Evil Bikes/E.thirteen Components at Interbike

A lot of new stuff from the Evil/e.thirteen guys. First big news was the announcement of their new Sovereign hardtail. The Sovereign frame was designed primarily as a street/trail frame. Its development began just before the Interbike 2001 tradeshow, and it took almost 1.5 years for them to get its custom butted/ sized Reynolds 853 tube set completed. They wanted something that a rider could take on a day long seated XC ride, yet still handle the largest drops and most technical ramp action. Handling had to be on par with the Imperial frame, so Evil laid out the bike's geometry to be quick but balanced, a combination that Evil feels they have perfected, but eludes many others. The frame had to be easily convertible to single speed, yet still offer the security and convenience of a vertical dropout.
The Sovereign uses a geometry set that they first tested with their Alpha prototype Imperial frames in 2001. Because they wanted this frame to do double duty as a high strength trail and park bike (with less of an emphasis on Mountain X, DH), the head angle reverts back to 69 degrees with a 5-inch fork, and it features the Imperial's 13 inch bb height. With this layout, X-ups and bar spins are simple, and front toe friendly. Top tube length is a little longer than the Imperial at 23.1. Wheelbase remains pegged around 41 inches. Like the Imperial, the seat post is actually very slightly off-center of the BB to attain desired flex characteristics in the rear end of the bike.

The Sovereign displays several innovative geometry features that deserve special mention.

First, is its 16.5 inch long seat tube. Evil's FEA testing consistently showed them that a 13.5 inch frame is not capable of supporting a full length raised seat post enough to prevent breakage and possible rider injury. After much computer-aided analysis, Dave Weagle found that increasing seat tube length and seat post diameter could allow riders to run their seat height at full length.

Second is its super short chainstay length capability. The Sovereign frame can run a 26X2.35 tire at a minimum chainstay length of 15.5 inches. With this combination, there is plenty of mud clearance as well. For comparison, most other steel frames on the market struggle to attain a 15.75 minimum chainstay with a 24 inch wheel. This unique and highly desirable feature is a function of their exclusive offset asymmetrical monostay construction.

The third geometry feature that makes this bike special is its ability to run 26 inch or 24 inch rear wheels without changing frame geometry. The rear chainstays and dropouts were designed to allow a 24 inch specific rear dropout that drops the rear axle center by ~1 inch to compensate for the 24 inch rear wheel.

The double-X rated dropout system is a combination of the Imperial's triple-X-rated system, and a sliding dropout. The reason for this unique setup may not be immediately apparent to most, but makes a lot of sense when it is explained. With that being said, here's the explanation! Because this is a multi-duty frame, it needs to be versatile. Street riders prefer short chainstay lengths, and sometimes even a single-speed setup. Almost all trail riders prefer longer chainstay lengths and derailleurs. In order to accommodate this, some sort of chainstay length adjustment is necessary. The sovereign frame features 32mm of horizontal chainstay adjustment (15.5 in to 16.76 in). This adjustment is broken down into two 16mm pieces. The reality is that by using a shorter adjustment slot, Dave built a lighter and stronger rear dropout system than any other they had tested previously. They have devised and tested other ways of accomplishing this goal, just none as reliable, strong, versatile, and lightweight as what is presented on this frame.


Material: One of the things that make this frame incredibly special is its Reynolds 853/725 air-hardening tube set. For those who are not familiar with Reynolds, you can view information about them at www.reynoldsusa.com. Reynolds steel tubing is considered by many to be the highest quality in the world. All of the tubing is pierced and butted from solid billet instead of rolled and welded from sheet stock like some other tubing. Over the last 1.5 years, they have worked closely with the engineers at Reynolds to develop a high strength butted tube set that could be used for this application. This was a groundbreaking project for Evil and Reynolds at the same time. Over the last 100 years, their tube sets have been refined over and over. Their frames have won numerous road titles around the world. Never before though, had they built a tube set as strong as what Evil needed for the Sovereign frame. Through Evil’s high level of analysis, they were able to develop a specification for this tube set. Reynolds manufactured them to exacting precision, and the result is the incredibly strong, yet 5.2 lb light Sovereign frameset. This custom tube set allowed them to build a frame with an incredible strength to weight ratio compared to normal 4130 and other types of formed steel tubing. The strength to weight ratio should be close to the Imperial frame, which right now is at the same level as some top road and XC hardtail frames. As far as Dave’s analysis has shown, at this point, there seem to be no other frames in the aggressive market with this level of structural refinement applied to them. (not to say that means the bikes can't be broken, just that these bikes are "special" in that they possess unusually high strength to weight ratios) Over the next 4 months, they plan to ride as hard as they can to test these prototype frames. With any luck they will learn some things and apply what they learn to the production models. Dave has a few ideas already. A summer release is planned.


Also on display was their prototype Imperial G-Boxx hardtail called “2013i”. The bike is still in it’s very early stage and is not to be manufactured for at least a few years, thus the name 2013i. If Evil were to produce this bike for summer of 2004, it would end up being ridiculously expensive. So keep an eye on their site for more updates.


On the component side of things, e.thirteen has a few new goodies in store for 2004. New chainrings, Stems, pedals, bashguards and guides!



Click here to play Dave Weagle’s 2004 Interbike Audio Interview.

For more info on Evil bikes visit their web site at www.evilbikes.com

For more info about e.thirteen components visit their web site at www.e13components.com