First look at the Commencal Meta AM
Originally posted on August 10, 2011 at 14:22 pm
By Eric McKeegan
Commencal is the namesake of Max Commencal. Max founded Sunn Bicycles, which were the ride of choice for Nicolas Vouilloz while winning 10 World Championship titles. Now building bikes under his own name, he is still winning championships with the Atherton siblings riding DH (watch the Atherton Project, reality TV for mountain bikers!) and Remy Absalon tearing up the European Enduro scene.
After a redesign on the downhill bike, Commencal moved on to Meta line of 150mm all-mountain/enduro bikes. The Meta AM is the result. Tweaking the already excellent Contact suspension system, there is now a seatstay pivot near the rear dropout. The suspension is a bit more progressive and the pivot point is adjusted for use with modern 2x drivetrains (triples will work fine too).
Geometry gets the longer, lower , slacker treatment. Longer chainstays for stability on fast corners and to keep the front wheel sticking on climbs and a longer top tube for use with shorter stems. Lower bottom bracket and slacker head angle for more carvablity and stability.
I took the Meta AM out for a spin with some of the Commencal crew and came away impressed. It pedaled darn well for such a downhill oriented bike, even with the rear shock platform turned off. The 67 degree head angle was plenty stable but responsive enough to make quick work of the XC trails we rode.
Plenty of nicely thought-out details: internal routing for all cables including a dropper post, 180mm rear brake direct mount, floating rear shock and direct mount front derailleur.