Anneke Beerten and Cody Kelley Sign with Alchemy Bicycles for 2018

 Has it occurred to anyone that not everyone out there is proportioned like Patrick Ewing and wants a super long front center? That some people also prefer to achieve wheelbase with a slightly longer chainstay and be more centered in the bike vs. riding the rear wheel? I demoed an Arktos, and while out of my price range, the bike pretty much ripped.

 I'm so glad I'm a 90's kid and get that Patrick Ewing reference. . . .

 @Waldon83: we’re not all JR Ewing either! You old enough to get that?

 @Monstertruckermotherfuker: Not that much..........

 Agree, dated numbers especially for enduro racing, 448mm reach with 518 STL is absurd.

I'm 5'10" with a long torso/short legs, my trail bike has 460mm reach (I run a 35mm stem) and 480mm STL and I pretty much have to slam a 125mm dropper for it to work.

 @Monstertruckermotherfuker: Who shot JR?

 I thought chainstays longer than reach was thing of the past, but here we are.
This bike reminds me of my old Commencal Meta 5.5 from 2010 with similar numbers.

Should be sold with hacksaw to cut off excessive 5cm from STL. This will make "XL" more like modern "M" size.

My loyalty to Transition bikes only increased, since this is one of few brands where I can pick XL with 500 reach and still be able to run 150-160mm seatpost.

Beautiful bike tho, can't argue that.

 Physically I am biased towards that sort of shape frame but even for me that reach/seat tube wont work so who is it for?

Wait till the new Pivot riders try and run that Mach6c with a dropper. They are going to have a job lowering it because of the very limited insertion. With the Arktos and the Pivot we could be seeing some seat driven OTB action this season!

 @Monstertruckermotherfuker: I do!!!!!!!

 @Theguyfromthealps: asked my GF if she’s ever heard of JR Ewing, she’s never heard of Patrick Ewing, God I love that she’s 15 years younger!

 “Who shot JR”@Monstertruckermotherfuker:

 @Travel66: Add Norco Range 29 to that list. OTB Machine

 @Monstertruckermotherfuker: and what about Adam and Eve Ewing , I win !

 @SlodownU: no kidding eh, glad I'm not the only one.

 @Travel66: I have a Mach 6 seat height is not an issue

 It'll look as if Cody simply switched paint colors instead of a completely different brand.

 @Ron-C: Geometry is quite different. It'll be interesting if Cody has a custom frame or makes use of anglesets; I have a hard time seeing him riding EWS with a 66 degree HTA and short reach

 @hamncheez: His previous SB5.5 had a HTA of 66.5, so unless he wants to go slacker because the EWS trails he'll be riding are more gnarly, he's at least used to the a HTA in that ballpark. I think the big change for him will be going from 29 to 27.5. Also reach is relatively short on the 5.5 at 463 for an XL, vs 448 for the XL Arktos.

We could see Alchemy develop a 29er with CK to ride on as well!

 @hamncheez: Considering Cody's bmx background and style, I'm thinking he might actually like a shorter top tube and steeper head angle. Seems more his style.

 The suspension designer, Dave Earle, also designed the Switch Technology system on the SB-66.

 It is basically Yeti's old Switch link. Engineered by the same guy. Just the geometry seems to be a more outdated version of the SB 66 geo...

 @tgent @gordon2456 He rode a mix of the 5.5 and the 6c last season, although he only rode the first few EWS stops for some reason. The 6c has a HTA of 65

 So basically, if I understand this right, Anneke and Cody signed onto the 2013 Yeti enduro team?

 @MortifiedPenguin: 2013 with 650b wheels

 @MortifiedPenguin: : )

 @hamncheez : They probably will have prototypes for them to ride that have slightly more modern geo numbers.

 Just like Sam Pilgrim on a Haibike - he will be very happy

 Guessing they can make a few one offs for the two of them if they ask for it. I assume they make the MTB here in the states one at a time like the road bikes correct?

 @downhillnews: cant really do one off frames with carbon unless you have tons of money. need to machine molds which i understand costs like a 100k

 @adrennan: Ha ha i does not cost a 100k to machine a mold.More like 5k.

 @adrennan: I met a guy who worked with composites for non-MTB stuff, and he said one-off pieces actually aren't too bad, as you can make moulds from styrofoam or wood, but they're only good for one use. I've seen photos of custom carbon road bike frames that people have made that way as garage projects.

 @Jagungal: Surface quality of machined styrofoam isn't that pretty so you're going to see that on the final product. You can machine the coarse shape out of styrofoam, then cover it with ceramic paste and wait for it to cure. Then machine the precise shape into that. Still single use mold but obviously not as expensive as machined steel. Some people seem to miss the point why the molds for mass production are so expensive. It is because they need to be durable. If you plan to produce in lower quantities, you can use less durable molds, for instance aluminium. That's what they do with injection molding too. For single products you make a single use mold. No need to waste expensive cutting tools on a chunk of steel for that.

 @rideonjon: Its a lot closer to 100k than 5k, but as others have said one offs in carbon are fairly easy and not too expensive so i can see the team using one offs to test more radical numbers before laying down the big bucks for a mold to mass produce it.

 @maglor: 5k is like 50 hours of machining,even if half the budget was spent on CAD and material that is still 25 hours of CNC time.Plenty of time to machine a frame mold.

 @rideonjon: But when you factor in the size of the block it makes the material very expensive, especially when it's high quality for a durable long lifespan (talking production run here). you also need 2 halves and a second mold for the swingarm, then you need at least 3 different sizes (maybe 2 if you're just making frames for the team) but by the time you've done all that it will be getting towards 100k (especially as i assume your talking $ and not £)

Also i think your 25 hours to machine is optimistic, according to Hope each half of their carbon frame mold takes a week.

 @maglor: We're not talking about multiple moulds for different sizes,we're talking one mould.My estimate is not far off.I've ran bigger parts in a lot less time.

 @rideonjon: I agreed in my first comment that cheaper one off molds can be used for team bikes and testing but my point was when it comes to making larger numbers for production those high cost are about right.

And I think the run time is less about the size of the part (although obviously it factors) but more about the complexity of the part.

 @vinay: There are aluminiums out there that are specific to mould making and durable enough for production runs.Alumec being one of them.

 @maglor: I'm a machinist and have spent 1000's of hours behind a cnc controller,it does not take that long to machine a mould for a bike frame.You can believe that it costs 100k if you want ,but it doesn't.

 @rideonjon: what do you mean by "costs"?

 @eriksaun: Really you're going to get all grammar Nazi on me.
noun
plural noun: costs
1.
an amount that has to be paid or spent to buy or obtain something.
"we are able to cover the cost of the event"
synonyms: price, asking price, market price, selling price, unit price, fee, tariff, fare, toll, levy, charge, rental; More

 @rideonjon: no, no... like you say, cost means a lot of things... just want to understand how you mean to use the word... so you are saying that if one would want to one-off a front triangle in a mold suitable for the purpose, as a machinist you would sell that one mold for $5000?...

 See below

 @eriksaun: Yah that sounds about right.

 Hmm...no more Ellsworth?

 I noticed that the BikeCo down the road had a new Alchemy bike on display. They are one of the sponsors for Lopes too. It looked pretty.

 Rumor has it Ellsworth dropped him.

 Lopes will be on Ibis again this year, I believe. But yes, BikeCo has Alchemy in stock. Shop owner Joe has been Lopes' mechanic for years.

 Same here. It's more us mortals having a tendency to blame insufficient capability to our bike not being 'good' enough. This is whats fueled by the industry, of course. I think at the end of the day people constantly moaning on bikes being this and that should try considering of they themselves might be the problem that needs adressing. That however is uncomfortable as it requires more than just tiping the Pin for the credit card.

 instagram.com/p/BdvT4CzB0dS

Looks like that seat tube angle is really throwing him off

 Yes

 Nah, just checked the picture in the article. Bike is completely clean, pads still need to be bed in, hairs still on the tires... Have you read Mike Kazimer's article lately? This bike has been bought, put away and only came out for the press release and the annual service. It is no beach cruiser either...

 @vinay: cheap manufacturer that doesn't know what they're doing. My guess is that they will all break some frames but never make it to the interwebs.

 The chemistry between the riders will be magical.

 Hopefully it will be transformative for the riders.

 So long as they don’t use an elixir

 Perhaps this new formula will net the team some hardware, preferably gold, I suppose.

 I bet they can turn the rider's medals to gold

 @hyroller80: Check out the video where Lopes rides dressed as Santa. He is on a Alchemy.

 Nobody cares about a double/triple parking douche that punches people on the podium

 Not to add fuel to the fire, but Ellsworth is suspiciously missing from Lopes' "Sponsors" section on his Web site. brianlopes.com

 @btablak: he got sponsored by ellsworth, and then read all the comments..

 @btablak: He's doing at least two more demo days for them in SoCal. Check his calendar. Maybe he'll announce a change just before Sea Otter?

 I want to be on Anneke's team, too.

 @hyroller80: was

 Pretty sure they only do custom Geo for their road and gravel bikes, they only do their “semi custom” for the MTB, aka custom paint.

 @aushred: This. You can't get custom geo. That being said and knowing Cody prefers a 29er based on how much more he rode his Yeti SB5.5 vs SB6 last year, I would bet Alchemy develops a 29er Enduro bike in the 150-160mm travel range with more modern geo, with him.

 i mean cody kelly is great marketing for any company. he has style, pretty solid results, and a really big social media following (see style). kid from the US on a US made bike? hell yes.

 It was probably just a standard team change. Contract ended, various offers comes in, she looks at them all and decides which will be the best for her.

 probably cause they wouldn't send him the all EWS races. If you notice they both mention in their IG post FULL 2018 EWS season.

 @NickZ23: I bet that's the reason as well.