caminade chilleasy

This is Caminade’s Ti, Asymmetric, Chilleasy a.k.a. “Pleasure Machine”

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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.

caminade chilleasy
French fancy.

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.

caminade chilleasy
The Chilleasy is a one-off at the moment but we hope it goes into production.

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.

caminade chilleasy
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.

caminade chilleasy asymmetric
Handmade and looking lovely.

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.

Andi is a gadget guru and mountain biker who has lived and ridden bikes in China and Spain before settling down in the Peak District to become Singletrack's social media expert. He is definitely more big travel fun than XC sufferer but his bike collection does include some rare hardtails - He's a collector and curator as well as a rider. Theory and practice in perfect balance with his inner chi, or something. As well as living life based on what he last read in a fortune cookie Andi likes nothing better than riding big travel bikes.

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