First Look - Prototype Devinci All-Mountain Bike

Do you remember the very special bike that Devinci's Stevie Smith rode at last year's World Championship's in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa? At the time Devinci alluded to the machine being a near one-off project bike that had been designed and built exclusively for team riders to use on the relatively smooth and pedal heavy track, although it didn't take a genius to figure out that a company likely wouldn't put that much effort towards a new platform if it was never going to make production. It seems as if that last fact is proving to be true, with Devinci - Alltricks rider Damien Oton showing off what looks to be a revision of the same bike that Stevie Smith raced in Africa.



While it hasn't been confirmed at this point, there is a good chance that it features many of the same details as that World Champs' machine that was assembled around 650B wheels and sported 165mm of rear wheel travel. The bike employs a relatively low main pivot that is just a touch higher than the chain ring, likely in an effort to create a keen pedalling design, and the shock is driven straight off of the seat stays rather than a rocker link as seen on Devinci's other mid-travel bikes. Of course, Split Pivot is used, with the concentric axle pivot being from the mind of Dave Weagle, and a short and stout looking short link ties the seat stays together. The photo above might make it look as if the frame is carbon fiber, but zooming in reveals what appears to be welds, and the very un-carbon-like abrupt tube junctions have us believing that this is an aluminum frame.

It is impossible to glean anything geometry-wise from the photo above, but Weagle had this to say about the prototype that was raced at World Champs last year: ''In this case I closely matched certain parts of the geometric and ride feel of the existing Wilson,'' he explained to Pinkbike back in August of 2013. ''This bike is made to keep Steve in his comfort zone, while letting him carry more speed in certain areas, and gain speed where a full DH bike may be more cumbersome.'' That certainly points towards a mid-travel machine that leans more towards getting the most out of it on a downhill rather than a rig intended to do double duty as a lightweight trail bike.