Commencal may have pushed their Meta AM enduro & TR trail bikes to 29″ last year. But the new 2019 Clash insists that 27.5 isn’t dead, especially when the trail gets gnarly and the drops huge. Billed as the little brother to their Furious privateer DH / park bike, the new Clash gets more travel & a more simple design than the Metas to push even the boundaries of enduro and park riding on a budget. Oh and some of the best ride footage we’ve watched lately!
2019 Commencal Clash aluminum enduro / park bike
Commencal insists that the new Clash can be tame enough for trail riding, but there’s no mistaking a mountain bike with 165mm of rear wheel travel, 180mm forks, and a 65° head angle.
This is a bike meant to go down hill fast, to hit every road gap on the way down, and drop off whatever cliff happens to get in the way.
Tech Details
The new bike gets a single pivot suspension design linkage driven shock, and even triple butted 6066 aluminum tubing shapes & layout inspired by the recent Furious DH bike.
But the suspension design differs a bit, with a more rearward main pivot location like on the newer Meta 29ers for improved pedaling. Plus it gets a new for Commencal move to a concentric rear pivot around the rear-axle to isolate braking from suspension movement.
Into the details a bit, the frame features Enduro pivot bearings throughout, a tapered headtube, pressfit BB92, ISCG05 tabs, Boost rear end, rooms for piggyback shocks, full internal cable routing with dropper compatibility, 200mm post mount brakes, and space for up to 2.75″ of tire. The frame gets an integrated downtube protector, chainstay & seatstay protectors, replaceable derailleur hanger, comes with a Maxle rear thru-axle, and a claimed frame weight of 3.5kg.
Geometry
Beyond long travel and a slack head angle, the Clash gets long & low geometry, taking it a bit further than the recent Meta AM updates. The alloy enduro bike comes in the same four size range (S-XL) as most of the Commencals.
2019 Clash pricing & availability
The bike got a soft launch late in the season last year, but now the bikes are actually available as 2019 models in time to prep for the opening of your local bike park. The Clash can be had as a frame only from 1300€, with Commencal’s À La Carte online bike builder letting you add and customize as much as you want.
Then there are four pre-configured complete bike builds and a few color options. The 4300€ Clash Signature is the top-end build with Fox36 and DHX2 Kashima-coated Factory coil suspension, e13 TRS wheels, a SRAM NX Eagle drivetrain, XT 4-pot brakes & a KS dropper post.
The Clash Race for 3500€ is the team EWS style build with a RockShox Lyrik RC2 fork & Super Deluxe RCT Coil shock. Spank Oozy 350 wheels and a SRAM GX Eagle setup round out the build.
The 2800€ Clash Essential gets Fox Performance air suspension with a piggyback X2 shock, again a GX Eagle drivetrain, plus Shimano SLX brakes, and a KS dropper seatpost.
At 2200€ the Clash Origin is the most attainable point of entry into long travel single crown shredding, with a RockShox Deluxe RT shock & Yari RC fork, and a SRAM NX 1×11 drivetrain, without a dropper post.
Oh, and as we saw last week, tiny shredder versions of the Clash are coming too. Three Clash Kids models with 20″, 24″ & 27.5″ wheels with size-scaled travel will be available from early summer 2019.
A healthy dose of enduro + bikepark + DH motivation!
There’s plenty more shredit action if you need extra inspiration to bite the bullet and order a burly Clash.
