Update: Sick Bicycle Co. “Gnarpoon” Carbotanium Full Suspension Bike Teased

We have come across more details about this mystery machine. The original story follows this update.

Update: We’ve been poking around and we might be looking at something a lot more special than we first thought. The teaser image shows the number “22” which is the atomic number for Titanium and the number “6” the atomic number for carbon. We’re unsure if this means that the front triangle of the Gnarpoon will be Titanium or not, but as reader Chrissyharding has pointed out it, could mean that Sick Bicycles Co are using a Carbotanium weave for the rear.

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Carbotanium is a material made up of carbon and titanium weave that is said to be stronger, lighter and more resistant to shearing than standard carbon fibre. The material has been used with success on exotic sports cars such as the lightweight Pagani Zonda. So while we were a little excited before, we’re now very excited about this UK made bike.

Original story follows:

Back in May, we learned of a new UK bike brand with a very ‘sick’ naming strategy, we are of course talking about Sick Bicycle Co, an upcoming manufacturer of steel bikes.

Since its first press releases back in May, we’ve seen Sick Bicycle Co. launch the slack Gnarcissist 29er hardtail on Kickstarter, and become increasingly more active across social media channels. Anyone following the brand will have seen its various video edits, behind the scenes photos, and updates.

Last night though, the Sick Bicycle Co. Instagram feed was interrupted from its usual updates of Gnarcissist testing with the following teaser:

6 // 22

A post shared by Sick! Bicycle Co. (@sickbicycles) on Jul 3, 2017 at 10:57am PDT

Obviously, this image had our curiosity glands working overtime, so we downloaded the picture, popped it into Photoshop, adjusted the levels and this is what we discovered.

After our quick tweak, it’s easy to see the outline of an all new bike frame, one with rear suspension, and with that trademark Sick Bicycle Co. slack head angle. We could have left our discovery at that, but we delved a little further and found a little more.

It appears that this new full-suspension frame is made from steel, but mated to a carbon rear triangle. The use of carbon for the rear triangle means a more organic look and should save a little weight when compared to other brands and their full steel (see Production Privee Shan N5) or steel front alloy rear (see Cotic Droplink bikes) approach when building the new breed of steel full suspension bikes.

Corroborating our theory on carbon construction is this Instabanger too.

Been a long time since I’ve done any carbon wet layup (even then I’ve mostly done prepreg). So going to treat myself to making a proper mess of myself tonight.

A post shared by Sick! Bicycle Co. (@sickbicycles) on Jun 26, 2017 at 6:07am PDT

If you squint and sit as close as you can to your screen, you might be able to see two links forming the suspension system that holds the carbon rear to the steel front triangle. The arrangement is similar to the linkage on the Ibis Mojo and Robot R160/R130, although at this point we don’t know if Sick Bicycle Co. has licensed the DW link design yet or created their own system which looks similar.

The only other details we can make out from the teaser are that the reach appears to be quite long, the downtube has an attractive curve to it and the head tube has an “hourglass” profile.

The final piece of information from the image is the numbers “6 // 22” which apparently DON’T relate to the DW6 suspension system or the launch date for the bike. Update: But are the atomic numbers for carbon and titanium hinting at the possible use of Carbotanium for the rear end.

As for the name, well this could be the Gnarpoon, an 180mm travel, 29er, full suspension bike that was hinted at around the same time as the Gnarcissist reveal, however, the shock mount in this teaser doesn’t appear to match the one was shown off in earlier photos. Perhaps things have changed a little during development? or perhaps this is a different bike completely?

Whatever it might be we’re sure we are going to see more of this project in the coming weeks and we’ll update the story as we get more details. If you haven anything to add to the story please feel free to do so in the comments section below.

For those of you with a soft spot for steel full-suspension bikes head over to our article “10 Stunning Steel Full Suspension Bikes You Cannot Ignore“.