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Jeffrey replacement, or a downcountry machine?
Looks like a Trek.
Given the tyre choice, Forekasters front and rear and a small shock, my guess is a new 100-120mm trail/downcountry bike. Looks good to me!
Small rocker link, pikes, plus the Jeffsy frame is only into it's second year. And the Jeffsy is 150/150 on the 29er this year across the board, so more trail-light enduro/all mountain.
130mm 27.5/120mm 29er I'm betting.
What on Earth is a ‘downcountry’ frame or bike...? A niche too far...
Ditto, what is "downcountry" meant to be?
What is it about mtb that we need this never ending marketing bs?😕
Somewhere between cross country and trail bike. It's an arbitrary niche between two other arbitrary niches. Started as a joke on Pinkbike, but has taken on a life of its' own
It basically means "120mm travel".
Ditto, what is “downcountry” meant to be?
What is it about mtb that we need this never ending marketing bs?😕
As George says, it was an in-joke on PB that has got out of hand.
However the bikes it refers to are exactly what most of us should probably be riding - slack, short-travel 29in things that take the sting out of bumps and carry speed amazingly well.
I've just built one up myself in the form of an Orange Stage 4 with a slackset.
Marketing, no need to sell somethng people need when you can sell them a new niche they then think they need 🙂
When will the "upcountry" bikes be comming out then.
"upcountry' that'll be an E-bike!!!
Actually I think all these names come about because it's incredibly difficult to communicate a bike's ride qualities or intended rider.
I'm not sure it's as cynical as some make out.
It's just people trying to figure out a way to describe a bike's intentions without a full paragraph!
Of all the silly names for bikes, I think Mike Levy’s “down-country” instead of “cross-country” is actually a great one. There were already some bikes like this but it was mostly a way of building up an XC bike with bigger forks, tyres and bars plus a dropper post so you lost little pedalling ability but gained a load of descending confidence.
And now more and more bikes are coming out like this - big wheels, short travel, efficient, good for mile munching but could handle an uplift day. I’d like one! My hardtail is probably similar in ability, just a bit harder on the rider.
Yeah, they're just short travel bikes with the geometry sorted out, and maybe bigger forks.
We were doing it a decade or so ago when bikes were still short as well, lots of us had things like Trances with longer forks or remember the Orange Blood?
I thought the Blood was a park bike - a copy of the Transition Bottlerocket or am I misremembering?
Blood was an All-Mountain bike along the lines of the Alpine 160.
Maybe it was a short travel playbike, I think I remember it had a silly slack seat angle when I demo-ed one. Did park bikes exist then?
Anyway, it probably wouldn't be "downcountry" you are right. But my point was more about longer forks on short travel bikes. Perhaps it wasn't a very good point.
It's ok - I understood the point
Sorry to be pedantic 🙂