Nicolai Releases New Saturn 14 Trail Bike
Nicolai's Saturn 14 trail bike brings 140mm of aggressive travel to the trail with either 27.5" or 29" wheels.
Nicolai's Saturn 14 is the European brand's latest incarnation of the aggressive trail bike. For this bike, Nicolai have combined what they learned with their G13 Geolution chassis with their Saturn 11 to make what they call "an addictively fun bike" that's ideal for a wide range of rides from short after work jaunts to all-day missions in the mountains.
It seems that a lot of care was taken in creating this new trail bike. Nicolai's Geolution geometry concept focuses on four different aspects to create their vision of the mountain bike. There's a longer reach, slacker head angle, longer wheelbase, and steeper seat tube angle than what we've long considered standard. The geometry on this bike is less extreme than that found on Nicolai's G1 enduro bike, but still progressive by most any account.
It seems that a lot of care was taken in creating this new trail bike. Nicolai's Geolution geometry concept focuses on four different aspects to create their vision of the mountain bike. There's a longer reach, slacker head angle, longer wheelbase, and steeper seat tube angle than what we've long considered standard. The geometry on this bike is less extreme than that found on Nicolai's G1 enduro bike, but still progressive by most any account.
Saturn 14 Details
• Intended use: Trail
• Frame material: Aluminum
• Wheel size: 29" or 27.5+
• Rear wheel travel: 130/138mm
• Geolution Trail Geometry
• Tailormade custom geometry available
• 5-year warranty, 10-year spare parts availability
• Sizes: S-XXL
• Sizes: XS-XL
• Price: 2,499 EUR - Frame only; 6,499+ EUR - Complete
• Colors and components customizable
• www.nicolai-bicycles.com
• Intended use: Trail
• Frame material: Aluminum
• Wheel size: 29" or 27.5+
• Rear wheel travel: 130/138mm
• Geolution Trail Geometry
• Tailormade custom geometry available
• 5-year warranty, 10-year spare parts availability
• Sizes: S-XXL
• Sizes: XS-XL
• Price: 2,499 EUR - Frame only; 6,499+ EUR - Complete
• Colors and components customizable
• www.nicolai-bicycles.com
Construction and Features
Nicolai's bikes are all currently based on their Geolution geometry concept. There are four key components to this concept, according to Nicolai. The longer reach means that all riders, even tall ones, can take advantage of shorter stems without feeling cramped in the cockpit of the bike. The slacker head angles reduce the risk of rolling over the bars. This also improves high-speed stability and wheel grip.
Longer wheelbases centralize the rider on the bike and give a more stable ride both climbing and descending and steeper seat tube angles make climbing easier by getting the rider more over the front of the bike and reducing the amount the front wheel wants to 'wander'.
Titanium bolts and custom color options on all of Nicolai's bikes.
All sizes of the bike have space for a full-size water bottle and there are ISCG mounts for chain retention systems or a bash guard. The cable routing for the bikes is fully external to aid in easy cable replacement or brake swaps. Also, to keep things as light as possible there are titanium bolts at the Horst Link connection and shock mounts. Custom colors and anodizing are also available for all bikes.
The tension bar is intended to reinforces a historically weak area of the frame and allows for the use of lighter tubing without sacrificing durability.
The Saturn 14 also utilizes a tension bar - an extra connection between the lower shock bolt and rocker link. This is to further reinforce the area between those two pivot points, an area of common frame breakage, and allow for lighter tubing and parts to be used in that area, further reducing weight.
Geometry and Sizing
The Saturn 14 has an adjustable geometry and works with both 27.5" and 29' wheels. Nicolai's 'Mutator' chips, located on the seat stay and lower headset cups can be changed out to modify stack height and accommodate for the different wheels sizes. Nicolai have their standard factory geometry settings but the bikes, according to them, have near endless adjustability and they're willing to help riders figure that out if they don't know exactly what they want on their own.
With metric shock sizing, one shock length can offer two different stroke lengths for different travel options: A frame with 27.5" wheels can use either a 201 x 55mm or 210 x 50mm shock to provide 138mm or 130mm of rear wheel travel. If using 29" wheels, only the 201 x 50mm shock, producing 130mm of travel can be used due to tire clearance.
The Saturn 14 is available in five sizes, from Small to XXL. This should accommodate riders from 160-205cm, according to Nicolai. The accompanying reach measurements span 450-540mm - pretty stretched out, even by the most progressive of standards. If that doesn't work for you, Nicolai say they will work with riders to produce their own custom 'Tailor-Made' frame, for a surcharge.
Photos courtesy of Nicolai
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And anodizing isn't the best thing ever,
And carbon is meh
And geometry! Oh man let's see those (leverage) curves!!
For me personally, I don't see any use for a 100mm travel XC bike but I'm not the only person bikemakers cater to, also it's always cool to see well-made tech stuff.
Different folks, different strokes.. literally, in this case.
Or the Robot Bike Co custom frame.
I highly recommend following Intend on fb, they're one of the very few sites delivering quality content about their products on there and not just marketing gibberish.
Water Bottle :p
More seriously, one is a trail bike with 130mm, the other an enduro with 160mm, one weights 2.95, the other 3.60, one has a 1264mm wheelbase, the other 1324mm, etc.
Different bikes for different uses. Trail bikes may get burlier, if "the burlier the better" was a universal truth we'd see Shurter on a Ransom.
Surprisingly the difference is bigger for frame only (+-800g) rather than for the whole bike (+-400g).
They have been do this since ages, like on this old Saturn where they used a titanium axel to take the forces:
www.rohloff.de/en/service/search/bike-finder/details/item/saturn-tcc
an other one for you folks to hat on
www.bike-components.de/de/Nicolai/Saturn-11-29-Rahmen-bc-Limited-Edition-p65829
This system is working super well and guaranties a long lasting frame as bikes get ridden harden then ever before.
Did no one see this beauty of a fork...?
www.intend-bc.com
Alternate solution could be to put the pivot right in the middle of the seattube, but then the seatpost insertion is very limited.
The tube is relatively thin and is strong enough to take the force of the seatpost. But the shock puts a high axial stress into it. Use a thicker tube and you have half a meter of thicker tube all the way to the top of the seat tube. This is a very selective strengthening solution.
At first i didn't like it, but having it explained like this, it's probably the best solution. I like it!
www.intend-bc.com/products/forks/hero
One thought out loud though, why have you removed the cable routing from the side of the head tube?
I own two Nicolai's for reference (G13 and G15 GPI), and they did this on both of mine.