[First Look] Alutech’s Crowd Designed ICB2.0 Trail Bike

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Alutech is a German bike company that likes to do things differently. They designed a trail bike based on a range of opinions from an online community of bikers from Germany and came out with the ICB2.0.

We met up with Alutech’s product manager whilst riding in Punta Ala at our test center to have a look at this different approach to building the bike and have a test ride.

The brief given to the community was to design the bike around the concept of a trail bike. The prospective rider has to be able to use the bike in a fun way down the trail, the bike should not make the trail too easy. The bike needed to have 130mm of rear suspension travel. The focus was the frame only, not equipping the bike, which is to be done by individual riders who purchase the frame only and build it up with custom parts. Later on in the process bikers will be able to get hold of a fully equipped bike from Alutech.

Specifications

•    27.5” Wheels
•    130 mm Rear-Travel, made for forks with 130-150 mm
•    Tapered Steerer ZS44 28.6/ ZS56 40
•    12X142 mm Rear Axle
•    PM180 Brake Mount
•    2850 g frame weight
•    Price TBA but around €1400 frame only, no shock
•    Test build weight was around 13.4 kilos.

The numbers speak for themselves aiming the bike squarely at fun trail riding. The fork can be mounted with an internal headset design for use with 150mm of travel, or an external headset for use with 130mm travel forks. The chain stays are short and the single pivot design lends itself to a sprightly ride that allows the rider to feel the trail well and pop over roots rocks and corners. However the experience should be more edgy than with an Enduro bike. The idea is to bring back the feel to riding a trail that had been lost somewhat with some long travel Enduro designs that are very good at absorbing all the trail features.

Starting at the front of the bike the welding is clean and robust, notice the possibility with all cable mount points to either mount externally or internally all the cable routes.

Here the cables are internal, but all the external routes have the fixing holes present.

The rear end is a single pivot design.

Alutech have mounted their production prototype ready for fairly aggressive trail riding, in this case a Fox 36 on the front as it is stiffer than other options but light enough to be pedalled in 150mm mode.

In this case the 150mm version has been mounted, which we tried, notice the internal headset.

A fairly aggressive trail tyre up front from WTB, the bike always has a leaning though even with tyres to some riding being done on the limit. The beauty of the low frame price though is that any rider can build up the bike the way they want.

This version has been built with a 1 X build kit, saving weight.

The community of designers numbered around 2000 riders, who made around 15,000 comments during the design phase. Part of that design phase included some user testing in Finale Ligure. One element discussed was the shock linkage, which has been designed by software that bases its concepts on a virtual spring, then calculates an industrial element into the part as can be seen in the organic looking linkage. The movement of the suspension is a progressive design that ramps up well.

The Float X platform is one of the options that will be available when the frame goes on sale.

A custom parts list on the prototype.  The public version will have a complete bike with SRAM build kit for around €2000-3000. With higher specification models also to follow.

Testing a dual valve system for the tyres.

KOM wheels on this version.

Magura four piston brakes show that despite the 130mm of travel the bike is designed to be pushed when needed down the hill.

The reverse side of the frame shows the lower part of the rear triangle which is from a  CNC block that took 3 hours to build. In final production versions this part may have some adaptations.

It is hollow where it needs to be in order to keep weight down.

The pivot hardware and attachment points are all finished very well indeed, despite the competitive price quality is still the aim of the game.

The seat supports have a somewhat industrial look to them,

The colour options of the frame are anodized and painted or an exclusive  powder coating on brushed aluminium.

Attention to detail with the rear brake mount that is a post mount and 180mm compatible.

The idea is to sell eventually complete versions of the bike with 800 mm bars which are likely to be cut to around 740-780 by most users.

The Alutech logo is incised out of the headtube, a beautiful piece of machining.

More Info

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