Mountain Cycle’s makin’ a comeback!
Started in 1991, their monocoque frames were a common site on the DH scene back in the day, with a slightly less voluminous but still present contingent on the XC starting line. Then they dropped off the face of the earth.
Now, they’re back with a solid lineup of bikes from weight-weenie carbon XC hardtail to 29er to the rebuilt San Andreas 2.0 all-mountain bike above. In between those is the Zen II trail bike, and both it and the new San Andreas 2.0 use an all new suspension design dubbed TuneTable…and it looks and sounds impressive.
Want downhill? They’re trying to have their new Shockwave 2 ready to debut at the Sea Otter Classic. Jump past the break to see more pics and all the details…
The closeup photos of the new suspension are annoyingly just off subject, but here’s the deal: First, in MC’s general manager/designer Gerard’s words:
Our FS bikes remain Single Pivot but utilise a patent pending system called ‘Tunetable’ by the suspension legends at Sotto Design and Engineering. The system has a lot of people slapping their heads wondering why they didn’t think of it and is a tuned rocker that has the shock moving in a near perfect linear path with a nice progressive feel to it. It’s simple and insanely stiff.
Second, in our words: The bottom bracket, pivot and rocker are merged into a single, massive CNC piece called ‘MC Dex’. The single pivot rear swing arm connects to a second rocker with an eccentric movement that’s tuned to push the shock in a linear manner. Appearances suggest that the beefy linkage and frame members are indeed stiff.
The San Andreas 2.0 is a 6.5″ travel All-Mountain bike and carries forward the massive monocoque front triangle that always made their bikes stand out. “Tubes” are formed and butted alloy.
Their new bikes take advantage of modern standards like PF30 bottom brackets and Syntace X12 rear axle on the Zen II and San Andres 2.0, and all of their bikes will use Cane Creek’s Angleset, allowing the rider to tune the bike to fit their environment. The 2×10 cranksets and BB are from Turn Components, part of PraxisWorks, a custom OEM parts manufacturer based out of Santa Cruz, CA.
The bikes will be offered in two platforms:
- “Standard” Single Build Spec – a complete bike built without “price point” concerns and spec’d the way they would want to ride them.
- RC (Race Chassis) build – Frame, fork, Angleset headset, M35 crank set, wheels, saddle and post, with parts selected to let the bike perform the way it’s intended, but leaving most of the (rider and ground) contact points up to the end user.
The Zen II is their new 5.5″ travel trail bike. It uses the same single-pivot, eccentric linkage design as the San Andreas, but uses a more traditional looking (tubed) front triangle.
The Zen’s photos give a little better look at the linkage (click to enlarge) and the nice little cable management mushroom caps.
Mountain Cycles’ Twentynineandthirteen 29er hardtail is still in prototype stages in this photo, but it’ll have swappable rear dropouts. There will be a geared complete bike painted as shown above and in White/Black. They’ll also have a singlespeed / Gates belt drive model in Red. The sloping top tube design provides a pretty low standover height and lower center of gravity. Based on the supplied crankset, we’re guessing this bike also has some all-mountain aspirations.
Given that this bike is still in prototype form, we do hope they’ll consider running the cables under the top tube and not on the side. Knee rubbers like myself will greatly appreciate it.
They’re also delving into carbon fiber with their Twentysixandsix hardtail race bike. The frame is a 1,200g full carbon frame with matte finish. The complete bike gets custom red anodized cranks, XT shifters/derailleurs and SLX cassette with Avid Elixir brakes. Complete bike price is $3,189.
The dropouts look like they could be opened to insert a belt drive, but you’d need to run a tensioner.
Lastly, they’re offering a carbon rigid fork in both 26″ and 29er sizes with disc brake tabs:
It looks suspiciously similar to the new-ish Syncros carbon rigid fork…
The bikes are designed in California and built in Taiwan. Check their website for complete build specs on each bike.
