An eagle-eyed nameless reader despatched in a number of nice spy pictures of a prototype BH XC mountain bike from the weekend’s SuperPrestigio MTB race in Ancín-Antzin within the north of Spain. The linkage and shock of the unreleased full-suspension are hidden beneath a BH-labeled neoprene cowl for this early-season racing outing. However we will make out some fascinating particulars revealing an all-new single-pivot suspension design hidden away…
BH Lynx Race EVO2 next-gen XC mountain bike prototype
The prototype BH XC bike in query was raced by Jofre Cullel Estape of the BH Coloma staff to a 2nd place end – simply 2 seconds off the win – in Sunday’s Elite C1 SuperPrestigio XCO race.
BH already describe their top-tier 100mm Lynx Race Evo as “developed collectively with the BH Coloma staff“. So no large shock to see them working collectively once more. And it’s been simply over 3 years since we final noticed a serious replace to the Lynx Race platform. Regardless that it noticed a extra iterative replace final summer time.
Nevertheless it appears probably we’ll be seeing extra of this new mannequin this racing season.
OK, so what do we all know?
At this stage, concrete particulars from BH are non-existent, so we’re happening what we will see.
That is nonetheless a light-weight XC race bike. Constructed up with a Fox 34 Manufacturing unit StepCast fork and a fast-rolling Chaoyang Phantom Dry + Pace tire combo on Duke carbon wheels. It appears to be like like we’re speaking about 120mm of fork journey right here, very similar to we see on many different fashionable XC race bikes nowadays. That’s a step up from the present Lynx which solely will get 120mm for the Longer Journey path builds.
The headtube, downtube, primary pivot, and 1-piece chainstay swingarm nonetheless look lots like the prevailing Lynx Race. It’s nonetheless a excessive single-pivot suspension design with the SplitPivot concentric across the rear axle to isolate pedaling & braking forces. And it nonetheless will get the built-in cable routing by means of the headset. Suitable with mechanical or digital shifting, mechanical dropper, and mechanical distant shock lockout.
Now, what’s new?
The obvious change is that there isn’t any longer a hyperlink on the seattube driving the shock. I presume there’s nonetheless a brief hyperlink tucked up inside that mysterious cowl, most probably hanging down from the toptube. Nevertheless it’s gonna must be fairly small, after we determine that shock, hyperlink & toptube all match inside that neoprene sock.
A facet profit, this BH XC prototype bike ought to have extra space contained in the entrance triangle for a much bigger 2nd water bottle. That second bottle was already a serious long-distance marathon-racing profit of the present Lynx Race. Even higher bottle room now.
One fascinating level right here – within the racing photographs – it appears to be like like BH fully eliminated the seatstay bridge. A minimum of any bridge behind the seattube. Maybe the stays rejoin in entrance of the seattube to take care of rear-end stiffness.
We’ll have to attend and see.
Lastly, the brand new bike’s toptube kinds a straighter line sloping in direction of the rear wheel. Dropping the seat cluster means there’s probably room for longer dropper posts.
And there’s the return of a standard seatpost clamp, not the aero wedge-style on the present Lynx Race. Jofre Cullel’s bike has quite a lot of seatpost displaying – racing with a BikeYoke Divine SL submit.
BH Lynx Race XC prototype timeline?
We’ve requested BH for a timeline as to after we ought to count on to see this prototype XC bike make its debut. Or to substantiate whether or not it’s going to maintain the Lynx Race identify? However unsurprisingly, we’ve acquired a fairly commonplace “No Remark” reply.
Clearly, it’s nonetheless in testing levels. And BH went out of their method to verify not a lot is being revelaed of this growth prototype. Maybe they’re nonetheless dialing within the excellent linkages? However we all know that completed carbon frames counsel completed carbon molds. It could possibly’t be too removed from being full.
If nothing else, I plan to get a better look when the UCI MTB World Cup makes its European racing debut in Could. Hopefully uncovered.
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