Intense 27.5

Interesting read, particulary Morgman's take as a reviewer at MTBR had some "issues". See below……….

"It has some occasional issues on slow speed upwards maneuvers, when you make a couple of pedal strokes up into a climb or a rock garden or some stair steps or ledges, and the rear-end collapses or chokes down midway into its suspension, leaving you without any platform to continue, and you then you need to manhandle it through the rest of the moves. Although you can perform more technical and trials type maneuvers, the slack head angle and general feel of the bike made it feel out of place, and required more finesse then seemed necessary, though if you had some speed going, you could roll through some things without as many issues. I swapped out to a longer 70mm stem for a couple of weeks, which helped out immensely with some of the squirrelly steering. The climb switch on the Cane Creek DBair helped on climbs, and slower speed and technical maneuvers, but it didn[HTML_REMOVED]#8217;t alleviate the issue entirely. On steep and long unrelenting climbs the rear suspensions idiosyncrasies left the bike feeling sluggish and power draining, especially when powering away with big pedal strokes."

http://reviews.mtbr.com/review-intense-tracer-275c/2

Huh.

There is some obvious need for revision in that text. Maybe a proof read before publication would have been warranted. You know, for the sake of the aforementioned idiosyncrasies.

media overload makes me tune out, regardless of how amazing, or not, a bike may, or may not, be.

media overload makes me tune out, regardless of how amazing, or not, a bike may, or may not, be.

I wonder how much it would have cost Intense to actually purchase all of that advertorial space? I bet the real cost would have been much more than the cost of a press junket and sending out test bikes.

I wonder how much it would have cost Intense to actually purchase all of that advertorial space? I bet the real cost would have been much more than the cost of a press junket and sending out test bikes.

definitely likely, I don't disagree. But they also blew their load in one overkill day with all of mtb media tripping over themselves to deliver varying degrees of the same thing. Now the media hype is over and we can forget about it within days, instead of reviews and coverage and what not trickling out over the course of weeks or months. I just question of how 'valuable' it really was…I dunno, I'm sure others may disagree.

i'd like to see a comparison between the tracer and the carbine. i thought they were the same bike.

i'd like to see a comparison between the tracer and the carbine. i thought they were the same bike.[/QUOTE
Disclaimer: I have a Carbine. Not much difference if you look at geo. Internal cable routing and slightly revised carbon layup, 10mm more travel and a whole bunch of marketing hype. I am not sure I like the new corporate Intense Cycles. However, anyone buying one will claim its the BEST thing ever.

Built one up at work the other day. T275 rear end is much stiffer/beefier than carbine.

There's demo bike at dunbar if anyone wants to throw their leg over one

I had a Carbine for two years. I loved the bike. I ran it with an angle set and it was a dream. I just got the Tracer 275c and I am taking it out for its first ride this weekend. For the customer who is keen on one it will be available for demo. I will let you know how it goes.

-Mantle

i'd like to see a comparison between the tracer and the carbine. i thought they were the same bike.[/QUOTE
Disclaimer: I have a Carbine. Not much difference if you look at geo. Internal cable routing and slightly revised carbon layup, 10mm more travel and a whole bunch of marketing hype. I am not sure I like the new corporate Intense Cycles. However, anyone buying one will claim its the BEST thing ever.