I touched on Intense's hodge podge M927.5 the other day,and I knew that this bike already exsisted,but here is some more vague and shitty details about the first wave of the infectious disease known as "650b DH bikes."Now,as usual on TEAM DUMPED!,we present you with another episode of "What we think of the shit in the article."...
They first start by saying that it's easier to make a 650b bike function well,over making a 26'' bike function well.Now I don't quite understand this statement for a few reasons.Number one being how?At this current time in DH bikes,geometry's pretty much set in stone.63 to 64 degree headangle,sub 14'' BB height,and 17.something inch chainstays,all paired up to a roughly 23'' top tube and 16 to 17'' seat tube.Plug some bendy tubes and linkage pieces in there,and taa-daa,you have a modern DH bike that will meet most people's needs.So how does throwing that chainstay length,headtube angle,and BB height out the window make the bike easier to produce?Oh,I know how KHS...you don't produce your own bikes.Which brings me to reason nubmer two.Of course your bike was easier to produce.You called Astro,told them you wanted their 2013 catalog,waited for the catalog to ship from Taiwan,saw they did a 650b version of your DH300 and went "We fucking want that!" and placed an order for a few units to test out.
The next point they cover is the fact the they went all "Foward Geometry" on us and made the front to center of the bike 2'' longer.2'' longer!Holy dumb fuck.Now,you pair that with a suuuuuper short stem and it makes a little bit of sense,but KHS mentions nothing about that.So from what I can gather they want us regular folk who,lets say ride a medium sized bike with an effective top tube of 23'',to then jump on a bike with an effective top tube of 25'' and feel normal?I like a roomy top tube,but fuck that.I don't want to feel like i'm riding dad's bike every time I go for a lap.The weirdest thing in this article is the last thing they mention though,the fact that after making the front to center massively longer,they only lengthened the rear to center a half inch.I personally think this is a weird move,I know they didn't want to make the bike any longer than it already is(as shown in picture below),but isn't that going to throw off the rider weight bias a ton?I thought that's what we were trying to fight?Norco produces each size of the Arrum with a different chainstay length to combat this problem of bikes not feeling or acting correct under the rider.KHS said "The hell with that,people want bigger wheels,not a quality riding bicycle!"
And so it begins...the next round of brutal haymakers to my friend the 26'' wheel.Sooner rather than later all,and I mean all,of my bikes will ride like goofy,shitty pieces of alumnium and rubber.
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