THE RIDE
By now you must be gasping for relent – all these numbers and technical specifications. The bike clearly works on paper, but as we all know, that doesn’t always equate to a good ride. I seem to have been singing the Meta All Mountain’s praises for the last thousand words, so I shall start with the negatives from my mixed bag of feelings:
A wild–horse French journalist, who had been testing the bike two days prior to our arrival in La Bresse, handed me notes on the rear shock that alerted me to its linear nature. According to these notes, the bike would push through all of its travel up to the point of an abrupt stop, with very little effort. However, personally I was more concerned that the bike seemed rather reluctant to initiate movement of the shock in the first place, an effect that resulted in my lowering of the shock pressure to far below what is recommended for my weight. In turn, the low pressures then lead to the shock pushing right through its travel with ease once its stroke had begun. This equated to a stiff ride on small bumps – something that previous Meta’s have dealt with so impressively – and a harsh end to the shock’s travel; not ideal.
My findings were backed by another British journalist, and commendably by Nico Menard himself. Thankfully Nico is humble enough to admit fault, and in this case it was simply the shock tune. We changed the 2012 Fox RP23 ‘Adaptive Logic’ for a standard RP23 and, ‘hey-presto!’, suddenly the bike came alive, in all the supple goodness that earns a bike the Commencal tag.
Remy Absalon lives and trains in the area around La Bresse (part of the green and luscious Vosges region of eastern France) and it is easy to see how such great lay–out for a bike was conceived; Rocks, roots, mud, singletrack and fast hits were the order of the day…the typical ingredients of an Enduro race and the core elements that define this bike’s soul. Corners were a dream, riding position unbeatable and at no point did the bike feel out of its depth, even at 40mph across a rock–strewn mountainside. It is easy to forget that this is a 150mm travel bike, until you start to point back uphill, that is. Climbing really was minimally compromised and the weight of the bike (3.5kg for the frame minus shock) is certainly nothing to lose sleep over. The trails that are hidden in the forests around La Bresse are easily comparable to those of Britain, except on bigger hills, and therefore I think that the bike could be a winner back home as well as for continental riding.
Unfortunately, the bike looks set to be supplied with the Adaptive Logic RP23 and with the same tune as the shocks that were supplied for the press release. This I write with deep regret as I really had a lot of fun riding the bike for two days on some of the best terrain Europe has to offer, and I don’t want to take anything away from the huge potential that this bike has. I’m sure that it is only a minor problem which is clearly easily solved, so here’s hoping that all will be fixed for the final production bikes.
‘Bicycles d’Opinion’ is the company motto, they make the bikes that they believe in and want to ride themselves, and the Meta All Mountain looks set for a permanent slot in the prestigious range.
Fin.
The Meta All Mountain will have three models starting at around £2,500 to provide every option the modern mountain biker could possibly need. I am sold, I think it is clear that the future of the sport lies in bikes of this nature, and I truly believe that Commencal’s modest outlook will go a long way.
Decade Europe are the new distributors for Commencal in the UK.
Tel: 01792 469 811
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