Interbike 2011: Intense introduces two carbon models
Originally posted on September 22, 2011 at 16:21 pm
Carbine
By Justin Steiner
Intense has long been known and respected for their domestically produced bikes. When Intense decided to build a carbon bike, they invested time and resources pursuing domestic carbon manufacturing, but found they simply found that route to be cost prohibitive. All Intense carbon bikes will be produced overseas, while dropouts, suspension links and other detail parts will be made stateside.
One of these new carbon bikes is the Carbine, a 5.5” to 6” travel trail bike designed for use with 150mm (68º headtube) or 160mm forks (67º headtube). Intense incorporated all of the latest and greatest; taper headtube, BB92 bottom bracket, as well as a downtube guard for protection. While doing so they’ve kept a host of attributes that make an Intense; licensing Santa Cruz’s VPP suspension design, angular contact bearings with grease ports, and Intense’s replaceable G1 dropout system, which allows the use of standard QR hubs, Shimano 142x12mm, and Syntace X-12 interfaces.
I had the chance to ride a Carbine equipped with Cane Creek’s Double Barrel Air rear shock and a 160mm-travel Fox 36 and came away quite impressed with the bike. Stiffness was top notch, geometry and handling felt very intuitive. With the DB Air, the Carbine’s suspension felt flawless, but we’ll have to ride a Carbine with the stock RP23 rear shock before weighing in fully.
This is definitely a bike to watch in 2012.
Hard Eddie
By Josh Patterson
In a show packed with generic looking carbon 29ers Intense’s first carbon hardtail manages to stand out.
The Hard Eddie features sculpted lines and a matte black finish with subtle graphics on the top tube.
It has a Press Fit 30 bottom bracket and modular dropouts, allowing it to be run with a 135 QR, 142×12 thru-axle, and as a singlespeed.
The tapered headtube has internally-routed cables.
Intense expects to produce the Hard Eddie in three sizes. They are slated to be available to the public in early 2012. Pricing is yet to be determined.
Keep reading
It doesn’t end here, we’ve got a lot more coverage of Interbike 2011, including demo rides.