The Suspension Center World Cup Team of Lew Buchanan, Joe Connell, Miriam Ruchti, Lars Peyer and Joel Andrey will be riding the new Intense 275 M9 for the 2013 World Cup race season!
(Just incase you’re confused by the numbers 275 or 27.5 is the same as 650b, the in between wheel size from 26 and 29)
Jeff Steber, head honcho at Intense, just sent us a spy shot of a fully built up Intense 275 M9 (tastefully shot against the famous Intense factory wall). Intense will just be supplying the team with the frame, but it will be interesting to see what fork the Suspension Center Team use. For tyres the team are covered by Schwalbe who already make a good 27.5 (I still want to call it 650b) rubber hoop, the Hans Dampf.
But as the industry is developing more 27.5 products, wheels, forks and tyres it’s making more sense for frame manufactures to develop the bikes. Intense already make two 27.5 bikes, the Carbine and Tracer.
This is the second prototype of the 275 M9, I think the first incarnation was just a test to see what was possible.
UPDATE: We’ve just had a chat with the Fox guys and they strongly state: DO NOT USE A 650B WHEEL WITH A FOX 40!
The fork isn’t designed to accomodate a 650b wheel, therefore the larger tyre will contact the lower crown when the fork is fully compressed and could result in serious injury.
We’ll bring you the full statement from Fox soon, but for now, please don’t try experimenting!
So with 29er so far not being suitable for long travel DH bikes (tyres, axle paths, forks, possible wheel strengths etc) will 650b aka 27.5 make it’s mark on the downhill circuit?
Have any of you lot ridden a 650b/27.5 bike, if so What are your thoughts?
