Rose was slightly ahead of the game with last year’s introduction of the Xeon Disc road bike. Now, they’re getting on the gran fondo bandwagon (of course, we can’t wait for them to combine the two!).
The Xeon CGF / GF (Gran Fondo) is a new iteration of their road bike that comes in carbon and alloy. It uses flexible, bent stays for better compliance and a taller headtube and geometry based around endurance riding, not racing. The rear brake is under the BB, freeing up the seat stays to move more freely to soak up bumps.
Both frame types use a massive downtube with extensive shaping to maintain pedaling stiffness. Carbon version shown above, alloy and the new downhill and trail bikes all shown below…
The alloy GF mimics the lines of the carbon bike, including the hidden rear brakes.
The top tube drops into the seatstays early, leaving a nicely integrated seatpost collar.
The new Thrill hill is a full carbon 650B race bike. The rear triangle is a one piece, bridgeless design that uses seat stay flex to make up for the lack of a pivot. The rocker and front triangle are also full carbon.
Travel is 115m and it’s aimed at the marathon or stage race crowd. Frame weight without shock is 1.9kg (medium). This special edition complete bike is 9.4kg with the pedals, though they’re not included.
The Unchained is a completely new DH bike. It uses a flippable chip at the shock mount to change between 200 and 220 mm of rear wheel travel. In the shorter travel position, the seat and head angles are half a degree steeper, and the BB is 7mm higher.
The rear axle also has two positions, moving the wheel 14mm fore/aft.
The Soul Fire is their new super enduro bike with 185mm travel on 26″ wheels. It’s the same concept as The Unchained but with a little less travel and no adjustments to the geometry.
Both the Soul Fire and The Unchained are a Horst Link design with double row bearings at key pivots.
