Cybro's eye-catching N6 hardtail has been making the rounds, first appearing and
Eurobike and then more recently showing up at the
Bespoked show in the UK. The carbon frame is made in Bassano Del Grappa, Italy, and uses Pinion's C12 gearbox.
The C12 has 12 gears that are separated by 17.7% steps, with a total overall range of 600%. Part of the allure of hardtails is the lack of pivots, and the resulting reduction in maintenance. The addition of a gearbox takes things a step further - the only maintenance Pinion says it needs is an oil change once a year, or every 10,000 km. The C12 is driven by a Gates belt, with a bolt at the junction of the seat and chainstays to make removal possible. Intend's Edge fork handles front suspension duties, delivering 180mm of travel.
There aren't any concrete geometry figures available, because Cybro individually tailors each N6 to its rider based off of their measurements. The N6 is designed to run 27.5" wheels though, an interesting departure from the trend towards 29" wheels, especially on hardtails.
The complete built shown here is price at 7420 Euro. Needless to say, this certainly isn't a budget build.
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONSGearbox: Pinion C12
Sprockets: Gates Carbon Drive 32T front and 34T rear
Belt: Gates Carbon Drive 113 belt length
Fork: Intend Edge 27.5 - 180mm travel
Frame: carbon fiber, custom sizing
Headset: Wolftooth tapered
Rims: Cybro Carbon Components. 27.5"
Spokes: Stainless steel
Tires: WTB Trail Boss 2.40 TSC Black/Skinwall
Brake lever and caliper: Magura MT Trail SL
Rotor: Magura MDR-P Disc 203 front, 203 Rear
Grips: Renthal Lock-on Grip Tech
Stem: Renthal, Apex 35mm
Handlebar: Renthal Fatbar Lite Carbon 35mm 780mm
Saddle: Repente Spyd for Cybro
Seatpost: One Up Dropper Post V2 31.6
Seatpost Remote: Wolf Tooth ReMote BarCentric
More information:
Cybro Industries
My experimentation with aggro hard tails is that beyond 130mm of front travel the mismatch of front to rear makes riding fast painful and unenjoyable. IDK maybe I'm just a grumpy old man.
The 419 CS make it wheelie fun and manual like a dream. Pop n play, no problem for a bunny hop mid trail to get over a nasty root ball or navigate the north shore tech. I should note that I run a size down (m/l, 465 reach and Im 182 cm tall). 63.5 degree HTA, oh baby yes please. Diving into the steep rolls and jank feels so much better e.g. the roll on upper oil can call big slick felt way better on my hard tail than my previous trail bike, the jeffsy with a 67 HTA (ew).
Now I haven't ridden it on too much some really scary stuff or Cypress but if you are into a n+1 bike, go chromag for fun do it all 27.5 long travel.
HTs can also be a bike packing, DJ and trail bike. They just fit easily into more slots. That being said, some downcountry bike look mighty good too e.g. transition spur.
And the inability to properly tension the belt without a huge roller just isn't pretty. It needs a more elegant solution than slapping a big ugly roller to a nice looking frame.
Here the frame opening is at the rear axle, you remove a bolt and mount/unmount the belt between the chainstay and seatstay. The rear axle clamps everything together (funny I got the same idea a few weeks before seeing their product at the bike show in october).
So with this device sliding dropouts were not an option.
As a tele skier and hard tail dude, I don't even fully understand it but dang if its not fun with an extra challenge.
The suffering, the challenge, the "being different for no good reason" and the soul of the sport. May I say that the turn is more soulful?
For the record my bfe rides great with 27.5" wheels and a 160mm fork.
Done AND done.
For reference: I have never ridden a gearbox bike. I ride deore hubs.