norcorider-13

I’ve had both derailleur and gearbox bikes, and will continue owning both for their respective applications. Saying that having to accept sending something away to be repaired is ridiculous is just the opposition to saying that we currently accept when something breaks we throw the whole thing in the garbage and buy a new one. The only reason you’ve formed the opinion you have is because there’s been infrastructure in place for decades that supports you being able to buy a new component instantly if it breaks. Are you equally upset if you break a frame and have to go through the process to get a replacement? While things absolutely happen, and gearboxes aren’t without their issues, the reason we need the access to replacement parts for current drivetrains is because of how susceptible to damage they are. I’m all for there being more options to service and repair gearboxes in the future, but your comment is a little dramatic.

If you take a closer look at the “enduro” build (4th image), you can see the mount that Kavenz is using to handle the different shock i2i’s. The 225mm requires nothing, and then there’s a +20mm and +40mm extender for the shorter shock options.

I think an interesting addition to this would be “bar width with grips”. I find most riders cut their bars to a specified width, but that grip choice can add 10-30mm to the overall width, which is a big margin. Especially as someone who rides with their hands right on the outside edge of the grip.

@trippleacht: that’s the hydraulic top-out that’s available as an aftermarket upgrade.

Really looking forward to this series! The V8 frame looks like it’s going to be incredible!

This is next level bike nerding, I love it! Great article.

@stoicbear: @stoicbear: can you elaborate on that? I’m fully on board that your suspension system works differently than the standard systems we have seen, especially when it comes to chain influence, and am really interested in the design, so please don’t take my questions as criticisms. While your bike may not follow the typical kinematic design principals for anti squat, which you mentioned doesn’t apply to mtb’s and which would account for the changes in performance and ride feel, are there also ways that it changes how you’d analyze anti rise, leverage ratio and axle path? As those would fall under kinematics and would influence the ride performance too.

There’s 2 aspects to anti squat, which doesn’t really get discussed all that often. One is due to chain tension, and one is due to instant centre location. This design seems to lean on the latter, meaning that even though it has high anti squat, it won’t extend the rear end while pedalling. Most high pivot bikes are doing this as well. It’s the idea of how you can have very low kickback while still resisting pedalling movement. This results in a stable platform, but the ability for the rear wheel to still track the ground. Once you’re up and out of the saddle mashing on the pedals, all these graphs and numbers are out the window because you’ve change your centre of mass used for the calculations. There’s a good forum over on Vital that dives deeper into the topic and worth a read if you’re interested in it.

I know that these bikes are going to get a ton of hate for how they look, but the suspension design looks like it offers some real merit in the way it performs. With some more design hours, I imagine packaging could be improved as well. It’s great to see people genuinely trying different things and pushing the envelope. Huge respect to Chris, for not just coming up with the idea, but making 2 working variations of his design!

I believe the chainring is from Fraezen.