Over the weekend at the opening Lošinj downhill World Cup, Spanish handbuilt carbon mountain bike maker Unno officially race-christened their super light 27.5″ Unno Ever DH bike. Under their two-Brit factory team, the bike seemed to handle to rough course well, chalking up a solid top-20 performance in its first outing.
Unno Ever superlight 200mm carbon DH bike
Greg Williamson’s 18th place wasn’t a podium by any means, but a solid step up from his 29th place ranking over last season, and a good World Cup start for a bike that was pretty much just a rendering when we first glimpsed it two years ago (after several development prototypes), and only came out of the actual production molds last December.
It isn’t too big of a surprise to see quick success on the downhill track though. The Unno brand and its bikes are a project of Spanish DH racer Cesar Rojo who rode in the top-10 on the World Cup circuit back in the 90s (and took a Masters World Champ title a bit over a decade two years ago on one of his pre-Unno prototype frames). Rojo then went onto design Mondraker’s mountain bikes for almost a decade, developing their long wheelbase, modern trail geometry.
Tech features
The specs of the limited edition carbon Ever list the bike as 200mm of travel. Its dual short-link four-bar actually suspension has been designed with a linear feel to deliver 203mm of rear wheel travel that can be paired with either air or coil shocks to adapt the ride to specific courses. Interestingly, while team riders Williamson and Taylor Vernon had been riding and training on coil shocks leading up to this first World Cup, both ended up racing with rear air shocks which allow more progression tuning through the use of internal spacers, but tend to be less ideal on exceptionally rough race tracks.
The bike is totally designed and laid up by hand in Unno’s own facilities in Barcelona with what Unno calls the highest strength and highest modulus fibers of any found in cycling. That yields a superlight frame, able to withstand the brutal beating of DH racing. Unno doesn’t officially list a frame weight, but claims that the team complete bikes are built up as light as 15kg (33lb).
The Ever sticks with 27.5 wheels, room for 2.5″ tires, and gets a race-ready 63.5° head angle and 440mm chainstays. As of now the DH race bike is only available in a single size with a 455mm reach, 599mm of stack, and a 1245mm wheelbase. That one size fits their two-man pro team riders well (and company founder Rojo apparently), and will make due for the limited production for the time being.
That said, it does seem like Unno has been prioritizing the single, most-popular medium sized molds to get their bikes rolling. As demand sees fit, they are continuously developing more frame & mold sizes to fit a wider range of riders.
Tech details
The bike features machined alloy suspension links that rotate exclusively on sealed Enduro Max full contact bearings, and Unno’s own light alloy axle hardware.
The frame features a molded-in alloy BB insert for a traditional threaded bottom bracket and includes ISCG tabs. It also gets chainstay, seatstay & downtube protectors integrated into the frame.
The frame gets neat internal cable routing through a rubber toptube port behind the headset, and uses 200mm rear brake post mount tabs cleanly tucked around the continuous fiber, reinforced thru-axle drop-out.
That Boost 157 axle design also puts all the clamping hardware outside the frame, so there’s no need for threads or alloy integrated into the carbon structure.
The Ever features a sealed seattube clamp around the uniquely oval shaped carbon seatpost. While a proprietary seatpost on most mountain bikes would be frowned upon (especially in the age of dropper posts), this allowed Unno to develop a super strong and stiff post that offers enough adjustability for varied fit and courses without adding unnecessary weight.
UNNO Factory Racing team bikes
Taking a quick look at the bikes of the UNNO Factory Racing DH team we have seen that they are all fitted with the new Formula Nero R fork with its triple air chambers for super tunability.
Out back the bikes were running a variety of mostly Ohlins rear shocks – in both air & coil varieties. The team says the specifically don’t have a rear shock sponsor to give them more freedom to dial in the perfect shocks & setup throughout this race season.
Other than that the team appears to be racing with Maxxis tires wrapped around prototype carbon rimmed Crankbrothers wheels decaled as SR56 Prototypes. The rims use a reinforced spoke drilling design, and appear to be an evolution of the Bouwmeister Composites design after their engineering got bought up by Crankbrothers‘ parent company Selle Royal last summer.
Cockpit wise the team are running mostly alloy Renthal Fatbars to take advantage of the feel of the 31.6 setup over the stiffer 35mm carbon version. Drivetrain is SRAM XO DH’s 7-speed with e*thirteen cranksets. Braking is provided by Formula’s Cura 4 four piston stoppers.
Pricing & Availability
The new carbon Ever will be available in a single medium size. You should be able to order it directly from the Unno site any day, as they quote April availability.
The Evers are to be sold as a frameset only for 5500€ including a Öhlins shock and the unique seatpost. The bike is produced in a limited edition run of just 50 frames per year.
