AIRBORNE 650B PROTOTYPE

AIRBORNE 650B

While at Sea Otter you will always see something new that will be coming out soon or will be for the next year.
We ran into Trevor Gay from Airborne Bicycles and he was rocking a new prototype 650b (27.5) that Airborne has been testing.
With the advent of so many bicycle companies going to either 650b or 29er I could say that 26″ wheel may disappear soon except on low end bikes.

Airborne sees this and has been working on there first 650b. It will be around 5″ travel in the rear although they spec the prototype with a 150mm fork, one would guess it will be close. When ask if this would be the bike’s group spec, the answer was no. This was all set up to race this weekend.
The bike (as you see the photos)looks very impressive. If you notice the head angle you, will see the it looks very slack. It is a 66 degree head angle. I would say slack for a bike like this, but I see this as a good thing, as this will give better stability at high speed or steep drop-in’s, also a tapered head tube for a stiff front end.

The rear wheel will be thru axle which will give great stiffness when on the pedals and when hammering during that Enduro race or shredding your favorite trail. You will see that it will be able to allow a front derailleur for 2x 10 drivetrain or as you see it here set up in a 1x.

PROTOTYPE

Its always cool to see the word Prototype on anything and seeing what Airborne has accomplished in a short time I for one am very pleased to see them heading in a great path. Having been a part of Airborne with our DH Web Team was great. They are coming up fast and doing it right for the consumer with great pricing and a decent product.
No word on release date yet, but stay tuned if your an Airborne fan on there website and Facebook fan page.

Airbornebicycle.com