UK handmade carbon body maker Carbon Wasp launched a brand new mountain bike designed to shine in moist & muddy winter circumstances with a self-explanatory title – the Carbon Gearbox Hardtail. A venture in growth “for a number of years”, Carbon Wasp describes their new Gearbox Hardtail because the “final” bike for winter mountain biking, combining trendy path geometry, hardtail simplicity, and gearbox sturdiness. A motorbike “designed to face as much as the worst circumstances you may throw at it and nonetheless come again for extra“.
Carbon Wasp Gearbox Hardtail: UK-made mountain bike body
Carbon Wasp is all about their handmade carbon mountain bikes. Now, their new Carbon Gearbox Hardtail appears to be like like a cool choice for riders in search of a low-maintenance path bike to get them via mud & snow season! And whereas it’s not precisely low cost, the Carbon Wasp Gearbox Hardtail has a completely palatable pricetag, particularly when you think about that it’s made within the UK, with plenty of customization prospects.
We largely know the body builder for his or her UK-made carbon path bike – the 120mm Truffle. However final fall additionally they confirmed us some nice-looking 3D-printed titanium crankarms for Pinion gearbox bikes, that might prevent a simple 170g.
That bought us pondering a bit… what was the carbon gearbox hardtail they had been displaying us these gentle cranks on? It seems, that appears to have been a growth prototype of this new Carbon Wasp Gearbox Hardtail.
“That is our tackle the trusty winter hardtail; a gearbox bike for any circumstances. We’ve been making gearbox bikes for years and we poured the whole lot we all know into this body. It may be customised and tweaked within the development and the set as much as go well with any type of using on any terrain.”
– Adrian Smith, Carbon Wasp proprietor & bike designer
What’s customized?
Carbon Wasp constructed the Carbon Gearbox Hardtail for mountain bikes to tailor it to their particular person wants. One good thing about solely promoting frames is that each bike is a customized construct. Additionally they needed riders to select which gearbox they like.
Pinion looks as if the trade default today, and the brand new digital shift SmartShift variations additionally make for a clear setup. However there’s one other attention-grabbing French gearbox maker that we haven’t actually talked about a lot in years, though we have now seen them pop up from time-to-time… Effigear. Their newest Effigear Mimic gearbox bolts as much as the identical mount as Pinion, however really has quicker engagement and might be run with a set rear hub, distinctive variable steps between its gears extra like a standard derailleur system, and it’s operated with normal mechanical SRAM dropbar or flat bar shifters. Extra choices is at all times higher, proper?
Carbon Wasp additionally builds their bikes with fairly normal tapered steerer headsets, too. However if you need they’ll make you a straight 56mm headset to run an angle regulate headset to additional tweak your geometry.
The brand new Carbon Gearbox Hardtail does function fairly trendy path geometry – a slack 65° headtube angle, steep 76° seat angle, chainstays as brief as 430mm, and medium-long 480mm Attain on the dimensions Giant that I’d journey. However additionally they customise geometry a bit if have another wants in thoughts.
Tech particulars
full carbon hardtail body made in Leeds utilizing UK-sourced pre-preg
appropriate with Effigear and Pinion P-Line or C-Line gearboxes, together with SmartShift
removable flat carbon plate sliding dropouts with integral tensioners for chain or belt drives
designed round a 140mm suspension fork
4 inventory sizes (S-XL) or customizable geometry
inner cable routing with full information tubes, conventionally routed into the facet of the downtube
inner body storage underneath the bottle cage, with battery entry for those who select a Pinion SmartShift setup
ZS44/56 Zero Stack tapered headset normal, or optionally ZS 56/56 to suit an angle-adjust headset
Enhance 12x148mm spacing
IS disc brake mount
30.9mm dropper seatpost
max 29 x 3.0″ tire clearance
Carbon Wasp Gearbox Hardtail (& Fats Bike) – Pricing, choices & availability
Now, Carbon Wasp runs a small UK workshop, and builds every bike separately for the customer. So, they largely promote simply frames-only, or right here together with the gearbox. However for those who want, they’ll additionally put collectively a whole customized bike construct, too.
The brand new Gearbox Hardtail frames sells for £1650 for the carbon body solely in a colour of your selection. Or get it with a Pinion gearbox already put in for £2550 (~$3230/3065€).
Particularly attention-grabbing this time of 12 months, Carbon Wasp additionally makes a Gearbox Fats Bike hardtail for a similar value designed for as much as 26×5″ tires (or possible ~27.5×4.5″ if that’s your desire.) The entire different tech particulars look to be the identical.
So, it appears to be like such as you simply need to resolve how deep snow & mud you count on in your rides.
Launched this summer season on their Truffle, Carbon Wasp not paints their frames, however relatively wraps them in a sturdy single-color vinyl. They are saying it higher protects put on areas of the body, whereas additionally highlighting the body’s straight-out-of-the-mold carbon fiber weave in between. They do like their basic Wasp yellow, however any single-color wrap is included in the usual body costs. Extra advanced patterns & colours are additionally doable, for a further payment.
Even with its absolutely handmade development in Yorkshire, Carbon Wasp says they’ll get a brand new Gearbox Hardtail to you in simply 4 weeks, for those who order yours as we speak.
CarbonWasp.com
