If you’ve been following the world cross-country mountain bike scene, you’ll notice some team movement this year. Former World Champion Jordan Sarrou announced in November that he is leaving Specialized Factory Racing.
We found out recently that he will be joining the ranks of the BMC Factory Team. Upon the announcement, Sarrou posted a photo alongside his new teammates and a team edition BMC Fourstroke.
New Ohlins’ XC suspension line?
What caught our eyes was the Ohlins XC fork, and the shock on the stunning BMC machine. The fork appears to be similar to the Ohilns RFX34 M.2, a 120-130mm travel fork.
But if you look closely and compare the fork in the photo to one of our EU Tech Editors, Cory Bensons’ bike, you’ll notice the crown is more sculpted. The arch is slimmer, but the 34mm stanchions appear to be the same.
Possible TTXC Air shock?
The other Ohlins piece on the new BMC Factory Team bikes is the shock. This is the first XC-focused shock we’ve seen from Ohlins, and it looks to bring some of the tech over from the enduro world. If you look closely, you can see a similarity to the Ohlins TTX2 Air shock, but with more of a cross-country and/or down-country focus.
Ohlins are a favorite amongst many riders on the World MTB circuit, but they are mostly found on longer travel bikes, like the World-Cup winning Specialized Demo of Loic Bruni. Now that more cross-country race bikes are dabbling in 120mm travel, it’s only natural that a powerhouse like Ohlins would enter the races.
If this is a new model aimed at the cross-country (and down-country) crowd, we could see more riders on the fork before the World Cup season kicks off.
When asked for comment, Ohlins simply stated “they are keeping the technology under wraps until much later in the season…”
You can check out the current Ohlins fork offerings here,
