Commencal already brought big 29″ wheels to their Supreme DH bike at the end of last year. And they told us “an enduro bike is just a DH bike that knows how to climb” when they last overhauled their core all-mountain racing Meta AM. So it’s little surprise that the popular alloy enduro bike was slated for the same wagon wheel treatment.
Commencal Meta AM 29 big wheeled enduro bike
Those big wheels roll over any obstacle in their path, and with updated modern trail geometry a 29er Meta can maintain maneuverability through the tech sections.
Details remain thin on the new 29″ bike, but it looks to take all of the tech developed on the latest Meta AM v4.2 and steps it up to bigger wheels. That means we should expect long, low & slack enduro geometry, starting off near the 65.5° head angle of the 27.5″ bike.
Major Updates – 29″ vs. 27.5″
The subtle camo bike we’ve been previewed is build up with a 2019 RockShox Lyrik RC2 fork with DebonAir, and shown in the 160mm travel setup.
Out back appears to be a Super Deluxe Coil RCT shock. It is unclear if the frame will get matching rear wheel travel like the Meta AM v4.2, or 10mm less in the rear like Commencal’s 29″ Meta Power e-bike does?
We would have expected the chainstay length to grow past the 437mm of the current 27.5″ bike to fit that big Schwalbe rubber inside. But the Meta AM 29 uses a completely different rear end with a kinked seattube that pulls the rear wheel in tighter to the bottom bracket. I wouldn’t be surprised to even see a shorter chainstay on the new 29er version of the bike.
Tech details
The new Meta AM 29 moves the main swingarm pivot back several centimeters, now behind the bottom bracket, and brings the lower rocker pivot forward at the same time. Overall the faux-bar, single-pivot suspension design with its rocker & yoke driving the shock is fundamentally the same, just with revised geometry.
The new alloy frame still shares metric shock sizing and Boost rear spacing. It even gets the same reworked 3-piece toptube design to more smoothly integrate either piggy back air or coil shocks in. It also carries over the newer, cleaner seatstays setup of the Meta AM v4.2, now with a less angular rocker link.
The tapered headtube frame still features integrated downtube & chainstay protection, plus revised modular internal cable routing, including several new ports like one for an air shock lockout, as well as others we’re not quite sure about (Fox Live maybe?)
We suspect that Commencal will let loose some more details soon, perhaps this weekend over beers at Sea Otter?
Full update with design, suspension, pricing & spec details now available here…
