MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
Yet another one up for sale in the classifieds - seem to be a lot of people flogging these bikes after a short time - is that just my impression?
Are there peopel out there who have this bike and really like it?
The one on the classifieds has been for sale for a while. The two that were for sale the other week were insurance replacements and the bloke had bought some other bikes before the insurance came through.
I used to have a Tracer Vpp. It was a great bike to ride but was flexy, used to eat bearings and it cracked. I'd always told myself I'd never have another...then the Carbine came out (not long after I'd bought a HD). I would have been sorely tempted if it had been out when buying a new frame. The bearings have been improved and maybe the carbon has sorted the flex out. I think the RP23 is the wrong shock for the bike, a Manitou ISX-6 is the one it needs (if staying with air).
D45yth, there have been at least 3 different sellers (so 4 frames) in classifieds. The 2 insurance replacements (same seller) sold for about 1100 on eBay which undermined the other sellers and is a hefty chunk less than he was asking, would have been painful if you'd paid full rrp.
I thought the same as the OP...
I was one of the sellers from last week and id been given the frame as a replacement for a tracer 2 , once received i had serious doubts this was the frame for me and decided to sell it and buy a hd or maybe another tracer 2 . After not getting a sniff i decided to give it a go so off to the peaks for the weekend ! Its mega and im very glad i kept it ! I loved the old tracer but it flexed to much and the tracer 2 is great but i couldn't stop thinking if only it was that little bit lighter !!! The carbine is just that bike i was looking for ! Done 60k ride on it yesterday around the peaks and couldn't say a bad word. Its light ,super stiff yet quite forgiving and turns real quick even with 160 coils in it ! Pedals up hill great and point it down hill and it goes were you look !! Great bike all i need to do is sort the lack of chain device options ( no iscg 05 and press fit bb which is super stiff i might add ) and it will be even better !!
Basically there just a bit of an unknown and with having no iscg 05 tabs and  the stigma over intense frames breaking and alinement probs people see them as high risk ! Â
The Carbine isn't made by Intense, so there are none of the cracking or alignment problems that people usually associate with the brand.
I had some issues setting the shock up properly on mine. Once I'd got some help to set the shock it is awesome.