Bike Check: Kevin Miquel's Sunn Kern LT - EWS Zermatt 2020

Aug 28, 2020
by Mike Kazimer  

Kevin Miquel bike check
BIKE CHECK
Kevin Miquel's
Sunn Kern LT
Photos: Matt Delorme



Kevin Miquel had a breakout season in 2019, finishing the year in 3rd place overall. The French rider also placed 4th at Zermatt last year, so he's certainly one to watch this weekend. He'll be aboard an XL Sunn Kern, a size that wasn't available last season, which should work well with his 190 cm (6'3") height.

Hutchinson's Toro tires have been installed to deal with the rain that's predicted to arrive - at the moment, it's looking like it could be a wet and sloppy weekend. Other than that, Miquel's setup is quite similar to what he was running previously, and he's eager to pick up where he left off.


Kevin Miquel bike check
Rider Name: Kevin Miquel
Team: Sunn Team Enduro
Height: 190cm / 6'3"
Instagram: @kevin.miquel

Kevin Miquel bike check

Kevin Miquel bike check

Details
Frame: Sunn Kern EN LT
Fork: Formula Selva - 75 psi positive, 95 psi negative
Shock: Formula (400 lb/in spring)
Wheels: FSA Afterburner
Tires: Hutchinson Toro
Inserts: Rear: Slicy Smooth / Front: none
Drivetrain: SRAM X01 / FSA SL-K cranks
Brakes: Formula Cura 4
Dropper post: FSA Flowtron

Kevin Miquel bike check
Kevin Miquel bike check
Grip tape on the brake levers and shifter thumb paddle for extra traction.

Kevin Miquel bike check
We still haven't heard an official name for Formula's upcoming coil shock, but Miquel's running one with a 400 lb/in spring.

Kevin Miquel bike check
Kevin Miquel bike check
Formula handles the braking and suspension duties.

Kevin Miquel bike check
Look X-Track En-Rage pedals.
Kevin Miquel bike check
Hutchinson Toro tires, with a Slicy insert in the rear.

Kevin Miquel bike check
That mud guard could come in handy if the weather forecast is accurate.

Kevin Miquel bike check
Kevin Miquel bike check
A 36-tooth chainring ensures Miquel will need to be going silly fast before he spins out.


Posted In:
Reviews and Tech Bike Checks Enduro Bikes Sunn Sunn Kern Kevin Miquel Enduro World Series Ews Zermatt 2020


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87 Comments
  • 99 0
 I just stared at that bike/frame for over a minute and I still can't decide if I love it or hate it. Some pretty unique shapes going on.
  • 3 0
 yep, it is the part that foes up from the bottom bracket and holds the upper mount of the shock
must be a floating rear shock, right?
  • 185 7
 I know what you mean. I do the same thing with my girlfriend sometimes.
  • 10 1
 @Pedal-Bin: LOL
  • 15 0
 @Pedal-Bin - I'm gonna assume your girlfriend doesn't frequent this website
  • 17 0
 I think just for sheer effort we must appluad Sunn for doing someting new and interesting! A tip of the hat from me!
  • 8 0
 I like the frame design looks unique.
  • 7 0
 love it
  • 3 0
 @Pedal-Bin: same with the wife!
  • 4 0
 @gtill9000: his 'girlfriend' is actually a sticker of a chick on his bike, so i would guess not Smile
  • 5 1
 It made me think of Battlestar Galactica. The original one. The only real one, but that's a different forum altogether.
  • 2 0
 @Pedal-Bin: Smile and she probably does the same?
  • 4 0
 @gtill9000: you could just put a nice looking glove on “her”.
  • 1 0
 The back end looks like something out of Tron to me.
  • 1 0
 @fielonator: Oh hellz yea! Vipers launch!
  • 1 0
 But not with you’re boyfriend? @Pedal-Bin:
  • 1 0
 I still think it's ugly but you gotta associate the uniqueness
  • 1 0
 @Pedal-Bin: Post picture -PBer's have great judgement.
  • 1 0
 @Pedal-Bin: does she even know she is your "girlfriend"?
  • 1 0
 @HairyLegs: Depends on the level of Ketamine?
  • 55 0
 It makes me feel good to see other brand components on race bikes. Formula brakes, Formula suspension, and Hutchinson tires. Not the run of the mill Rockshox/Maxxis combo you see all over the place. Great pics Pinkbike and thanks for showing us this dope rig.
  • 5 0
 I was thinking the same thing. Cool bike with a very unique build. Just proves once again that it's the rider, not the bike.
  • 2 1
 @Trudeez: well I do think the bike plays a part, but I think what you were trying to say was that you don’t need to be running the same big brands as the other top guys to do well?
  • 8 0
 Formula is really performing and has some killer prices in the OEM market. Unfortunately hardly any manufacturer specs them, so they remain quite rare. I have a Selva and a Cura. I wouldnt swap either of them for any other product on the market.
  • 7 1
 Formula products are really awesome. The Cura are the best brake of the market for half the price of Codes. But unfortunately 'muricans prefers Sram, where you need to use the DH brake in 200mm for trail bikes.
  • 4 0
 @Whipperman: true, but TBH its the same here in Europe. People tend to buy Sram/Shimano more because everyone is running on their products. I personally loce both selva fork and cura brakes
  • 3 0
 @johnyyy: I run shimano brakes because they work and I think they're the best value. I would love to try formula or hayes, or magura, but budget is tight and shimano gives me no reason to change.
  • 1 0
 How does the Cura 4 compare with Code or Shimano 4 pot brakes?
  • 1 0
 @ondreja: right, used cura 4 are for about the same price as new XT. Why? Well due to various factors, one of them: OEM parts. Sometimes you can find new XT set cheaper than normal shops are buying them.
  • 12 0
 I might be missing something here... Could that mudguard in front of the rear wheel not cover the whole aperture and block literally everything being flung in that direction? Seems odd leaving the shock half covered... Like, why did they paint the whole frame; just paint half of it?
  • 2 0
 Weight savings.
  • 1 0
 I think it allows the seat post room to extend down. But when you don’t have the seat post there it should be taller - like on a “factory” bike facing a mud race.
  • 1 0
 Thought the shock was boxed in but seeing that half mud guard made me itchy. Rocker doesn’t seem to interfere and the dropper cable only needs a tiny hole to go through. I don’t get why you wouldn’t cover it all? The crud and rocks that hole could collect..
  • 3 0
 maybe to generate airflow for the shock
  • 10 0
 Such a nice bike. So Euro. I've been running Cura's and a Selva this year through local distributor Alba and amazed at both the service, expertise, and quality of the product. Lots of wrist issues last year and totally gone this year with the Selva versus 36 Factory. That said, the level of adjustability on the Selva is insane and takes a while and lots of attention to get dialled. Every little adjustment option makes a big ride change. So patience is key, but when it all locks in, it's really really good. The Cura's are remarkable. Even in long 14-20 minute continuous descents over 2,200m, they never vary in lever feel, modulation, or power. So good that I got the Cura 2-pot for the trail bike.
  • 3 3
 tengo la misma idea d emis frenos 2 pistones, son un nivel supeior en frenos, respecto a la horquilla espero poder comprar una pronto.
  • 1 0
 How’s doing a lower / damper service on it?

Nowadays with covid I’ve been having to do all my own stuff.
  • 1 0
 @nvranka: So far I'm only 3 months in on the fork, so all I've done is the traditional tear-down of uppers from lowers, cleaning, and re-greasing, fresh fluid. Basically same procedure as RockShox. Videos make the damper service look manageable. The nice thing is that all specialty tools, a bottle of fork oil, shock pump, and 2 CTS valves (blue and gold) all come IN THE BOX. Hard to beat that.
  • 7 0
 Coolest looking linkage i've seen in a while. Cant help think of the crud that will get stuck in there, and inevitably chew the shit out of the paint / finish.
  • 1 1
 Well always one
  • 3 0
 I have one, it doesn't
  • 2 0
 @gravityfreak: Could you explain the shark fins on the rear triangle for me again....
  • 2 0
 @Waldon83: They help shave mud off the tyres if you’re riding in the wet
  • 1 0
 @timmyp661: Adding weight for shave weight, if there is added weight. If it help for traction I guess it’s revolutionary, like colour pencils.
  • 1 0
 @Waldon83: I think the idea is more along the lines that your wheel won’t clog up and come to a dead stop as easy but I didn’t design the bike so couldn’t tell ya
  • 1 0
 @Waldon83: How much traction will I loose if I keep drawing my comic black/white?
I guess Frank Miller knew that all along, once I've got my hands on SinCity with the yellow bastard and red Chucks, the books never slipped out of them until I finished reading.
I love myself insane, yes.
  • 3 0
 Curious to know how commonplace it is to see Sunn bikes in Europe and other countries outside of the US. I see the usual suspects by me (Santa Cruz, Trek, Specialized) as well as a lot of smaller companies (YT, Ibis, Pivot, Yeti, Transition, etc.). Just curious what the common brands we don't see a lot of are.
  • 5 0
 I have never ever seen a single sunn on trail in southern Germany.
  • 1 1
 @danimaniac: that’s because you don’t live in southern France ????
  • 2 0
 I want to see an Alutech so bad.
Spamming the human owning it.
Give me rare and beautiful!
Never seen an Ibis too.
I've never seen an expencive carbon bike with anything other then RS/Fox/Marz/lefty too?!?
I guess the greatest decade of MTB is dawning.
People want what they've been told to want, and most of it was lies, like always. That's why Shimano is going down and that makes me sad.
  • 2 0
 Sunn is a premium brand owned by an assembly factory depending of Intersport France's coop. They don't export so much out of France except for a few distributors, factory is already close to full capacity due to mass market bikes. So in France the brand is common because of the huge number of Intersport' stores.
  • 3 0
 The problem with large chainrings is that they decrease anti-squat, and with bikes that are already low on it with smaller chainrings, it's bad. I run a 30t with a 9-46 for this very reason, instead of moving to larger cassete/chainrings. Manufacturers need to realize that people are taking advantage of the range of the most recent drivetrains to get larger chainrings / greater top speed, and increase the anti-squat of their bikes / optimize it for larger chainrings.
  • 1 0
 I run a 26T with a 11cogs cassette for the same exact reason !
  • 2 0
 It would be great if PB made it a standard to have a rider POV photo of the cockpit to see the spacer(s), stem & bar setup....I find getting that dialed in to your preference is as important (or more) as suspension tuning.
  • 1 1
 This frame will always get grit between the rocker link and the fixed part of the frame. It will make annoying grinding noises whenever the rocker link moves. The only way to get it out will be to take the whole thing apart.
  • 1 0
 That's a cool looking bike. And he's 6'3" which is promising given the euro companies often fit very small so I go to check aaaaaand the XL isn't on the site nor are there geometry tables available. Sigh.
  • 1 0
 It's because south Slavs don't drive bikes much. Only tall and biking nation is Holland. They ride trakking bikes mostly. Go figure, it's all about the sales. Even if the whole MonteNegro buys 2x MTB each it would be a million, I can imagine that's about the same as French do per month.
  • 1 0
 Well it looks like it has a E/STA of around 77, size large reach of 484 so it would a surprise if the XL was over 500. So not really a tall guy bike.
www.ambmag.com.au/gallery/tested-sunn-kern-en-29-finest-547833
  • 1 0
 Still not sure wheter I love or hate the frame design. It's nice, clean and visually tidy, but still busy enough with all the angular lines to not be boring. Except for the lower seat tube area. Thats just a mess.
  • 1 0
 I think it's a beautiful bike and I see a big guy like him coming damn close to spinning out that 36 ring in the upcoming season.
  • 2 0
 love the bike and the build! supa sexy
  • 1 1
 Super cool looking but a horrible design for muddy regions. The shock is clearly going to get piled with mud even with the built-in fender.
  • 3 0
 Not really, I own the bike and the mud doesnt even get to the shock
  • 2 0
 Adjustments on that fork look like a bloody clock mechanism
  • 2 0
 If you ride it in a cave, it takes you back in time.
  • 3 4
 I don't really like bike with shapes that allign without weight on the bike. It looks good in a show room, but not so much when riding.
  • 17 0
 That's a good point but I'd prefer it this way. I figure if I'm looking at it, I'm not riding it and if I'm riding it I don't really care what it looks like.
  • 1 0
 @kelpaso: wear a full face and you don't even have to worry about what your cockpit looks like either.
  • 1 0
 Sharp lines... soo haaawwwt right now
  • 1 0
 What a clean looking bike. Any purpose of those wings on the chain stay?
  • 1 0
 i rekon they're mud scratchers of sorts
  • 1 0
 yo what are those plastic things on the seatstay? drivetrain mud guard?
  • 1 1
 i think it's meant to be a mud guard for the upper part of the rear shock.
  • 1 0
 You could deffo hide a battery amongst that linkage
  • 1 0
 want one just so I can put a O))) decal on it
  • 2 0
 Any doom/drone fans in here?
  • 2 0
 That frame is sexy.
  • 1 0
 Frenchiest build evar! Awesome sauce.
  • 3 4
 This frame looks like its going to break legs, way too sharp on the top tube. I would be very hesitant to put that shape between my legs from safety point of view.
  • 1 1
 You do realize that we all have a penis-like shaped object right underneath our asses on all of our bikes all the time?
  • 3 6
 Mistook it for an E-bike at a glance.

This thing doesn't even have a giant monolithic looking BB area or a low horizontal shock. Frames with those sort of features are even worse in this respect.

For me, being easily mistaken for a motorized bike is a non-starter. Anyone else out there have similar thoughts?
  • 1 0
 Go Kevin !

;-)
  • 1 0
 Just wow
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