Amidst a few racks of stealthy, blacked out demo bikes that Foundry is known for, there was something odd at Saddle Drive. Something with color. Something with 27.5″ wheels. Hiding in plain sight was Foundry’s newest prototype, the Tomahawk – a 27.5″ carbon hard tail.
Still firmly in the prototype phase, we got a chance to check out and ride the new Foundry missile. Check it out, next.
If the color didn’t tip you off that this wasn’t a standard Foundry, the huge Prototype stenciled on the top tube should have clued you in. There were a few different Tomahawks, in a few different colors – but all still fairly subdued in the Foundry manner. As it turns out, there is no guarantee the colors will ever make it to production. Foundry is simply testing the waters with various paint jobs that may or may not see the light of day.
Typical mountain bike standards are employed with a tapered head tube and BB92 press fit bottom bracket.
The rear axle uses a 142x12mm Syntace style thru axle with dedicated vertical dropouts.
The rear brake is tucked into the stays with a carbon post mount. No quick release axle on this bike, though it doesn’t mean it won’t have one for production. And yes, demos and transporting were a little hard on the paint.
As far as the ride of the Tomahawk, it is distinctly tailored towards racing and built around a 100mm fork. This thing is stiff. But, thanks to the smaller wheels it is also quite nimble and it was a blast to ride on the trails around Snowbasin. It was the kind of ride where I wasn’t avoiding the jumps – I was seeking them out.
Foundry claims the pre-production frame weight is somewhere around 1,100g, and should launch sometime this Fall in an initial run of XS, S, and M sized frames.
