UK handmade carbon frame maker Carbon Wasp launched a new mountain bike designed to shine in wet & muddy winter conditions with a self-explanatory name – the Carbon Gearbox Hardtail. A project in development “for several years”, Carbon Wasp describes their new Gearbox Hardtail as the “ultimate” bike for winter mountain biking, combining modern trail geometry, hardtail simplicity, and gearbox durability. A bike “designed to stand up to the worst conditions you can throw at it and still come back for more“.
Carbon Wasp Gearbox Hardtail: UK-made mountain bike frame
Carbon Wasp is all about their handmade carbon mountain bikes. Now, their new Carbon Gearbox Hardtail looks like a cool option for riders looking for a low-maintenance trail bike to get them through mud & snow season! And while it’s not exactly cheap, the Carbon Wasp Gearbox Hardtail has a totally palatable pricetag, especially when you consider that it is made in the UK, with lots of customization possibilities.
We mostly know the frame builder for their UK-made carbon trail bike – the 120mm Truffle. But last fall they also showed us some nice-looking 3D-printed titanium crankarms for Pinion gearbox bikes, that could save you an easy 170g.
That got us thinking a bit… what was the carbon gearbox hardtail they were showing us those light cranks on? It turns out, that seems to have been a development prototype of this new Carbon Wasp Gearbox Hardtail.
“This is our take on the trusty winter hardtail; a gearbox bike for any conditions. We’ve been making gearbox bikes for years and we poured everything we know into this frame. It can be customised and tweaked in the construction and the set up to suit any kind of riding on any terrain.”
– Adrian Smith, Carbon Wasp owner & bike designer
What is custom?
Carbon Wasp built the Carbon Gearbox Hardtail for mountain bikes to tailor it to their individual needs. One benefit of only selling frames is that every bike is a custom build. They also wanted riders to pick which gearbox they prefer.
Pinion seems like the industry default these days, and the new electronic shift SmartShift versions also make for a clean setup. But there’s another interesting French gearbox maker that we haven’t really talked about much in years, although we have seen them pop up from time-to-time… Effigear. Their latest Effigear Mimic gearbox bolts up to the same mount as Pinion, but actually has faster engagement and can be run with a fixed rear hub, unique variable steps between its gears more like a traditional derailleur system, and it is operated with standard mechanical SRAM dropbar or flat bar shifters. More options is always better, right?
Carbon Wasp also builds their bikes with pretty standard tapered steerer headsets, too. But if you want they’ll make you a straight 56mm headset to run an angle adjust headset to further tweak your geometry.
The new Carbon Gearbox Hardtail does feature pretty modern trail geometry – a slack 65° headtube angle, steep 76° seat angle, chainstays as short as 430mm, and medium-long 480mm Reach on the size Large that I would ride. But they also customize geometry a bit if have some other needs in mind.
Tech details
- full carbon hardtail frame made in Leeds using UK-sourced pre-preg
- compatible with Effigear and Pinion P-Line or C-Line gearboxes, including SmartShift
- detachable flat carbon plate sliding dropouts with integral tensioners for chain or belt drives
- designed around a 140mm suspension fork
- 4 stock sizes (S-XL) or customizable geometry
- internal cable routing with full guide tubes, conventionally routed into the side of the downtube
- internal frame storage under the bottle cage, with battery access if you choose a Pinion SmartShift setup
- ZS44/56 Zero Stack tapered headset standard, or optionally ZS 56/56 to fit an angle-adjust headset
- Boost 12x148mm spacing
- IS disc brake mount
- 30.9mm dropper seatpost
- max 29 x 3.0″ tire clearance
Carbon Wasp Gearbox Hardtail (& Fat Bike) – Pricing, options & availability
Now, Carbon Wasp runs a small UK workshop, and builds each bike one at a time for the buyer. So, they mostly sell just frames-only, or here including the gearbox. But if you need, they can also put together a complete custom bike build, too.
The new Gearbox Hardtail frames sells for £1650 for the carbon frame only in a color of your choice. Or get it with a Pinion gearbox already installed for £2550 (~$3230/3065€).
Especially interesting this time of year, Carbon Wasp also makes a Gearbox Fat Bike hardtail for the same price designed for up to 26×5″ tires (or likely ~27.5×4.5″ if that’s your preference.) All of the other tech details look to be the same.
So, it looks like you just have to decide how deep snow & mud you expect on your rides.
Introduced this summer on their Truffle, Carbon Wasp no longer paints their frames, but rather wraps them in a durable single-color vinyl. They say it better protects wear areas of the frame, while also highlighting the frame’s straight-out-of-the-mold carbon fiber weave in between. They do like their classic Wasp yellow, but any single-color wrap is included in the standard frame prices. More complex patterns & colors are also possible, for an additional fee.
Even with its fully handmade construction in Yorkshire, Carbon Wasp says they can get a new Gearbox Hardtail to you in just 4 weeks, if you order yours today.
