Polygon Collosus N9 - Review

Polygon may not be a familiar brand for most riders, but the Indonesian company's sponsorship of the Hutchinson UR team has helped them gain increased recognition, at least with followers of World Cup DH racing. Polygon has also been working to expand their higher end offerings, which includes the Collosus N9, a bike we first saw in prototype form at the 2013 Taipei Cycle show. The futuristic-looking shape of the carbon fiber frame is certainly unlike anything currently on the market, and elicited numerous comments, usually involving aliens and outer space, whenever we rolled up to the trailhead. Polygon is a consumer direct operation, which means riders can go to the company's website and have a bike delivered straight to their door. Available in sizes S, M, L, and XL, the 27.5” wheeled Collosus N9 retails for $5799 USD.






Frame Details

The N9's looks are polarizing, which is usually the case when a bike's appearance deviates from the norm as much as this one does. The rectangular junction where the top and down tubes meet the head tube and the diagonal lines at the rear of the bike combine to make a frame shape that's 'unique', to say the least. But despite its out-of-the-ordinary appearance, the N9 possesses the features we've come to expect on today's all-mountain bikes such as internal cable routing, including the ability to run a stealth dropper post, 12x142 rear dropouts, ISCG 05 tabs, and a press-fit bottom bracket. There are also molded chainslap guards on the rear swingarm, although, surprisingly, there's no down tube protection in place to prevent rocks and other objects from damaging the carbon frame. There's also no spot to mount a water bottle, which isn't deal breaker, but would have been a nice addition, especially for those quick laps where you don't want to carry a pack.


As far as geometry goes, the Polygon has a 66.3 degree head angle and a chain stay length of 431mm, numbers that are on par for a bike intended for all-mountain usage. The forward positioning of the links that join the bike's front and rear triangles makes the relatively short chain stay length possible, although this does come at the cost of tire clearance – there's a reason the bike comes with a 2.25” version of Schwalbe's Hans Dampf tire in the rear instead of the 2.35” width found in the front. A 2.35” Hans Dampf will fit, but the clearance around the front of the chainstays is minimal, and on a muddy ride any mud or grit picked up by the tire would end up getting ground right into the carbon frame.



Suspension Layout

The N9 uses Polygon's FS3 suspension design, which uses two aluminum links to join the carbon front triangle to the carbon rear swingarm, with the rear shock mounted to the links, thus creating a floating suspension design. This is the third generation of Polygon's take on a dual link suspension design, with the current revision designed to remain neutral during pedaling while having an improved leverage curve. The N9's rather slack seat tube angle creates enough room for the swingarm to go through all of its travel without hitting the frame. The longer, lower link has a u-shaped portion that allows it to wrap around the base of the seat tube and connect to the swingarm. The left side of the swingarm has a diagonal support in place, a feature intended to provide additional frame stiffness.

Specifications Price $5799 Travel 160mm Rear Shock Fox Float X Adj CTD Factory kashima Fork Fox 34 Float TALAS Remote CTD, 160mm Cassette SRAM XG-1199 10-42 Crankarms SRAM XX1 32T 170mm Rear Derailleur SRAM XX1 Type 2 Chain SRAM CN-XX1 Shifter Pods SRAM XX1 Handlebar Spank Oozy LTD 740mm Stem Spank Oozy LTD Brakes Shimano XT, 180mm rotors Wheelset e*thirteen TRS Race Tires Schwalbe Hans Dampf, 2.35" F, 2.25" rear Seat Fizik Gobi XM Seatpost RockShox Reverb Stealth Compare to other All Mountain/Enduro/XC

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Climbing

The N9 is a nimble climber, and on the trail feels lighter than its 30+ pound weight would suggest. In fact, if we'd been asked to guess how much it weighed we would have pegged it as being a couple pounds less than it actually is, which is a good thing. This light ride feel made it easy to find the motivation to put out a solid effort when confronted with tricky climbs, climbs that the N9 didn't have any trouble with. Whether it was multiple tight switchbacks in a row, or a long section of awkwardly spaced roots, the N9 maintained excellent traction with quick and predictable handling. The rear wheel grip available for the climbs was impressive, and it seemed as if the harder you pushed down on the pedals the more the rear wheel would dig in, giving that extra traction that can make the difference between cleaning a climb or getting spit off to the side of the trail. We did find that there was a visibly noticeable amount of lateral movement in the seat stays during hard out of the saddle efforts, but this didn't seem to have any affect on the bike's climbing abilities.

The FOX Float X rear shock will cycle rhythmically through the first quarter or so of its travel if it is left wide open for the climbs, but flipping it into Trail mode immediately quiets this movement down, and still allows the shock to have enough compliance to provide grip on the trickiest ascents. It's fairly easy to reach down to flip the Float X's CTD switch for those on-the-fly settings changes, but it seemed odd that the handlebar mounted remote controls the front fork's compression damping instead of the rear shock's. Given the choice, and if we were forced to have a handlebar mounted remote at all, we'd rather have it control the rear shock, as the ability to firm up the rear end makes a much bigger difference on the climbs than adjusting the front fork. The N9's 34 Float also has a travel adjust dial that switches the fork between 160 and 130mm of travel, but this feature rarely saw use, and most of our time was spent in the longer travel mode.




Descending

On the descents, the N9 has the manners of a go-cart, a quick, lively ride that can get up to speed in a hurry, but, just like with those rental carts, there's a limit to how wild you can get. The N9's rear suspension was very supple and sensitive to terrain changes, and turned out to be highly effective at absorbing small to medium sized hits, which made it easy to carry good speed through rough sections of trail. However, when faced with larger drops or harsh g-outs, the N9 reached the end of its travel rather quickly - there didn't seem to be a strong enough ramp up to prevent it from bottoming out. At the front of the bike, even though Fox has done well to improve the feel of their 34 series forks in Descend mode, we still preferred the increased low speed compression provided by running the N9's TALAS Float in Trail mode the majority of the time.

The N9 likes nothing better than diving in and out of corners, but when pushed hard, especially on firm ground, the rear end of the bike doesn't provide the rock solid support needed to allow a rider to redline it without hesitation. Some of the blame for this lack of cornering support may lay with the swingarm flex we noticed on the climbs - this motion is amplified by the forces generated while blasting through a berm. Still, although there are limits to how aggressively you can ride the N9, it's a remarkably fun ride up to that point, and we had a good time trying to figure out exactly where those limits were. Given the right terrain, the N9 will zip around like a bat on crack, seeking out every little bonus trail feature, hidden jump or transfer line available. It's remarkably peppy for a bike with 160mm of travel, which makes it easier to navigate it through sections of trail that require multiple quick direction changes in a row.




Component Check

• Spank Oozy stem and handlebar: As we mentioned in our review a few months ago, the Oozy bars are well made, but at 740mm are narrower than we prefer. A bike aimed at aggressive all-mountain riding should come with wider bars.

• FOX 34 TALAS with CTD remote: The handlebar mounted remote that allows riders to switch between Climb, Trail, or Descend mode with their right thumb isn't something that seems necessary, and we typically spent more time adjusting the CTD setting on the rear shock rather than the front. The same goes with the fork's TALAS feature – we rarely used it, and on the whole would have preferred the standard FOX 34 Float without all of the bells and whistles.




• Fizik Gobi XM seat: Seats are a matter of personal preference, but we never quite came to terms with the shape of the Gobi. Its narrow, rounded profile made it tricky to find the correct sit bone positioning.

• e*thirteen TRSr wheelset: Part way through a ride the rear cassette stopped freewheeling, turning the bike into a carbon fiber fixie. Our best trailside efforts couldn't repair it, but back at the shop it turned out that the freehub lockring had worked its way loose behind the cassette, making it unable to freewheel. It was a five minute fix, and the freehub was trouble free after that, but it would be worth check the lockring periodically to prevent this from happening. We also found that the wheels came out of true rather easily, although the rims themselves held up well.

• Shimano XT brakes: We're glad to see that it's becoming more common for companies to spec Shimano brakes even on bikes equipped with SRAM's 1x11 drivetrain. The XT brakes' power and lever feel still places them above just about anything else on the market.



Pinkbike's Take:

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MENTIONS www.polygonbikes.us and www.bicyclesonline.com.au

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Reviews and Tech Reviews Enduro Bikes Polygon Polygon Collosus