Dirt Magazine’s Steve Jones spent a day at the Forest of Dean with the Devinci Wilson, here’s his first fresh thoughts. Stay tuned for the full indepth review in the magazine soon.

DEVINCI WILSON SL. Words: SJones Photos:Victor Lucas

With so many companies offering something special, something different, it’s a difficult game to keep on top of what downhill bike to buy. Devinci have made their job relatively easy for 2011 by producing a bike whose performance matches the hype.

Yes it was a good day Friday, Devinci had sent over one of the new Wilson downhill bikes to UK importers Haven distribution who in turn drove down to sample some runs here at Dirt plus a bit of local hospitality. We also had Aaron Gwinn’s Yeti race bike and a faithful 224 with Cane Creek of 2011 vintage. Like I said, hospitality.

There are some big bold statements heading out of the East coast right now, take Devinci’s new all-mountain bike. “The Dixon is the best performing all-mountain trail bike that Devinci has ever made.” Comments like that focus the mind but as soon as Jim from Haven ( well he actually work at Freeborn ) rolled out the Wilson the feeling was good about this one. Obviously there’s more to it than that.

Hand made in Canada, the new line of Devinci bikes come refined with a split pivot design, good angles and clean simple lines. The Dixon, Dexter and the Wilson downhill bike are completely new for 2011. This the longest travel of those, the Wilson features nearly 90mm of shock stroke in the 10.5” Fox damper that pays out over eight inches of rear wheel travel. We had the SL, the top of the range bike that comes with a DT/Mavic/X0 type build with Boxxer World Cup fork.

Initial thoughts come up hugely in favour of the design characteristics that transfer to the trail. The marketing and theory is matched in the performance. Low down weight, power is transferred to forward momentum efficiently, support in the suspension design, progression, balance points, weight, quietness. There are many, many positives. More than anything we liked the fact that there was a useable range of adjustment in the system. First thoughts? Fresh. We really expect to see a BIG signing for this bike which should be gaining podiums in the next few years. Can’t really find any fault in this one. Full test to follow in magazine.

Prices on 2011 Wilson models are:
 
Wilson Frame £2300.00
 
Wilson XP Bike £3425.00
Wilson RC Bike £4450.00
Wilson SL Bike £5995.00