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Take on the race circuit with the Foundry Firetower XT 29″ Carbon HT

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Foundry Firetower 29er race hardtail carbon_

Foundry’s latest bike is a bit of an outlier when it comes to current trends with 29ers. It’s not Boost. It’s not plus compatible. Instead, it’s a performance oriented 29″ hardtail with an eye towards XC. Built to offer a high level of performance that is still attainable for many riders, the Firetower will be climbing the race circuit this September…

Foundry Firetower 29er race hardtail carbon_-6 Foundry Firetower 29er race hardtail carbon_-2

Foundry Firetower 29er race hardtail carbon_-5 Foundry Firetower 29er race hardtail carbon_-8

It may seem a bit odd with today’s line up of super sized tires, but the Firetower will only fit up to a 29 x 2.25″ tire. Offering plenty of tire clearance for XC racing, without the need for plus size clearance the frame can get away with a non-boost 12 x 142 rear axle. The carbon frame uses a blend of 40 and 24 ton UD carbon fiber, and is meant for a 100mm travel suspension fork. In this case, that’s a non-boost spacing RockShox Reba SL.

Foundry Firetower 29er race hardtail carbon_-4 Foundry Firetower 29er race hardtail carbon_-7

Another thing you won’t find on the Firetower is internal dropper cable routing. You could probably figure out a way to mount an externally routed dropper on the bike, but the Firetower was built without droppers in mind. The bottom bracket uses a PF92 shell, and the frame is 2x compatible though it will ship 1x complete.

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Available in S-XL sizing, complete bikes with a Shimano XT 1×11 drivetrain will run $3,695 while frames will be sold for $1,395. Expect the Firetower to hit stores by mid September.

foundrycycles.com

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PFS
PFS
8 years ago

I dont get it, what does this bike bring to the table? Its like they found a carbon mold from 3 years ago and decided to bring it back to life. I think that if you’re going to bring a bike to market that is xc oriented you can at least make it kind of up to date, i.e. boost, not pf92, dropper compatible…

he-man
he-man
8 years ago

Rumor is, foundry had so many warranty claims to process from their fragile broadaxe that they had to make a new bike… just so they would have something on hand to replace all the broken frames.

CowtownCyclist
CowtownCyclist
8 years ago

Yeah, this looks an awful lot like an open mold frame you can get off Ebay for about 350. I am not seeing an extra 1000 worth of paint.

MaraudingWalrus
8 years ago

I don’t see what this brings to the table that something from their Heller brand doesn’t. Too many bikes and like models from the QBP brands..

if what he-man says is true, then I guess this makes sense?

JH Aberschmidt
JH Aberschmidt
8 years ago

how many times can you re-name the same (deleted)?

John Baker
8 years ago

I had a Broadaxe that I loved riding. After getting tangled in some trash, the rear derailleur hanger caught and tore the hanger out of the frame. Foundry is covering it under warranty. It looks like the hanger on this bike is replaceable and hopefully more durable.

SMH
SMH
8 years ago

This makes absolutely zero sense.

ScottE
ScottE
8 years ago

These comments are a distillation of much that’s wrong with the bike industry today. “It’s three year old tech, IT’S WORTHLESS!!!!!!”

Matthew Snow
Matthew Snow
8 years ago

Ouch, $3700 for a carbon HT when you could get FS?

Mike D
8 years ago

A 70 degree head tube angle for all that red hot XC racing that everyone is doing…10 years ago.
How can you have Salsa making KILLER XC stuff in the Spearfish, and then pump out this turd? Open mold frame indeed.

Craig
Craig
8 years ago
Reply to  Mike D

Yeah, Mike’s comment above get the “Interweb Comment of the Day” award.

joel
joel
8 years ago

These comments make me laugh so hard! Thanks guys.

dan
dan
8 years ago

Same Old Frame, Different Marketing Campaign. As others stated, it’s a 3 year old eBay/Alibaba/unopened cargo ship container full of $50 frames selling for $1350. Too expensive for a newbie XC racer, too incompatible for seasoned racers to transfer backup parts.

Craig
Craig
8 years ago

Genuine questions here:

-Who is actually buying Foundry frames/bikes? Ie, who are the target customers.

-They seem expensive for what they are, so are they priced deliberately with huge retailer margin so retailers can have an “on-floor” QBP brand that they can sell at a “discount”.

-Are QBP continuing with Foundry because:

A) They are actually selling them and making money, or

B) They aren’t selling, but they are continuing with them and not making any money (i.e., selling them heavily discounted) but to avoid embarrassment that Foundry hasn’t worked commercially. And will change the brand direction or phase out the brand over the next few years

Eric
Eric
8 years ago

Had a broadaxe and sold it to a buddy. A week later it breaks in half. Foundry says sorry your loss. I wouldn’t recommend anyone buy this or any other foundry carbon bike. The frame literally snapped in two right down the middle!

mike
mike
8 years ago

Dam! There seems to be a lot of foundry haters. My broadaxe is a rigid singlespeed and I absolutely love it. “firefly” who’s naming these???

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