Italian mountain bike brand Lee Cougan has a new Rampage Origin XC bike coming soon, developed to combine the rocket-like feel of a lightweight hardtail with modern cross-country race-ready geometry, tire clearance, and comfort. Officially, the new bike isn’t set to launch until next week. But we got a sneak peek at Sea Otter Europe in Girona over the weekend, and the brand was happy to share some details…
2025 Lee Cougan Rampage Origin light carbon XC hardtail
Lee Cougan has had a lightweight carbon Rampage hardtail in their line-up for several years. It’s been quite popular and successful on the European race circuit, but it was quite traditional in its steep, quick-handling geometry. As elite XC racing, and even marathon racing, have become increasingly more technical, Lee Cougan went back to the drawing board to redesign their lightweight race bike. A lot of racers still prefer the lighter weight, efficiency, and pure simplicity of a hardtail (not to mention their relatively lower cost). But in order to pick a hardtail over a short-travel full-suspension bike (like their Crossfire), it must be able to soak up more bumps at the rear end, flex enough to maintain rear wheel traction, and offer progressive geometry to navigate more techy racetracks.
Those are the key points that Lee Cougan says they’ve met with their all new Rampage Origin carbon XC hardtail. A key feature being the very flat dropped seatstays, designed to flex vertically while maintaining horizontal stiffness.
Lee Cougan started with 110mm fork travel for the new Rampage Origin, in between their previous hardtails and the 120mm on most full-suspension XC bikes these days. (It also means, riders could likely bump up to 120mm if they wanted to slacken the bike a bit further.)
A 68-degree headtube angle is quite a bit slacker than their previous Rampage. And it now gets paired with a steeper 75-degree seat angle for a more forward weight balance, offering both better climbing and better descending.
Tech details
The new Rampage Origin frame itself is a lightweight carbon hardtail, with a claimed frame weight of around 940g for a small frame with this slick raw finish that shows off the carbon layup.
The new hardtail feature integrated, fully-internal cable routing through the headset. And even though Lee Cougan only offers wireless electronic complete builds, the frame is still compatible with mechanical 1x drivetrains.
The Rampage Origin gets a UDH, conventional but lightweight external seatpost clamp for a 31.6 post, and a press fit bottom bracket in a wide boxy lower section of the carbon frame. Tire clearance is officially 29 x 2.4” with plenty of mud clearance.
There are also two sets of bottle cage mounts into the main triangle of each frame, plus a tool cage mount under the toptube, and even a 3-pack of Anything cage mounts under the downtube that could make this a popular bike for ultra-distance racers.
2026 Lee Cougan Rampage Origin – Pricing, options & availability
Lee Cougan offers the new Rampage Origin hardtail in three basic bike builds, all of which feature Lee Cougan’s own one-piece integrated Comptrol carbon cockpit. For the time being, there is no frame-only option, but that likely will come in the future, too.
First, pick from Shimano XT Di2, XTR Di2, or SRAM XX SL. Then, you either choose from their house brand RK 25 alloy wheels, or can upgrade to DT Swiss XRC 1501 carbon wheels. The bikes all come standard with a rigid carbon seatpost, but you can also upgrade to an internally-routed dropper if you are really going to race this thing off-road.
Pricing for the XT alloy build starts at 4600€. And it tops out at 6500€ for XX SL with the carbon DT wheels.
Availability will depend a bit on what size bike you need. Size M frames will be available first, starting in October. Size S & L will follow one month later, but XL frames won’t be available until January 2026.
Reach out to your local Lee Cougan dealer to get a preorder in for the new bike now.
