mtbs have crazy tall stems with almost no horizontal length.

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