Sea Otter: Ellsworth

Press Launch

by 9

Tony Ellsworth was at the show to greet his brand’s disciples and show them what’s new in the Ellsworth range for 2010/2011… In are lots of colours, different shaped tubes, some carbon and some 29ers, out are the carbon rims they introduced at Interbike in 2008.

Ellsworth is promoting its new SST tubing: shaped, swaged and tapered – which means that all the tubes are different profiles without being hydroformed. Elsewhere, there are loads of colours and, well, colours… The 4in Truth, 5in Epiphany and 6in Moment are all going to be coming with the option of colour-matched bolts in silver, black, red, green and blue, so you’ll be able to get your bike matching just-so.

Green bolt to match other green bolts

Matching too...

The 4in travel, 29in wheel Evolve for all you big wheel lovers.

Carbon is also bike with Ellsworth, with the Enlightenment frame coming in 26in and 29in versions. It can be built up geared, belt-drive or chain singlespeed. Frames feature a tapered headtube, full internal cable routing and a frame weight of 2.7lbs.

Enlightenment in 'normal' wheel size

...and in Jumbotron wheel size

Swoopy 29in - note the internal cable stops

The 6in Ellsworth Moment

The Epiphany, Ellsworth's most popular model, with 130mm of travel
Chipps Chippendale

Singletrackworld's Editor At Large

With 23 years as Editor of Singletrack World Magazine, Chipps is the longest-running mountain bike magazine editor in the world. He started in the bike trade in 1990 and became a full time mountain bike journalist at the start of 1994. Over the last 30 years as a bike writer and photographer, he has seen mountain bike culture flourish, strengthen and diversify and bike technology go from rigid steel frames to fully suspended carbon fibre (and sometimes back to rigid steel as well.)

More posts from Chipps

Comments (9)

    EwanEwan April 29, 2010 at 11:34 am

    Did they give a reason why ‘shaped, swaged and tapered’ is better than hydroforming? My understanding is that it’s not. Other than being cheaper for them…

    ChippsChipps April 29, 2010 at 12:00 pm

    I can’t say that they did…

    AlexSimonAlexSimon April 29, 2010 at 12:35 pm

    It’s only cheaper for them if they want to keep making frames in the US.
    They used to be all made in the US I think. Now they’ve started doing these carbon frames in Taiwan and they have a new Taiwanese version of the Epiphany called ‘Glimpse’ – but unfortunately rather than just say it’s Taiwanese, they call it “US Spec” or something equally daft.

    I’d like Ellsworth a lot more if only they’d reduce the marketing spin a little.

    Chipps – did you get to ride a Nuvinci N360 bike at Sea Otter (it was on an Ellsworth)? If so, does a constantly variable transmission actually make sense for off-road applications?

    ChunkyMTBChunkyMTB April 29, 2010 at 1:01 pm

    What ‘edge’ do the colours give to the performance?

    chakapingchakaping April 29, 2010 at 1:07 pm

    I’m sure they have their fans, but I haven’t seen such a minging looking bunch of bikes in one place for some time.

    eggboxeggbox April 29, 2010 at 1:22 pm

    I can’t say I am a paricualr follower of Ellsworth and their wares…but one things is for sure….their FS bikes always look the same to the uneducated eye… apart for the kit hanging on the bikes these could have been taken 6 years ago. 😉

    HoratioHufnagelHoratioHufnagel April 29, 2010 at 2:34 pm

    are people really bothered where stuff is made these days?

    ianmunroianmunro April 29, 2010 at 3:59 pm

    Ewan, As I understand there have been instances of hydro-forming giving inconsistent wall thickness. It may be that other shaping methods give more predictable results. Pure conjecture mind.

    trailertrashtrailertrash May 4, 2010 at 10:56 am

    ianmunro is correct

Comments Closed