It’s been a long time since I’ve heard the “steel is real” mantra, but Caminade, a new French MTB brand certainly believes it as they are launching with two steel bikes: the 150mm full suspension One4All, already being raced in the Enduro World Series by Damien Oton, and the Simple Track, a 29er hardtail. Built by Cyfac, who we most recently covered in March, the One4All and Simple Track will be for sale in the U.S. and Canada come September. In the meantime, join us after the break for more pics and details.
Available in orange, black, white, and blue, the striking paint and curvy lines of the One4All is sure to catch a few eyes on the trail.
The Reynolds tubing, manual brazing and hand polishing of welds not only lend great aesthetics, but Caminade stands by this craftsmanship with an owner to owner lifetime guarantee.
The One4All has a 73mm threaded BB shell and the headtube is 44mm in diameter to accommodate tapered or straight steer tubes. The cable routing includes stops for adjustable height seatposts and the seatube has an integrated collar for 30.9mm diameter seatposts.
There’s not a lot of detail on the One4All’s proprietary suspension design, but it looks like it’ll keep the center of gravity for the frame low without having to disrupt tubing. Although most details on the geometry are still forthcoming, they’ve kept the chainstay a respectable 445mm.
The XC minded 29er Simple Track, also available in orange, white, black, or blue, uses the same curvy lines, pretty paint and steel (though a mix of Columbus and Reynolds) tubing as the One4All, as well as retaining the adjustable height seat tube cable stops, 44mm diameter head tube, 73mm BB shell and lifetime owner to owner guarantee.
The Simple Track uses a Syntace x-12 142x12mm thru axle system for its rear dropout and direct mount front derailleur.
The geometry is pretty standard in many ways and should fit most riders; however, I think their sizing leaves a lot of taller riders out (admittedly, at 6’4″ I might be a bit biased here). The Simple Track only comes in two sizes, both with a 45cm seat tube (59 and 61cm top tubes). Under their logic you use your seatpost to fit your inseam. But with that logic, someone with an inseam above 32 inches would be putting an awful lot of stress on both the seatpost and the insertion point into the seat tube, resulting in lost rigidity and power transfer among other things.
