Earlier this year when we saw Alchemy’s new hardtail Oros mountain bike, the company hinted at full suspension things to come. A few months later, here it is. After bringing on David Earle, an engineer with the Sotto Group, Alchemy has created a legitimate all mountain contender that’s built in the U.S.A.
Designed around a unique suspension system, and built with Alchemy’s own mandrel and mold system, the Arktos is almost ready to do battle…
At the heart of the bike is what Alchemy refers to as Sine Suspension, so named because the spring curve resembles a sine wave. Similar to the Switch suspension design used on Yeti Bikes, Sine uses a very short lower link in place of an eccentric pivot. As the name suggests, the direction of the pivot travel changes near the end of the stroke, with the lower link moving in the opposite direction. This provides a falling rate at the beginning of the stroke to make the bike supple over small bumps, a rising rate in the middle of the travel for pedal efficiency, and a falling rate at the end of the stroke to compensate for the progressiveness of air suspension. According to Dave, the use of the link instead of an eccentric pivot makes for a lighter linkage.
All of the pivots roll on sealed cartridge bearing with a locking collet at the upper link. The Arktos is based around 27.5″ wheels and 150mm of suspension.
The Arktos does make use of Boost 148×12 spacing, but other standards like the bottom bracket remain tried and true with a BSA threaded shell. However, the frame is not compatible with front derailleurs which shouldn’t come as much of a surprise with the rise of 1x drivetrains.
Other details include internal cable routing with stealth dropper capability, a tapered head tube, and post mount disc brakes. Pricing starts at $3,750 for the frame and rear shock, which includes a custom two tone paint job. Basically, the paint is as show above but you can pick the two colors used as available through Alchemy. Frames should be shipping by spring of next year.
