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