Nukeproof Pulse Team

Then there’s the Smith and Jones factor. Joe Smith taking the British downhill series last season and Mike Jones piloting this bike to a podium in Lourdes and fourth place at the World Championships in Andorra. Nukeproof have very much arrived.

“With low bottom bracket, 35lb weight and a tough aluminium chassis the bike is a hard cookie as well”

The new Pulse is very much like its predecessors yet now comes with a striking and beautifully arcing top tube which sweeps low into the set tube area. In terms of angles the bike is similar to previous models but importantly they have gone for a slack 62-degree head angle. This angle has been made in conjunction with team rider feedback to counter the light weight in order to gain a hint more stability. Its certainly a bike for steeper tracks with this set up and high bar and care needs to be taken when on flatter grounds as there is a tendency for slightly rearward body weighting to take place.

There’s a longer wheelbase on the bike than previous – 1232mm on the medium, and the reach has increased about five millimetres on each model. With low bottom bracket, 35lb weight and a tough aluminium chassis the bike is a hard cookie as well, in fact possibly one of the stiffest downhill bikes we have ridden this season, definitely one for charging very hard indeed. It also looks set to be another favourite especially with the top specification build.

This build includes the 7 speed Sram X01 DH chainset, cassette, shifter and derailleur together with Sram Guide RS brakes and Mavic Deemax Ultimate 27.5” wheelset. Throw in Schwalbe Magic Mary Super Gravity rubber and it becomes a hard bike to beat both on paper and as proved on the hill.

YOU DIDN’T KNOW THIS BUT…

Alastair Beckett, Nukeproof Brand Manager

“Which Top Tube?”

This project was probably the first one ever that has gone reasonably smoothly for Nukeproof during the development and testing period. The most notable highlight was the debate over the top tube profile between all the staff internally. We must have gone through around 10 different tube profiles and shapes before settling on the production top tube shape (which the eagle eyed amongst you will recognise on another bike we recently launched).

“This project was probably the first one ever that has gone reasonably smoothly for Nukeproof”

“The paint weighs HOW much?!”

The other difficulty we had was deciding on what the finish should be! We had spent endless hours nibbling weight out of every single part of the frame, so we didn’t just want to slap on a few layers of paint and undo all the good work that the engineers had done.

We tried some of the following finishes on a number of different prototypes before settling on the last one for production.

Technical Details:

1 Pulse frame is made from 55 Separate aluminium and steel parts, 8 sealed bearings, 178grams of Tig welding and 1 head tube badge.