Commencal’s new Downhill mountain bike comes in mullet form with a 29″ wheel up front and a 27.5″ wheel out back. Before we say anything about it, please allow Amaury Pierron’s shredding to do the talking. This man’s bike riding aboard the Commencal Supreme Mullet is truly something to behold. No music required, no fancy camera work; just pure unadulterated insane shredding in the “Sound of Supreme Speed”.
A video by Leo Perrin and Gaetan Clary.
Commencal Supreme Mullet DH Bike
Commencal’s new downhill mountain bike comes in mullet form with a 29″ wheel up front and a 27.5″ wheel out back. Following the 2018 change in the UCI regulations for downhill mountain biking wheel sizes, Commencal got to work on the development of a mullet downhill bike.
Commencal were definitely not stoked on their first attempt. It simply could not compete with the refined 27.5″ or 29″ Supreme bikes. For the 2019 season, Commencal’s race teams put the idea of a mullet bike on the back-burner, concentrating instead on optimizing the efficiency of the existing platforms. The Commencal engineers continued development behind the scenes.
In November 2019, Commencal gave the first Supreme 29/27 bikes to Commencal/Muc-Off team riders. Their feedback was this: “The bike was more stable and faster than a 27.5-inch, and more agile and dynamic than a 29-inch”.
Several months of lap times and data acquisition on a multitude of different tracks later, Commencal came to the conclusion the Supreme Mullet (even if it is perhaps not suitable for all sizes of rider) seemed to be the ideal bike for many of their pro racers. Amaury Pierron being one of them.
The result
The Commencal Supreme Mullet DH bike rocks 200 mm of rear wheel and fork travel. The bike sees new kinematics and a new main pivot point built around the mixed wheel sizes. The idler pulley also changes position to allow for increased pedaling efficiency.
The Commencal Supreme Mullet runs a 63.5° head angle and a 67° seat tube angle. Seat tubes measure up at 400 mm across the S-XL frame size range. The chainstay measures 448 mm in Small, but the Medium, Large and XL frames all have a chainstay length of 456 mm.
Reach extends from 435 mm in Small up to 505 mm in XL. The BB drops 9 mm from the rear wheel axle on the small frame, but only 4 mm for the larger frame sizes.
Pricing & Availability
The 2021 Commencal Supreme 29/27 Downhill Mountain Bike is available in two build models. Commencal offer an Ohlins build spec’d with, you guessed it, an Ohlins TTX22 Coil shock and an Ohlins DH38 200 mm fork. It also gets a SRAM GX DH 7s drivetrain, Shimano XT 4-piston brakes, DT SWISS FR560 wheelset with DT350 hub and Magic Mary Super DH tires.
The Team build features a Rockshox Super Deluxe Ultimate DH air shock, a Boxxer Ultimate 200 mm travel fork, SRAM Code RSC brakes with 220 mm rotors, a SRAM GX DH 7s drivetrain and a DT SWISS FR560 wheelset with DT350 hub and Magic Mary Super DH tires.
Head to the Commencal website for full details on pricing.
