Last year, New Zealand-based Zerode dropped their unique Pinion gearbox, carbon Taniwha enduro bike on the US market. Now a new Taniwha Trail takes that same design and dials it back into a lighter & shorter 140mm of travel, creating a killer all-mountain bike perfectly balanced for shredding trails without maintenance worries.
Zerode Taniwha Trail 140mm carbon gearbox mountain bike
The original Taniwha Enduro pretty much proved the validity of a gearbox driven enduro bike on the EWS circuit, with a wide 600% gearing range (think 1x drivetrain & a 10-60T cassette!), no exposed derailleur to smash, a low & central weight distribution, and overall no maintenance drivetrain. But riders wanted more. Not more travel; they already said the 160mm travel Taniwha Enduro ate up descents like a DH bike. Riders actually requested less travel, and lighter weight. So that’s what Zerode built.
The new Taniwha Trail shares the same overall design concept with a light & stiff carbon frame and a linkage-driven faux-bar single-pivot suspension design, now dialed back to 140mm of travel.
Zerode Taniwha Trail 140mm – Geometry Updates![Zerode Taniwha Trail 140mm travel carbon Pinion gearbox all-mountain trail bike geometry](data:image/svg+xml,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 1500 900"></svg>)
The trail version of the bike had its geometry redesigned to better cater to the needs of a wider swath of the mountain biker population. Not so obvious but most of us aren’t shredding downhills and EWS tracks every weekend. So the shorter 140mm travel Taniwha Trail offers a more versatile, playful ride at home on the technical trails most riders see. In shortening rear wheel travel, the new framesets also get slightly steeper headtube & seattube angles, a shorter wheelbase, and a lowered bottom bracket. Zerode says the geo tweaks “make for a snappier, more responsive ride-feel”, but the bike still claims an aggressive ride that is said to rival longer & slacker bikes.
Like the enduro Taniwha, the new Taniwha Trail uses reach based size naming and comes in three frame sizes – so pick yours based on how stretched out you like to feel on the bike.
Zerode Taniwha Trail 140mm – Tech Details
The Taniwha Trail retains the same German-made Pinion C.Line C1.12 gearbox slung low under the carbon frame and Pinion’s grip shifter.
The 140mm 27.5″ trail / all-mountain bike features 142mm rear hub spacing for use with a single speed hub, a 31.6mm seatpost with internal routing for drivetrain and the dropper post, then external brake routing.
Complete bikes can be built as low as 29 pounds, keeping the bike light enough to climb well, while maintaining its tracking and descending stability.
Zerode Taniwha Trail Pricing & Availability
The Taniwha Trail is still available in the US exclusively through Cycle Monkey. You can get a frameset on its own to build up however you want for $5000. That frameset includes the carbon frame itself, shock, and the complete Pinion drivetrain from cranks to gearbox to the rear cog.
Complete bike build packages are also available that start at $6600, and climb up to around $9500 depending how fancy you want your components, as the frame & drivetrain are effectively unchanged.
Get one of the new bikes now before they get bobbled up in the US. Or check out Cycle Monkey’s North American demo schedule where you can ride the original enduro Taniwha back-to-back with the new Taniwha Trail. Try it before you buy it.
