10 More Stunning Steel Full Suspension Bikes You Cannot Ignore

Steel remains real in 2019 with no sign of steel full suspension bikes disappearing from the market, in fact, there could be even more on offer than ever before.

2019 Production Privée Shan No5

• Price: From €1,499.00 frame only
• From: Production Privée

For 2019, Andorran bike brand Production Privée has taken the highly successful Shan No5 full suspension platform and updated it. The new version of the bike retains it’s 140mm of rear wheel travel and race car inspired livery, but can now be built as either a 29er or 27.5in wheeled bike.

The 2019 Production Privée Shan No5 has also received a few geometry tweaks and can be bought as a frame only, rolling chassis or complete bike. Full details of the complete 2019 range of PP bikes available here.

Starling Cycles Spur

• Price: TBA
• From: Starling Cycles

The Starling Spur is the first gearbox bike from the UK bike maker and uses an Effigear box in place of a traditional rear mech and cassette. What’s interesting with the Effigear is that it can use an SRAM trigger shifter rather than the usual gripshift units we see on gearbox bikes.

Starling claims that the Spur was in the mid-low 30lbs-range, which is pretty impressive for a 170mm travel, full steel, full suspension bike. We’ve got more photos of the Starling Spur from Bespoken 2019 where Chipps gave the bike an award.

2019 Curtis Bikes Thumpercross

• Price: TBA
• From: Curtis Bikes

The Thumpercross has been re-born for 2019 as a complete steel, downhill bike with 8-inches of travel out back. Construction of the frame looks similar to the shorter travel Curtis XR650 with slender steel tubes joined together with super clean brazing.

The single pivot suspension was actually built up for a Curtis team rider, but if you were interested in one for yourself we’re sure they’ll sort you out. More photos of the Curtis Thumpercross available here.

Morph Cycles “quiver-killer”

• Price: TBA
• From: Morph Cycles

Morph Cycles is a start-up MTB brand from the UK, this single pivot suspension bike is currently a prototype that has been in development since 2017. Tom, the designer of the bike, started this project as a part uni project/part business idea but mostly because he wanted to build his dream bike.

The unnamed bike has 142mm of rear wheel travel and a flipchip so that you can switch between running a 140mm or 160mm travel fork. The current prototype has a reach of 470mm, 440mm chainstays and the aesthetics are based on dirt jump bikes meaning plenty of standover height.

Tom is still working on refining the bike and will have some bracing across the rear triangle so you can’t buy one just yet, but you can check out the Morph Cycles website and keep an eye on the progress.

2019 Cotic Flare

• Price: From £2,999 (full bike)
• From: Cotic

Cotic offers a whole range of steel full suspension bikes, some featuring UK made front triangles paired to alloy backends. The Flare is a 27.5in, short travel bike designed around Cotic’s Droplink suspension platform and optimised for 140mm travel forks. The 2019 version of the Cotic Flare runs the new, longer, Longshot geometry and has room for up to 2.6in wide tyres.

Cotic also has a longer travel Rocket in the range and for fans of larger wheels, both the Flare and Rocket come in Max variants with room for 29in wheels or 27.5in plus tyres.

Stanton Switch9er

• Price: From £3975 complete bike
• From: Stanton Bikes

Like the Cotic, Stanton matches a steel front end to an alloy rear, but these bikes are built to order and Stanton will let you play around with the geometry to help build the bike that suits you perfectly.

The Switch9er FS has 140mm of rear wheel travel, 160mm travel up front and runs on 29in wheels, there’s also the Switchback in the Stanton range with smaller 27.5in wheels. Stanton will sell you a frame and shock from £2500 or a complete bike from £3975. If you’d like to learn more about the Switch9er then you’re in luck as Hannah has just posted her review of one here.

Peregrine Bikes

• Price: $3400 for a frame kit
• From: Peregrine

Peregrine Bikes is a U.S based manufacturer of steel full suspension bikes who currently concentrate on the more extreme side of mountain biking. The Peregrine boasts a Pinion gearbox, unique multilink suspension system, and adjustable rear travel.

Rear travel can be adjusted with interchangeable front shock mounts that don’t change the geometry but will give you between 147-200mm of travel depending on the length of shock in use.

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The standard 27.5in wheeled frameset costs $3400 but that includes the rear shock, axle, headset, Pinion Gearbox, shifter, and cranks. They can also manufacture a 26in wheeled version if you fancy one too.

Project 12 Cycleworks Vertigo

• Price:  2600 Euros frame and shock
• From: projectxii.nl

The Vertigo is Project 12’s all steel, fillet brazed full suspension bike. The bike is customisable so you can set the geometry that you like, and even choose to build the bike around 27.5 or 29in wheels.

A pivot-less rear triangle is made with super slim, and flexible, seat stays for easier maintenance and through a switch in shock, length offers either 127-145mm of progressive suspension travel.

Project 12’s pricing starts at 2600 Euros for the Vertigo frame with Cane Creek DB Inline shock. Complete bikes start at 5500 Euros, although early orders might be eligible for a slight discount.

Swarf Cycles Contour 29

• Price: Frame from £1950
• From: Swarf Cycles

The Swarf Contour is a short travel 29er steel full suspension bike based around a similar geometry to the Swarf Spline hardtail. Swarf designed the Contour with just 115mm of rear wheel travel just to take the sting out of the trail.

Geometry isn’t as extreme as some bike listed, but due to the low-standover height riders can easily choose to size up if they want something longer.

Pricing starts at £1950 for the frame with RockShox Monarch RT3 rear shock, and there are options to spec Cane Creek rear shocks, forks, and Hope components.

There are plenty more steel full suspension bikes available and we actually mentioned some before in our 2017 top 10 steel full suspension bikes article here, but if there are any steel full suspension frames missing from these lists then please let us know about them in the comments below.

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