So… Kevin Walsh confirmed on Twitter weeks ago that a 650b Uprising is in the pipeline. But I don’t think anyone expected to see this picture so soon!

That’s Luke Strobel, Evil’s sponsored rider, winning the Cascadia National Enduro at the weekend aboard what appears to be, a bright yellow 650b wheeled Evil, presumably a prototype Uprising.

So… What do we know about it? Absolutely nothing more than can be gleaned from the picture, which is to say the shock appears to be a fair bit longer than on the 29er Following and the BB a bit taller hinting at a good deal more travel (I’m guessing 150mm like on the outgoing 26″ model) and the seat tube appears a bit steeper too. The chainstays still look really short, even with 650b wheels. It also looks, though I can’t tell for sure, that they may have ditched the front derailleur mount too and gone 1x specific… Any which way, it looks the mutts nuts, and if it rides anywhere near as well as my Following does then they’ll sell em all very quickly!

Well… That’s it then, I’d better start saving.

Evil Frame, Pikes and some 650b SStar wheels, can’t be much more than forty quid for that lot…

God I hate, loving bikes.

TBH it looks more like a Following (skinny base to the downtube, much bigger hole in the frame at the seat/top tube interface), than a Uprising.. has anyone actually confirmed that it’s a picture of a 650B, and not just a custom coloured Following?

TBH it looks more like a Following (skinny base to the downtube, hole in the frame at the seat/top tube interface), than a Uprising.. has anyone actually confirmed that it’s a picture of a 650B, and not just a custom coloured Following?

Long stroke shock, different swing arm, no visible FD mount etc. remember that Strobel rides a medium too, and given the perspective (and the BB height in relation to the axles) I’d bet a lot of money that’s 650b.

Given what they learnt from the first Uprising (great suspension setup, lousy tyre clearances and out of favour wheel size) I’d say they’ll take more of the success from the Following into the new 650b Uprising than they will just convert the old Uprising to take a bigger wheel.

oooooh I LIKE!

Why!?! I passed on the 26″ version as was worried about the rear tyre clearance and now it looks like I may need to start saving (think about selling my existing frame) if this really is the 650b version and it’s got proper tyre clearance.

I may be wrong, but i think it says 27.5 on the tyres.

Someone on MTBR reckons it’s coming next month….

Why!?! I passed on the 26″ version as was worried about the rear tyre clearance and now it looks like I may need to start saving (think about selling my existing frame) if this really is the 650b version and it’s got proper tyre clearance.

I looked at the 26″ version when they came out. Lovely looking bike, but was too flawed to make a serious case for itself, especially with such limited tyre clearance.

Saw the Following at Core Bike this year after having seen photos on the Internet a few weeks before, and as a bit of a 29er fan anyway, I had to have one.

Fast Forward a few months and I’ve had it about 3 weeks now, and my face aches from grinning so hard! Tyre clearance isn’t enormous, but then it’s perfectly acceptable with a decent 2.25″ in the back, and hasn’t clogged on me yet (and it’s been ridden through some serious mud already!).

The 650 Uprising looks like it will take more from the Following than the old 26″ Uprising design wise, as to the untrained eye, the pic above does look like very much like a Following painted neon yellow.

Someone on MTBR reckons it’s coming next month…

I’m an optimist, but I’ll believe it when I see it. America will get a number of frames before we ever get one remember (guys were riding Followings in the U.S. for 5 months before mine arrived!), and where I was promised a frame at the end of Feb, it actually arrived beginning of June… Still… It was worth the wait!

I think we all knew it was coming soon really, Kevin has mentioned it when talking about the Following. It looks great, it’s either this or a Canyon Spectral for my next bike. Wallet or heart decision but I will be keeping it for around five years. Hopefully in two years when I’m ready to buy one and am in the states to pick one up there will be some idea of how reliable these are compared to the earlier Evil full sussers.

That’s not a Following, for one thing it’s missing a bolt where the Following’s geometry adjust tab is. Maybe it’s not got geometry adjust. Plus, it just isn’t.

It’s gonna sell like hot cakes, good job to them.

I’d have bought a Following in that colour. Guantanamo orange didn’t work for me.