Interesting suspension, neat details, great colour
While it’s not common for major outdoor reatilers’ house brands to catch our eye, it looks as though Decathalon’s B’Twin has been hard at work on their 2014 all-mountain model. As shown at Roc D’Azur, the Peak is an aluminum-framed, 140mm-travel 27.5in trail bike. Using the Best suspension system (their name, not our assessment), the Peak combines a so-short-it’s-an-eccentric lower link with a longer upper link. At rest, the effective pivot looks to be roughly in line with the chain- after that things get interesting and harder to discern.
A 3-position Combo Controller provides bar-mounted adjustment for both the front and rear Manitou suspension. The spec sheet mentions an Easy Weight Adjuster- while we weren’t able to get details, some sort of Specialized-esque AutoSag feature wouldn’t be surprising. Cable routing is internal for the derailleurs, brakes, and shock, but the neatest feature is what appears to be a bar stop built into the head tube:
The stem itself is also said to be dual-position, allowing for either 70mm or 90mm reach. Three models will be available next year, all with SRAM drivetrains- though sadly none with the prototype’s colour-matched X01 drivetrain. The Peak 700 sports a SRAM X5 build and a house-brand dropper post for €1,500. The Peak 740 jumps to X7 and a KS dropper for €2,000 and the €3,000 Peak 900 goes to X9, tubeless Sun Ringle wheels, and a nicer dropper. UK pricing TBC. No word on production colours, but we can’t help but root for the black/blue/orange shown here…
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Looks like they still have the “neuf” thingy, i.e. a bit like an I-drive.
‘a bit like an I-drive’
Assuming you mean Yeti’s design (whatever thats called)?
i.e Nothing like i-drive
Looks very ‘Gulf’..
“Assuming you mean Yeti’s design (whatever thats called)?”
Decathlon have been doing it for years, just that nobody noticed because they’re not cool. Yeti did it, and suddenly it was interesting 😉
They’re different in how they work – they just look similar.
Yeti’s eccentric pivot switches rotation direction at a specific point in the shock’s stroke, the Decathlon one doesn’t.
Hence axle paths etc different.
Always wondered what the difference between the BTwin and the SB suspension was, cheers.
Intriqued by this comment – “and a nicer dropper”
current experience tells me that the only one ‘nicer’ than a KS is a Reverb?
Not tried, or read reviews on, them all though.
Stem interface looks interesting but if it’s got anything to do with the bar stop feature will it preclude fitting a shorter stem (70 would be too long for me)