Trevor Gay is a busy man. When he’s not acting as the marketing and team manager for both Airbone Bicycles and DK BMX, you can sometimes find him out product testing new products at the races. That was the case when we ran into Trevor and Josh at the AOA Mayhem Enduro where we spotted the new Airborne 650b prototype enduro bike. Both bikes were seen airing it out over the Wilds course, where we caught up with them after the race…
Designed as 650b enduro specific bike, the prototype offers 6″ of travel front and rear. Up front the head angle currently sits at 65.5 degrees and houses an internal tapered headset. Production bikes will have additional provisions for internal dropper posts and a water bottle cage in the main triangle.
The rear end of the bike is outfitted with an X-12 type 142x12mm axle system that runs a Maxxle. The rear suspension is very similar to a Horst link, but the rear pivot is not below the rear axle, just in front. As for the rear shock, it is mounted to the downtube and is actuated by a standard seatpost rocker link.
Both bikes were running Vee Tire Co 650bx2.4″ rubber meaning there should be plenty of tire clearance.
Josh Patton was also on board a prototype with a slight different build for his race bike. There were also a few different anodized bits on the suspension linkage. Airborne is shooting for Fall availability with two complete builds which will sell for somewhere around sub 2k and sub 3k for the complete bike. Frame and fork packages may be available as well with frames sold in small, medium, and large. As with all Airborne bikes, they are sold direct through the company’s website which will have a completely new, robust design this October.
There were also some prototype Onyx hubs on Josh’s bike complete with his name laser etched on the hub shell. The Onyx freehub body offers basically instant engagement meaning once these hubs are on the market they will offer some serious competitions to the current hub options. The company is also prototyping road and even fat bike hubs so look for Onyx to be getting much more press in the coming months.
