Remi Thirion Introduces the Commencal Meta AM V.2 - Video
La Palma, often nicknamed ‘Isla Bonita’ or ‘The Beautiful Island,’ was the destination of choice for Rémi Thirion and his Brushed Meta AM V4.2 to finish off an excellent downhill season, having achieved a 6th place world ranking!
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From the first day on location, we were blown away by the beauty of the place. The Latin American influence was obvious and it’s just 3 hours by plane from France. The island is so diverse; we came across all types of terrain from coastal paths and pine forest to jungle and volcanoes, all in just three days!
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 | This Meta AM V4.2 is a good progression in evolution. It allows more commitment in downhill and through the technical sections. The bike is also more forgiving thanks to its increased travel. In addition, it's lighter and pedals better than its predecessor. - Remi Thirion. |
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Known for its ancient trails and landscapes, this island of the Canary archipelago seemed perfect to go and ride enduro. The Meta AM V4.2 was, therefore, the ideal weapon for pedaling in search of the best trails on the mountain, often hidden in the heart of a forest or on volcanic faces.
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Our biggest surprise was this black forest on the side of the main mountain, victim of a fire a few months earlier.
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The Brushed version (lighter than a painted frame by up to 60g) of our new Meta V4.2 was also the perfect contrast to the many beautiful colours on this island. With the extra ".2” you get even more; a longer reach, a reworked kinematic and 10mm more travel to help on the up and downhills. All-round performance has been improved because of these new changes and with the added technologies of Boost and Metric, the Meta V4.2 is at the forefront of enduro.
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Riding bikes can lead you to unusual places, like this fishing village, hidden between two lava flows at the edge of the ocean.
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Bike and rider cleaned up after a day of filming.
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Beyond just an experience on the bike, riding on this island allowed us to meet the local riders (founders and developers of the majority of the tracks of the island) who guided and helped us throughout filming. We were able to discover incredible places thanks to them and this gave us a little more insight into the way of life and the local culture. To spend time both on and off the bike with these local guys was undoubtedly one of the highlights of our stay.
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Check out the full photo album here.
AVAILABLE NOW
META AM V4.2 WORLD CUP 650B BRUSHED 2017
Frame
2017 Meta AM V4.2 650b Travel 160mm
Shock
RockShox Super Deluxe RC3, 230x60, 3 positions
Fork
RockShox Lyrik RCT3, 170 mm, solo air, boost
Brakes
SRAM Guide RS, 200mm / 180mm
Rear Mech
SRAM XO1 Eagle, 1 x 12 speed
Cranks
SRAM XO1 EAGLE, 34 T, boost 170 mm on S/M, 175 mm on L/XL
Cassette
SRAM XG 1295, 10–50 T, 12 speed
Rims
Spank Oozy Trail 345 Wheelset, 32 holes, tubeless ready, 30.5mm inner
Weight
13,89 kg
Sizes
S/M/L
Price
4599€ / US$ 4699
Frame
2017 Meta AM V4.2 650b Travel 160mm
Shock
RockShox Super Deluxe RC3, 230x60, 3 positions
Fork
RockShox Lyrik RCT3, 170 mm, solo air, boost
Brakes
SRAM Guide RS, 200mm / 180mm
Rear Mech
SRAM XO1 Eagle, 1 x 12 speed
Cranks
SRAM XO1 EAGLE, 34 T, boost 170 mm on S/M, 175 mm on L/XL
Cassette
SRAM XG 1295, 10–50 T, 12 speed
Rims
Spank Oozy Trail 345 Wheelset, 32 holes, tubeless ready, 30.5mm inner
Weight
13,89 kg
Sizes
S/M/L
Price
4599€ / US$ 4699
The Range starting at 2199€ / US$ 2199 / CAD$ 2899 available on our online store .
MENTIONS: @COMMENCALbicycles
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134 Comments
You REALLY do't get it, do you?
those photos of the burned forest are astonishing. wow
The V4.2 Ride for 2500€ has the same specs as the 4700€ Enduro Elite carbon.
hypothetical example: you have the budget for a new bike you crave and that you plan to ride for a long time. For about the same price you can either pick the carbon frame with lower spec or the alu version of the same bike with better spec.
Over the years, you'll have to replace parts anyway, so that will be a chance to upgrade. And when a bit more money comes in, you can upgrade some other key parts by hunting deals on CRC.
The frame is that one part that tends to last longer than all the others; might as well get the carbon one to start with. It tends to be lighter, stiffer, and.... and,,, and well that's it. EDIT: forget it, you might be right.
Durability wise I cased too many jumps on my 2008 Nomad and tornmented wives 1.4 aluminium coke can XC frame, to care and then messed up the carbon Blur TRc by hitting a rock on a climb. A 3mm bit on the swingarm under the lower bearing chipped away, and after several cases of 20ft jumps a crack started appearing around the place. SC used to say they have the best carbon in the business.
My current frame is carbon but it's a long story, the opportunity to buy it came along when I was in the search of Enduro 29 in alu in a good shape. I'd rather buy a quality alu frame and put the money on some super cool shock like Öhlins TTX or EXT Storia
So I paid 3k (USD) for the base bike. And best I can figure about 1.2k for the upgrades. I now have exactly what I want and a kit that is arguably better than the top end kit of the time, for about 1k less dollars. So that route worked for me. But it took time and patience and knowing I was committed to that frame.
Zen state
For instance. A quality sub 1kg XC frame or 30g carbon rim could highly probably take casing of a 5m jump because there's enough stiffness and strength in the material. Now if you tried that on a 1.2kg aluminium Scott Team Issue from 2004 and ZTR Alpina rims, you'd stop in one place with rims folding in half and fork getting in line with the downtube and seat stays in your arse.
Now in order to survive a weekend of EWS, we all know that aluminium frames need to weigh around 2.8kg without the shock and rims need to be in ZTR Flow EX/MK3, DT Ex471 area of 500g. You just need this much material to survive forces coming at the bike from terrain. My 2.2kg Blur TRc was stiff enough for anything I desired it to do, I have never felt it flexing. So theoretically, you could build a carbon Nomad at 2.2kg and get enough stiffness, as long as it would not come in contact with rocks at speed. But you need to beef it up to make it less brittle, and the only way to do that is to provide thickness in critical areas. So you end up with a frame that is strong and stiff as f*ck. It is not a problem on a frame but it is a problem on a rim or handlebar. A carbon rim able to survive park or shuttle days needs to come in 450 gram area, in order to cope with inevitable bottom outs of tyre to the rim. And at this weight, at this amount of material, put there solely for the purpose of withstanding very local hits, it is too stiff to be able to bend sideways and twist across the section. Renthal stated it themselves: it was very hard to design a carbon handlebar in 35mm diameter to provide same damping characteristics of 31.8.
So the crux of use of carbon fibre in gravity bikes, is that in order to overcome the hits to objects, weight of frames and components need to be brought to levels just under their modern aluminium counterparts, which clearly stand up to the task.
In this way the benefit of weight saving is nearly gone while hit resistance is comparable and you are left with a massive surplus of strength and stiffness that is hard to utilize. Add differences between particular types of carbon fibre used to build and ways of manufacture of high end carbon frames to cheap ones, and youend up with a huge question mark whether it is better to buy a quality aluminium frame or spend more cash for whatever carbon frame or MUCH more cash for a high end carbon.
*palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy*
De de doom da doom
BTW
La Palma is just one of the finest places on Earth and the bike looks great!
The negatives and possitves, thanks.
Very well these frames but why does not there exist in carbon?