First Look: Commencal Unveils Prototype Enduro Bike With An Unusual Four-Bar Suspension Design
Commencal has broken cover with a new development project and a prototype enduro bike using an unusual four-bar suspension design. The Andorran company has until recently used a single-pivot "faux bar" suspension layout on most of their bikes and has enjoyed widespread racing success with their single-pivot enduro bike, the Meta AM.
But they've been developing and racing a six-bar DH bike for some time now, and it looks like they're experimenting with moving away from the single-pivot layout for enduro too.
The prototype bike uses a short-link four-bar layout, which means a rigid rear triangle is connected to the mainframe via two short links, much like a VPP or Maestro system. But in Commencal's design, the lower link connects to the rear triangle in front of where it connects to the mainframe. That's not an entirely new concept - it has been done by Alchemy, Jamis/Speedgoat's Chris Currie and Damon Madsen before, and there may be others I'm not aware of - but it's certainly rare.
In Alchemy's design, the lower link rotated anticlockwise at first (if viewed from the drive-side), then clockwise again as the suspension moved deeper into its travel. It's not easy to say based on the photos we have so far whether Commencal's design will do the same (it's hard to make out the pivot locations from the photographs), but it looks to me like the lower link will rotate clockwise throughout most of its travel. That would make it most similar to Chris Currie's design of the three mentioned above.
The development of the prototype is part of what they're calling the Commencal Enduro Project, a three-year initiative inspired by the DH development program which spawned that six-bar DH bike on which Amaury Pierron won the opening round of the 2022 World Cup. Commencal says the purpose of the enduro project is "to enable us to improve, firstly in racing and then for everyone."
The prototype bike seen here is the fruit of the enduro project so far, which began in June last year. Commencal say it has already allowed them to "confirm new kinematics and geometry principles." To me, that suggests they're hoping to expand on the four-bar design in future, but I could be wrong.
Don't expect to see it at the races any time soon though, as for now only Commencal's enduro project riders Alex Rudeau, Guillaume Larbeyou and Louis Jeandel will be riding it, specifically for R&D purposes.
More information as we get it.
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This is a great looking bike, and Id love to have it for that reason alone, but at 36-38lbs... its just not competitive with an equivalent carbon bike at 31-33lbs.
youtu.be/pLq2xC_wGMg
Spire Carbon - 7.6lbs, Spire Aluminum 10.6lbs - 3lbs difference.
Sentinel Carbon - 7.0lbs, Sentinel Aluminum 9.7lbs - 2.7lbs difference
Scout Carbon - 7.0lbs, Scout Aluminum 9.5lbs - 2.5lbs difference
But you are correct in that most AL builds have lower end components and those add another 2-3lbs.
If we could build lighter weight Trail and Enduro AL frames, we could probably limit Carbon to super light weight XC and DC bikes.
@newbermuda the Yeti guys are RIGHT next to Commencal USA as well
What's old is new again
The difference, as mentioned in the article, is that the Switch and Switch infinity behaves nearly identical to the DW link (which is partly why they were sued), where the bottom link "switches" or changes direction after the sag point. This appears not to, just like the prototype I linked.
(www.bikemag.com/gear/mountain-bikes/jamis-portal-a1-4000/#:~:text=In%20Jamis%E2%80%99%20case%2C%20yes%2C%20it%20does.%20The%20Portal,but%20the%20Portal%20has%20a%20more%20forgiving%20range.)
These pictures might help. Note which anti-squat curves have a lot more shape.
www.pinkbike.com/photo/18412053
www.pinkbike.com/photo/18886121
Nice guy? I don't give a sh*t. Good rider? F*ck you -- go to the skatepark and ride BMX!! You wanna ride here? Close!!
"Oh yeah, I used to be a mountain biker, it's an expensive sport." These are the new bikes. These are the commencal bikes. And to you, they're gold. And you don't get them. Why? Because to give them to you is just throwing them away. it's not available for two years. They're for closers.
plenty of bikes around, UK theres good stock, Germany etc good stock, Aus good stock and NZ really good stock.
A quick google of commencal bikes tells me they are moving to frame sales more and more, Most of commencals sites have pretty much every frame/size in stock, a few full bikes in stock too.
www.bikeradar.com/reviews/bikes/mountain-bikes/btwin-rockrider-9-1-review
cyclurba.fr/produit/image/photo0021501_L.jpg
I had the lower end version with a shock that wasn't adjustable so it was a flexy turd compared to other bikes. But it was my 1st bike so I loved it until I discovered the existence of "downhill", and then the bike didn't love me back anymore.
So it's 20 years ago not 10.
Very far from long bike concept that everyone tries to sell these days.
But you know even Jack Moir (190cm) chose medium frame for 2022 Strive, so maybe we are approaching too long?
instagram.com/p/BwTBv_KgdtA
patents.google.com/patent/US9145185B1/en
Wondering how/if the bike is a sturdy as their current stuff and keeps the weight in check
For bikes, people like to categorize things. Yeah, it's often oversimplified or extracomplicated, sometimes old-fashioned and sometimes all buzzwords.
The only real easy distinctions could be:
Single pivot means axle path is a fixed arc.
Virtual pivot (short links, four bar, whatever) mean the axle path could be anything (but pretty much just a tweaked arc).
High pivot (single or virtual) means the axle path starts out going rearwards.
Everything else is VERY dependant on pivots locations, though I don't think it would be incorrect to state that PB, and others, like to assume that short-links usually have strong anti-squat and that (horst style) four-bars are often very active.
Nowadays, four-bars have been even further refined, VPP ditched the weird s-shaped path and corresponding weird leverage that made pedaling up steep stuff kinda weird, and Ibis (DW) has moved away from the progressive-linear-regressive curve that worked so well on old (quite progressive) air-shocks but not so good on coil or modern (relatively quite linear) air-shocks. Everybody has kinda gone to decent progression on fairly straight leverage curves, so it could be argued that it's just marketing, but everything is kinda just marketing anyway, since all the kinematics, including things like anti-squat, anti-rise, etc, can be very different even within a specific design layout.
Huh, now that I think about it, aren't Rocky Mountain bikes implementing a Santa Cruz VPP with different pivot locations? Heck, the DW link is pretty similar to a Horst link as well too - not from a kinematic perspective of course, just a design perspective
VPP and DW, and Yeti's Switch, are all closer to each other than to horst, since their lower links rotate in both directions as they go through the travel (at least it did on my old Mojo 1, maybe not on newer models with the different leverage curve), where the four-bar/horst chainstay always goes CCW (from drive-side)
As you noted pivot location is a huge distinguishing factor, even within a "category". Conceptually one can say the short-links are four-bars, but the only real similarity beyond that is that both can be configured in a huge variety of ways for a huge variety of kinematics.
speedgoat.bike
a trend is "longer, lower, slacker" and thats coming to an end now with several manf's pulling numbers back now
It is a linkage with four bars, therefore it is a four bar linkage.
ebike-mtb.com/en/the-new-focus-jam2-7-0-2022
The biggest visual difference seems to be that the upper link and shock yoke are kinda "squashed" together so they "overlap", but otherwise in comparison to my Revel it looks pretty similar. I feel like functionally they are not hugely different.
Bike looks awesome at any rate. Will be interesting to see if a shorter travel bike also spawns from this platform.
The patent covers the CC in a protected area around the top of the chainring. I haven't mapped this bike yet to see. But looks great Commencal! Love your work guys.
@KennyWatson but look at the pics www.revelbikes.com/our-bikes/rascal and specifically where the lower link attaches to the frame and then rear triangle. However, per their response, it could still satisfy the patent - we were both right . . . or both wrong?
This is a better perspective from the non drive side:
www.mtbr.com/attachments/186f80c4-1a6a-419e-8a81-6db314da56a5-jpeg.1957375
The Meta AM isn't a single pivot.
"and it looks like they're experimenting with moving away from the single-pivot layout for enduro too."
Neither are any of their enduro bikes....