Technically, the new Devinci Minus RS snow fat bike was finished this summer, but they didn’t bother telling anyone about it until now because it’s meant to be a winter bike, made to ride through really, really cold weather. It’s also meant to be affordable, because these types of things are typically a second or third bike, not your primary. But they still wanted good spec because they’re going to be riding it themselves. After all, Devinci’s headquarters is pretty far north, so their “snow” season typically runs November through April.
That’s why it’s full rigid, because in the snow you don’t really need suspension. And the brakes are mechanical because it gets -40ºC (also -40ºF, coincidentally) there, and they say mineral oil didn’t work and and DOT fluid hydraulic brakes simply didn’t perform that well in those temps.
Drift past the break to plow into the details…
The Avid BB5 mechanical brakes also helped them keep the cost down so they could put the money into an XT rear derailleur and SLX shifter. They’re paired with a Samox alloy crankset with a 24t chainring. It comes as a 1×10 only, and only in one build. It’s meant as a winter snow bike, so they didn’t want the complications of a front derailleur, and the 1×10 drivetrain gave them the range they needed.
The hubs are good, too, running Salsa sealed bearing hubset with 135mm front and 190mm rear spacing. And the tires are Vee Tire Co.’s tubeless ready Bulldozer 26×4.7 for plenty of flotation. The rims, however, are not tubeless ready.
From the looks of it, you could probably squeeze a bit more rubber there, just watch for chain clearance when at the top of the cassette. The alloy fork has a tapered steerer, so you can upfit it with a Bluto or other suspension fork. Devinci’s rep said the geometry is not an exact match for a suspension fork, but that it’s close and adding one shouldn’t negatively affect handling.
Other winter-oriented spec is a 720mm handlebar. That’s a bit narrower than what trail riders might be used to these days, but they ride them on tight snowshoe trails, so they needed to be able to wiggle through without clipping the bars on the trees.
The overall goal of the bike was to simply add another season of riding. Retail is $1,599USD or 1,800CAD. It’ll ship to dealers starting in November, just in time for the snow.
For those of you a little further south, check out their first gravel road bike and the new Hendrix enduro mountain bike released over the past two months.
