Factor races further off-road with a pair of all-new carbon Lando XC mountain bikes, debuting at the Cape Epic. The two completely new cross-country bikes combine Factor’s lightweight, integrated carbon frame expertise and Black Inc component line-up with modern MTB race-focused geometry & suspension.
Factor Lando XC all-new carbon mountain bikes
Known for super light, fast & sleek road bikes, TT bikes, and then a similarly racy gravel bike, Factor is going even further off-road with a couple of premium carbon mountain bikes. Pick from the 100-115mm rear travel Lando XC full-suspension for technical cross-country to epic marathon racing, or the Lando HT hardtail for less technical racing.
Their idea was that more than half of Factor road riders were already going off-road on gravel bikes, and looking to get even deeper into trail riding and off-road racing. And with years of experience as a manufacturer of other brands’ mountain bikes, Factor decided it was time for their own. So, Cross-country & Marathon XC race was the logical first step, although Factor admits that more longer-travel mountain bikes are already in the works…
The full-suspension Lando XC has already been racing the Cape Epic with the Amani Racing Team of Nancy Akinyi Debe and Jordan Schleck Ssekanwagi – a project to create opportunities for aspiring racers from East Africa into the international MTB racing scene.
Full-suspension Tech details
The linkage-driven single-pivot Lando XC full-suspension is the new MTB flagship, built with firm suspension kinematics for fast, aggressive XC riding. With a simple design that relies on seatstay flex, Factor was able to keep stiffness high and weight low – claiming a 21oog carbon frame, including the DT Swiss R232 rear shock & all hardware.
A rather unique split seattube design around the vertical shock builds in strength around the bottom bracket, while creating a stiff chainstay construction with what would otherwise be narrow main pivot spacing. At the same time, it also allowed the designers to share the main pivot & lower shock mount for further weight savings both in hardware and carbon material reinforcement.
Geometry-wise, the full-suspension Lando XC is quite progressive and modern, with a 67° head angle, 75.5° effective seat angle, and long Reach / short stem setup.
The Factor Lando XC full-suspension comes standard with a 45mm stroke shock to deliver 115mm of rear wheel travel, paired with a 120mm fork. But cross-country racers looking for a shorter, slightly lighter setup for less technical racing can also spec a 40mm stroke shock for 100mm of rear wheel travel to pair with a 100mm fork for slightly steeper angles and more aggressive handling.
Built as the flagship adventure racing bike, the Lando XC gets 3-pack Anything cage mounts both in the downtube and under the toptube, plus a direct-mount pair of bolts on top of the toptube to customize your water bottle & tools setup.
The bike gets internal cable routing through the headset compatible with mechanical or electronic shifting, and external routing ports for a 31.6mm internal dropper seatpost & remote shock lockout compatibility. The Lando XC is 1x only with max 29 x 2.4” tire clearance, and is spec’d with a CeramicSpeed 1.5″ headset & CeramicSpeed T47 threaded bottom bracket, plus downtube & chainstay protectors.
Hardtail Tech details
The Lando HT hardtail is obviously a much simpler affair, taking direct design & construction cues from Factor’s lightweight Ostro VAM road and LS gravel bikes. Frame tube shaping looks almost the same as the LS, with tiny dropped & outswept seatstays for rear-end compliance. The stronger Lando HT tubes are even wider & flatter for extra vertical flex under higher off-road loads (and impacts.)
The claimed 850g carbon frame (100g lighter than the gravel LS, and just 70g more than the Ostro VAM!) is 1x-specific as well, with Boost rear spacing.
It also gets downtube & chainstay protectors, but only a standard pair of 2-bolt water bottle cage bosses inside the main triangle.
The hardtail is designed for a 110mm fork, gets the same adaptable internal routing, 2.4″ tire clearance, CeramicSpeed headset & T47 BB, and 31.6mm seatpost with stealth dropper routing.
Black Inc XC MTB components
On top of the two new Lando XC bikes, Factor’s own Black Inc component brand adds a few lightweight bits of carbon kit to finish off your fancy MTB race bike too.
For your cockpit, there’s a 1-piece carbon bar & stem combo with a 760mm wide, 8° backsweep bar and -10° stem available in 60-90mm effective lengths. And Black Inc also has a 2-bolt carbon 31.6mm seatpost, that both come standard on all the bikes.
Next, an optional set of Black Inc Twenty Seven hookless tubeless carbon wheels that are actually 29″ but 27mm inside. The also 27mm deep carbon wheels weigh 1459g for the set, built up with Sapim CX-Ray & CX-Sprint straight pull bladed spokes, Black Inc’s own Boost-spaced alloy hubs, Ni-Cr axles & CeramicSpeed bearings inside.
Lastly, there’s a full carbon, 505mm axle-crown suspension-corrected Black Inc fork for those looking to build a superlight rigid racer. At just 720g, it’ll shed over eight hundred grams vs. the stock DT suspension fork, but even though it shortens a-c by 12mm vs. the 110mm DT F232, it’ll actually slightly slacken the head angle out for most riding once you factor in suspension sag.
Factor Lando mountain bikes – Pricing & availability
The two new Factor Landos are each available now in three basic configurations: frame kits, frame kits with wheels & a race-ready complete bike build of each.
The Lando HT hardtail is of course the more affordable option, starting at $3299 for a frame kit including the carbon frame, CeramicSpeed headset & BB, the Black Inc 1-piece bar & stem, and a Black Inc carbon seatpost – available in team edition blue or stealth black. Ratchet that up to $5299 and you get a Lando HT kit that also includes a set of 27mm internal Black Inc carbon XC wheels.
The complete Factor Lando HT hardtail in race-ready build sells for $7099 / 6499€ with a full SRAM XX1 AXS groupset and 110mm DT Swiss F 232 One fork.
There’s als0 a $6599 rigid build that swaps in the lightweight, suspension-corrected Black Inc full carbon fork to shed even more weight.
The full-suspension Lando XC bikes all come stock now with the longer 115mm travel shocks, available as the frame kit for $4499 with a DT Swiss R232 shock, CeramicSpeed headset, BB, Black Inc bar/stem & seatpost – available in team edition blue or dark green with green graphics. Add in the Black Inc carbon wheels for the $6499 expanded frame kit.
The complete full-suspension Factor Lando XC build sells for $9199 / 8399€ with SRAM XX1 AXS Eagle, 120mm DT Swiss 232 fork, 115mm DT R232 shock, and Black Inc 27mm internal carbon wheels.
