Every year at Crankworx, there are a handful of interesting bikes on display, and this year was no exception. One bike that drew a ton of onlookers was the Archibald Cycles AC1, owned by Squamish shredder Ollie Lowthorpe. Between its Pinion gearbox, belt drive, and inverted fork, this bike is one unique build!
Norco had a few nifty things on display, including the brand new Revolver XC bikes. On the more unique side, they were also showing Gracey Hemstreet’s in-development DH race bike and Matt McDuff’s customized Shore. Finally, the folks at Cascade Components had a prototype enduro bike from a new company called 9 Drop at their booth.
Archibald Cycles AC1
The Leatt booth was buzzing all day, every day, with people checking out Ollie Lowthorpe’s Archibald AC1. Archibald Cycles is based in Delta, B.C., and the AC1 is their Pinion gearbox-equipped enduro bike. The frame is built from MS3 stainless steel, and Archibald hand-builds them with custom geometry for each customer. Lowthorpe’s bike has a 450mm reach and a slack 62° steering angle. It is set up with 160/160mm travel, but the AC1’s i-Track high-pivot four-bar suspension linkage can run up to 198mm rear travel. You can also run any fork on it, including dual-crown DH forks.
Lowthorpe is running a 9-speed Pinion Smart.Shift gearbox, but he mentioned 6 or 12 speed versions are also an option. The gearbox is driven by a Gates Carbon belt. Lowthorpe did say the gearbox has been super reliable and requires very infrequent maintenance.
His unique build boasts a bunch of notable components: Up front is an Intend Flash inverted fork, and he typically runs an Intend rear shock, but this bike was built (hastily for display) with a Vorsprung Telum rear coil shock.
Lowthorpe rides a set of MX wheels with NOBL carbon rims, and runs a Switchgrade seat angle adjuster that offers two climbing/descending saddle positions. This bike is certainly not for the weight weenies, coming in at 42lbs!
The Archibald AC1 includes a small plastic storage container that sits inside the frame, so you can carry a compact multi-tool, a tire plug kit, or other small items on the bike.
If you watch Instagram, you might know Lowthorpe is famous for his signature rubber ducky horn. This year, Leatt ran a duck hunt contest, hiding rubber duckies at Leatt retailers and in their athletes’ pockets. Anyone who found a duck could bring it to the booth and get a prize, and the kids were loving it!
Norco’s New Revolvers, Gracey Hemstreet’s DH Bike, and Matt McDuff’s Custom Shore
Freshly announced on August 14th, Norco had two complete Revolver XC bikes on display – follow that link to check out Bikerumor’s launch article and see the complete new Revolver lineup. The 120 C models are the race-focused option offering 115 mm of rear travel and 120mm forks. The linkage features Norco’s first-ever flex pivot design, and the 120 C1 frame is tricked-out with titanium hardware to shave precious grams.
The more trail-oriented Revolver 130 (C1 model pictured) provides 120 mm of rear travel and comes with a 130mm fork. It also has a half-degree slacker head tube angle than the 120 C frame.
Big air boundary pusher Matt McDuff’s Norco Shore was at the booth as well, and I noticed the rear end looked pretty square and didn’t appear polished for production… I inquired and found out that Norco built a custom rear end for McDuff.
Since his massive backyard jumps require high speeds and a lot of stability, he had Norco build a longer rear end for his personal Shore. Apparently, this is the only change his custom rear end makes to the stock frame.
Gracey Hemstreet’s downhill race bike was on display as well, which hints towards Norco’s future with DH bikes. Norco stopped selling their Aurum downhill bikes a few years ago, but they have racers that need something to ride! This is Hemstreet’s bike, which features an aluminum front and a carbon fiber rear end. One obvious thing to note is that it does run a high-pivot suspension linkage, but I didn’t bug Norco for further details of the yet-unnamed bike, as it is in development on the race circuit. However, I was told Norco gets a lot of questions about when their next DH bike will be coming… and while no timeline was promised, it sounds like something is on the distant horizon.
9 Drop Prototype Enduro Bike:
Sitting at the Cascade Components booth was this prototype enduro bike from a startup company called 9 Drop. 9 Drop is based in California, and they chose their name because some of the founders’ favorite local trails drop out onto Highway 9.
While it’s very early in development, I can tell you this prototype offers 160mm of rear travel and runs a 170mm fork. 9 Drop calls the linkage design a ‘dual link virtual pivot’. The bike’s adjustable dropouts allow for either MX or 29” wheelsets. You might notice some questionable cable routing in the photos, but bear in mind this is an early prototype and final details have not yet been sorted out!
Cascade Components lent their expertise to 9 Drop by building the links and designing the linkage and dropouts for this prototype.
Yoann Barelli’s Tandem:
You’re definitely going to want to check out Yoann Barelli and/or Nate Spitz’s social media channels and look for this thing! I saw some earlier videos they did on the tandem, and they are very entertaining! On the first day of Crankworx, I spotted the tandem MTB on its way through Whistler village.
I briefly chatted with Nate Spitz, who told me they were headed up to ride Microclimate. That’s not a particularly gnarly trail for Whistler, but on a tandem it’s gotta be nuts! I asked if they could get this thing on a chairlift, and Spitz said they might try cramming it into a gondola!
