Spotted: New Grim Donut Prototype?

The race season is pretty much over and half the world is entering six months of wet, cold darkness, but that doesn't mean that brands have stopped testing and developing prototypes that you might see on the sales floor down the road.

Long-time Pinker Montgomery Wilberfahrt was on his way to his favorite bean roastery after some Mt Seemore e-bike shuttle laps and spotted what appears to be the new Grim Donut prototype strapped to the back of a rusty car that was parked near some smelly dumpsters. Thinking fast, he was able to take a quick photo before the car sped off, nearly torque-steering right into a ditch in its hurry to escape.

Like any good Pinker, Wilberfahrt followed the unknown test rider non-stop for the next two weeks, sleeping in his Tacoma's roof-top tent across the road from the tester's house and even following him to the closest Tim Hortons an astonishing dozen times every day. Laying on his stomach under a truck, Wilberfarht was finally able to snap another photo of the wild-looking machine with his cellphone before being chased off by the angry tester who apparently had three double chocolate donuts in his mouth while screaming something about an erosion of trust between brands and media.




For his part, Wilberfahrt told us that he sent his hard-earned spy shots to all the major mountain bike websites but was told that posting them would only generate more clicks, more community discussion, and probably piss off a brand who would then refuse to send them free tall socks and a box-shaped t-shirt. So they refused. But since Pinkbike has its own t-shirt store, we've chosen to share the photos regardless of the unnamed test rider's threats.

We reached out to Grim Bicycle Company for a quote about what appears to be the new V2 Donut prototype, but they immediately panicked and asked us to delete the photos and hit Wilberfahrt with the ban-hammer for going against Shore Code article 3.27b: 'Something something bro secrets and loam something something, etc.' Grim then pointed out that they advertise on Pinkbike, paying for a 100 x 200px banner on the homepage and that means they're protected by an unwritten agreement that has more or less always existed between bike companies and media outlets to not post photos of unreleased prototypes. Losing Grim's ad revenue means that we'll have to fire Kazimer, of course, but this story is a quick win that we can't say no to. Sorry Kaz.

Wilberfahrt was sent a single Pinkbike t-shirt for his efforts.

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Did we just leak our own bike? Does that mean these aren't real spy shots? Is there a review tomorrow? Stay tuned for more about the new Grim Donut that's manufactured at Pivot's US prototyping facility in Arizona, including how it can use two different suspension links (one provides zero pedaling performance on purpose, while the other is designed by an actual engineer). As for the geometry, it's probably still the right amount of stupid.

If you're at Sea Otter, head to Pivot's booth (#R36) on Saturday morning to see the new Grim Donut in person and pick up some donuts of your own.