Monday, December 19, 2016

Bold Cycles Linkin Trail and Internal Suspension

   I have been casually looking around for a medium to long travel 29er as a replacement for the Scalpel, and have come across some interesting bikes along the way. One of them is from Bold Cycles, and is immediately noticeable as different.

Bolt Cycles Linkin

   The Swiss designers over Bold Cycles Linkin are definitely going for the sleek look! What they have done is hidden the shock in the bottom of the downtube. It hosts a DT Swiss shock, which have been coming onto the scene and trying to make a name for themselves in a market flooded with Rock Shox and Fox shocks. Let's get the obvious out of the way - the hidden shock:

Cutaway shot

   The shock is actuated by an arm that works off the seat stay, and can be adjusted through a port under the bottom bracket. What else can be adjusted is the amount of travel, through switching out the linkage bars at the seat stays (where 'LT' is written below).

Linkage details

   With a bike this clean looking, anything other than exceptional cable management would have been a shame. They have a bog port near the head tube for gobbling up cables, and according to the site, air to cool the shock.

Cable entry

   The price tag for the base model is not for the faint of heart at $5400 US. Like many things Swiss, the form is great, and the function is probably also excellent.

   Translating the site to english results in some less than awesome sounding features, but we can chalk that up to the language barrier:

"A brand-new R414 damper, which was developed in close collaboration with DT Swiss and optimized and adapted for the «LT», operates within the frame. This means that the bike is equipped with extra-performance to keep even the most demanding trails downhill - thanks to the drive-neutral kinematics and the driving modes, which can be switched by the driver in three steps, for every Uphill. Coupled with a 150mm or 160mm fork, a flatter steering angle and chassis tuning, the «Linkin Trail LT» frightens nothing."

   We will have to assume "three steps" means you have three climbing settings.

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