I have the chance of getting a good deal on a Tracer pro,apart from the bright colour scheme its a good spec.Does any body have any ride time on one?i’am coming from a Turner rfx.

Never owned one, but it’s an Intense so I’d guess it’ll be pretty average (as in, nothing ground breaking) but will look flash.

At over £6000, I’d bet something like a Bird Aeris at half the price will be a better bike.

I really want to try one, I have the last version and it’s sublime in my very biased opinion. The new one is slightly longer, slightly slacker and has 5mm more travel which on paper is going the wrong way for my personal taste / needs and I should look at a Recluse next time around, but you don’t ride bikes on paper do you.

I’d be willing to bet the bird is not better than a tracer. Better value? undoubtedly. A better bike? Not a chance.

I’d be willing to bet the bird is not better than a tracer. Better value? undoubtedly. A better bike? Not a chance.

I dunno, it might’ve been a bad example. I’m sure someone will be able to find a better one. REgardless, I bet the Intense is “behind the times” with it’s geometry.

IMO, Intense have not made a good bike since the original M1 (which is what their reputation was built on).

I did a car park test on the tracer, recluse, primer and spider, only one I liked was the tracer, they couldnt get me the black on black though so I walked away, then I looked at the santa cruz hightower, rode as nice but also came with a better warranty, threaded bb and bottle holder, all of this swung me

The tracer is a bang upmto date bike with spot on geometry and new suspension linkage design, demo one or take the plunge I’d be willing to bet that you’ll not be disappointed.

Yes, I am an Intense rider! Recent swapped out a Carbine for a Recluse

Nearly bought one a few years ago, the deal fell through as they would only supply with qr dropouts and wanted another 150 quid for 12mm ones, on a new frame? Lol.

IMO, Intense have not made a good bike since the original M1 (which is what their reputation was built on).

I suppose it depends on your definition of “good”!
I had a 5.5 which was plenty good for it’s time. I have a bronson which isn’t a million miles away from the new tracer geo and that’s a fair bit better than good.

Having demo-ed the recluse, it’s easily as good as my Bronson.

They’ve got the intense factory pro build at the tweedlove mega demo this weekend. Mate demoed it yesterday, he was raving about it. It’s a lot of dosh for a bike though.

I have a new Tracer SL. Coming off a lot of top end bikes, the last was a 2017 Patrol carbon with a elevensix. The Tracer feels right, it just works (for me), suspension feels spot on (personal preference is always to JS link/VPP suspension), the Patrol felt horrible when braking in rough stuff. Its stiff and tracks well which is a bonus, the Dune XR always felt a little wobbly (Mondraker engineered a certain amount of flex into it apparently..). What I really wanted was a longer 2014 nomad and this is the one, I would buy one again without question.

Just demoed one, very impressed. Felt nimble on the trails, smashed through the Whistler Bike Park with no issues at all. Felt very confidence inspiring. No idea how it climbs though.

My friends all demoed the Recluse. All also very impressed.

No idea how it climbs though

I know PB and Vital said it was no climber, but I personally don’t think its any worse than any other 155/165mm bike I have owned.

I suppose it depends on your definition of “good”!

Well, they always used to make reasonable boutique type bikes that people loved because of the heritage and the paint and the welds (apart from the bent ones) and what not, but they weren’t really any better thant the competition.

These days it looks like they’ve been overshadowed by Santa Cruz in those stakes, I haven’t seen intense mentioned much anywhere. I guess no one races on them anymore? (not like all the rebadged intenses BITD)

That picture up there doesn’t look particularly long or slcak for a long travel bike, which is sort of what I was getting at really. There seems to be some brands on the cheaper end of the spectrum knocking out the sort of bikes that everyone in a few years time will be riding.

That picture up there doesn’t look particularly long or slcak for a long travel bike, which is sort of what I was getting at really. There seems to be some brands on the cheaper end of the spectrum knocking out the sort of bikes that everyone in a few years time will be riding.

Its not very long or any slacker than others, 65 head angle seems to be the sweet spot.

The very fact that one of the designers helped bring long low slack bikes to the marketplace and then explained his reasoning for why he didn’t do the same with the intense would be worth a read. Longer and slacker isn’t always better.

There seems to be some brands on the cheaper end of the spectrum knocking out the sort of bikes that everyone in a few years time will be riding.

I dunno. We’re firmly in decent quality carbon territory here and the only ones selling those notibly cheaper than the big boys are the direct sales guys.
The recluse did get pretty tanked in the reviews though and that stupid long seat tube would count me out.

These days it looks like they’ve been overshadowed by Santa Cruz in those stakes, I haven’t seen intense mentioned much anywhere. I guess no one races on them anymore? (not like all the rebadged intenses BITD)

SC invested in The Syndicate, invested in new models, invested in marketing and brilliantly managed to sell the same thing at 2 price points without many people saying “wtf?” too loudly and more than that actually bought the more expensive version.

Intense got left behind, didn’t really embrace carbon, didn’t invest in marketing and didn’t have a factory team for a long time.

At first they tried the history angle, brought Palmer back on, built a youth team but now they’ve got a big money backer and are copying SC, lots of new high end models, all carbon, a factory race team and even 2 price point frames.

These days it looks like they’ve been overshadowed by Santa Cruz in those stakes, I haven’t seen intense mentioned much anywhere. I guess no one races on them anymore?

That’s because sc went Taiwanese mass market and are now just a department of Pon owners of focus bikes and other brands.

I would love to get a test ride on a Recluse. I can’t as there is not a single dealer on the island of Ireland. All previous dealers stopped selling Intense which may be cause for concern in itself.

Looks like it will be SC for no reason other than I can’t get a demo on an Intense!

That’s because sc went Taiwanese mass market and are now just a department of Pon owners of focus bikes and other brands.

The vast majority of their competition is mass far east made (including Intense). Being owned by PON is an improvement compared to being a tiny department in a huge corporation which makes kids, hybrid and seriously low end bikes such as spesh, trek, giant.
All of this heritage stuff is a red herring. Yeti were owned by Schwinn. Evil are owned by a marketing company.

Ha, well I didn’t know any of this stuff. All I know of MTBing is what I read on here really, and it seems most people tend to rave about Bird/YT/Giant/SC/Orange (infact probably most other brands); I’ve rarely seen Intense mentioned on these forums.

You used to get “Freeride” frames back in the day i.e. loads of travel but a bit shorter and steeper than a downhill bike. The SC VP-Free was one. I guess this is what the Intense is, sort of like “Enduro lite” ? You probably wouldn’t race one, but might be good fun at these new bike park type places (glentress freeride park 😉 ?

Intense carbon frames are made by seed in germany. SC have become mass market at boutique prices which is a clever trick to pull off.

Nope.

Practical considerations mean that Intense’s more recent carbon fiber frames are manufactured in Asia

http://www.bikeradar.com/mtb/gear/article/inside-intense-cycles-california-frame-factory-39568/

Intense works with SEED Engineering, a German company with an expertise in carbon fiber manufacturing, to bring its carbon fiber frames to life. The first fruit of this collaboration is the Carbine, a 5.5 – 6″ travel trail bike. The finished product is manufactured in Asia, although all of its aluminum frame components – both upper and lower VPP links, as well as the G1 dropouts – are made at Intense’s Temecula facilites.

https://www.pinkbike.com/news/intense-factory-tour-2012.html

Pretty much all carbon is made in asia, purely because they’re the best at it. As for SC, they make some of the best carbon out there. Single piece layup, no filler. If any carbon bike maker justifies the price tag (they are all similar nowadays), it’s SC.

Intersting piece on Intense here:

https://www.pinkbike.com/news/opinion-the-table.html