This prototype carbon CDuro High Pivot enduro bike has been getting a workout on the World Cup scene this season, topped off this past weekend with Vojta Bláha riding it to a fresh Czech enduro national champion title. Super plush and highly adjustable – with a longer-travel mode even possible – one of the key designers behind the new bike’s development, Milan Čižinský also rode the same frame to a Czech national DH title earlier this summer.
CDuro High Pivot prototype carbon enduro & gravity bike
Following up their lightweight carbon single-pivot Epona all-mountain bike, and more recent prototype gravel bike, Czech robot-wound carbon bikemaker has an all-new long-travel gravity bike in the works – dubbed very simply, the CDuro High Pivot.
The Czech manufacturer created the development project together with young Czech World Cup Enduro racer Vojta Bláha and seasoned veteran of the European DH & Enduro scene – “lead art designer” behind the bike – Milan Čižinský, who has been designing gravity bikes since the 1990s. Together with the carbon engineers of CompoTech – the parent company of bike brand CDuro – the team quickly developed a high-pivot four-bar suspension concept and then built the prototype carbon & aluminum prototype for Vojta to race on the elite circuit this year, after he had raced on ActoFive for the past couple of seasons.
What’s unique about the CDuro HP v1?
The immediately distinguishable feature of CDuro’s bikes is their straight carbon tubes and externally tied joints.
The straight tubes come from parent company CompoTech‘s proprietary filament winding technique. They can make other shapes, but the straight tubes are excellent for directly transferring forces through their aligned & continuous high-modulus carbon fibers, creating tubes that are incredibly stiff and impact resistant. We’ve seen (and ridden them) them in Festka bikes for more than a decade. And I can personally attest to their unique ability to build a stiff backbone for a bike frame, while also damping out chattering vibrations.
The tied joints, though, really stand out.
These are created by automated Integrated Loop Technology (ILT) robots that wind fibers precisely around the joint between two tubes, perfectly placing every long fiber for optimal strength and light weight. With the individual shape and weave of each tube, and the ILT weave, this gives CDuro the ability to fine-tune stiffness across separate sections of the frame.
That of course, is a big reason that they sponsored Vojta Bláha this year, to take their R&D to the next level, racing the prototype bike on the World Cup Enduro circuit.
Mid-High-Pivot 4-bar suspension design
Vojta describes the prototype CDuro HP v1 as a “middle high-pivot” in that it behaves like a high pivot early in its travel with a rearward axle path and idler pulley for supple high-pivot sensitivity over square-edged hits. But it then moves to a more vertical axle path for more support midway through its travel without the excessive chainstay growth of some high pivot designs
The bike gets either 170mm or 190mm of rear wheel travel – adjustable by changing the upper flip-chip at the upper shock mount. It can then be combined with a single crown fork for Enduro, or even a dual crown for Freeride or DH racing.
Vojta races with the bike in the shorter 170mm travel, paired to a 170mm fork up front. His fork itself is also a prototype, an upside-down Intend Edge fork with carbon upper tubes custom-made by CDuro/CompoTech with the same filament wound construction to optimize stiffness and weight savings.
There’s more adjustability at the bottom of the shock. A 4-position flip-chip there lets riders opt for a more progressive or more linear suspension feel. And separately, a slightly higher or lower bottom bracket height change that will also tweak the head & seat angles by about a 1/2°.
This ‘still in-development’ prototype uses a mix of 3D-printed aluminum for the two seattube junctions and the rocker, plus machined aluminum elements in an effort to speed up geometry and kinematics refinement for the high-pivot design, which is all-new for CDuro. But ultimately the goal will be to replace most of the alloy with carbon or titanium once the design gets finalized.
Enduro World Cup finishing kit
Besides the prototype Intend Edge carbon fork, there’s also a prototype Intend Hoover Monocoque rear air shock there. Designed late last year to be stiffer overall and more sensitive, it’s now available to buy, too.
He races on a SRAM XX AXS Transmission setup on the UDH-ready prototype CDuro High Pivot race bike. But now more often racing with Garbaruk cages after bashing up the stock SRAM cages on rocky stages. He also uses a new KMC flattop chain – waxed, of course – and classic Saint DH platform clipless pedals which are hard to beat.
Vojta also recently upgraded to a set of SRAM X0 cranks which let him run a Quarq powermeter inside the axle and still have an anti-kickback Ochain OC-R spider. He says that the new bike doesn’t really need the Ochain to deal with pedal kickback, since the kinematics of the CDuro HP v1 doesn’t suffer from this issue. But instead, the Ochain is able to help filter out racetrack vibrations, and of course, minimize fatigue from the occasional sharp edge that does still translate through the pedals.
Braking & wheels
Vojta’s race bike features a Thomson alloy 40mm Elite X4 stem and relatively narrow 76cm wide x 31.8 clamp carbon bar. He feels the setup is plenty stiff, making any oversized 35mm setup completely unnecessary.
Intend Trinity brakes deliver great dry conditions braking with their stock pads, according to Vojta. And then he swaps to other grippier pads (Galfer, Sinter, or Trickstuff) in the wet, since it is easy with them using standard Code pad shape. Plus, with the intricately-machined cooling fins being separate from the pad itself, he can combine them with other pads, or even remove the fins (replacing them with a piston spacer) for racing in really wet & muddy conditions where they offer less of a performance benefit.
Vojta races on WTB CZR i30 carbon rims – which he describes as the best enduro setup you can buy – laced to high-engagement 32h Qvist hubs. With their dual-sided ratchet, the made-in Germany Qvist hubs deliver 120 POEs and classic star ratchet strength and durability. Plus, Qvist custom-anodized hubs for Vojta in a unique Mango-Raspberry fade.
(Note: This gold-only rear hub was because Vojta was in the process of swapping out a rear tire when we snagged his bike to shoot some rainy photos.)
Vojta has raced for a couple of seasons on WTB 2.5″ Vigilante front & 2.4″ Judge rear SG1 High Grip tires (and WTB grips too). He’s been really happy and trouble-free with the setup, so happy to stay on the WTBs. Inside though, he’d ridden for years with Tanus inserts, but is now riding bigger Pepi’s Tire Noodle inserts that offer more support and allow even lower tire pressures.
Custom 3D-printed saddle
Lastly, he sits on top of a custom 3D-printed Posedla Joyseat Ultra lightweight full carbon saddle, atop a 210mm travel OneUp dropper. Said to be the saddle maker’s lightest and strongest model, each Posedla saddle is custom-made to fit each individual rider’s butt & riding style. And it’s manufactured only about 20km from where Vojta lives.
How much does a pro enduro bike weigh?
Vojta is a man after our own heart, and at the Enduro World Cup in Final Ligure at the start of the season, he cruised around town with his Extol hanging scale to see how much a bunch of the pro racers’ bikes weighed. And of course, that means we get to see his new bike weight, tipping his scale at 16.5kg total, with pedals, an empty Fidlock bottle & a number plate. That puts Vojta’s new carbon CDuro High Pivot prototype in the middle of the spectrum (~15.5vb -17.5kg). But frame designer Milan Čižinský’s mullet setup of the same frame & fork is quite a lot lighter at just 15.4kg.
Interestingly, weight seems to depend less on whether it’s a carbon or aluminum frame, and more on the individual rider’s build, from fork to brakes to cassette, to even if they keep spares in internal frame storage when they race.
CDuro High Pivot prototype – Pricing & actual limited edition availability
Officially, this CDuro High Pivot is still a prototype and not quite ready for consumer availability. But CDuro has already given the HP v1 a 5000€ frame pricetag, and is making it available in a very limited production batch of 10 frames with the same geometry and setup that Vojta Bláha & Milan Čižinský are racing. That’s essentially a big small S+ designed around Vojta’s desired 465mm frame Reach. But there will be an M & L in the next generation as it heads into production.
To get one of these early prototypes, reach out to CDuro here to pre-order a frame. Otherwise, we expect a more polished next generation, likely with more carbon and less alloy, to be available sometime early next year.
