Boutique French frame maker, Caminade, makes a welcome return to the mountain bike market with the full-suspension Chilleasy.
The Caminade Chilleasy is the latest full-suspension frame to be designed and manufactured by the French frame maker. The bike is actually the brainchild of Caminade newcomer, Geoffrey Buisan, who after joining the team in 2018 was given the opportunity to design something new.
Called the Chilleasy after a trip to a local brewery, which is also why there’s a built-in bottle opener, the frame is made of titanium after Geoffrey fell in love with the material while riding Caminade’s range of gravel bikes. In a post over on the Caminade website, the designer explains that titanium gives the single pivot bike the feeling that it’s alive on the trail while also adding some challenges to the overall development of the 140mm travel bike.
One of those challenges was to ensure that the frame retained it’s Titanium ‘zip’ while also being stiff enough around the pivot to let the Ohlins coil shock get on with suspension duties. The solution was to build the frame with an oversized main pivot that the bottom bracket is also located inside. As well as ensuring a beefy main pivot this solution also solves any issues with chain growth too.
When viewed from the side the Caminade Chilleasy looks like a typical, albeit beautiful, enduro bike with a slack 65.5° front end but take a look at the non-drive side and you’ll quickly notice that the Chilleasy adopts an asymmetric design.
The Swedish rear shock mounts directly to the downtube of the mainframe, while the swooping top tube/seat post tower structure sweeps and curves around the yellow coil for clearance.
The reasoning behind the shock placement is that Caminade started with the suspension layout first then designed the bike around that point rather than doing the aesthetics first then making the suspension fit the look. The design also takes inspiration from motorbike design too.
Caminade hasn’t revealed the full geometry details, kinematics or pricing of the Chilleasy, but have provided a little more information on the bike over on their website here. Before heading over there though, let us know what you think of this handsome, French, “Pleasure Machine” in the comments below.
Comments (13)
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Looks sexy
Ooooh , yes please . Anyone want to buy a wife and two kids ?
More about the bottle opener please.
Schwing!
My left calf, especially with coil shock, says NO…
Cheers!
I.
Wonder how the shock will get on with the asymmetric loading, long term? I’m not convinced by the pivot placement. Mid 90s URT anyone?
(or supermarket URT)
cool design execution but that down tube is gonna break. Fo Sho.
“that down tube is gonna break. Fo Sho”
Titanium?
Unlikely…
I don’t care if this pedals like shit with the main pivot concentric to the BB shell, or that the unsupported downtube will break (even Ti breaks if designed poorly) This is one of the sexiest, cleanest, leanest prettiest dam bikes on the interweb right now. I think this is my 4th visit back just to look at it.
Yhyh Dusty-you knowsit!
To put on the wall – yes, to actually ride – no thanks. Putting a shock in single shear and where your leg should go is just not the answer to the problem. Do a split seat post, or a linkage, or a swingarm that reaches around the seatpost. At least then you could ride the thing. Still looks sexy though 🙂
A good design exercise. I would like to see more titanium FS.