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Read our Calibre Sentry review here: https://singletrackworld.com/2019/03/review-calibre-sentry-review-an-ews-racer-for-2000/
Andi speaks with Mike Sanderson from Calibre Bikes about the all-new Calibre Sentry 29er enduro bike. If you're after progressive geometry, big wheels, 1x12 Eagle for £2000 then this should be at the top of your list.
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0:00
sort of have more people getting into
0:01
vuro racing or that more aggressive
0:04
riding without having to spend top tier
0:06
bucks distinct lack of branding I mean
0:08
got long low like I was trying not to
0:09
say it trying not to say it um so we did
0:12
a testing with the guys at Rock shock I
0:14
think we've left the the main selling
0:16
point of this bike to the end as
0:21
well hey everyone Andy from single trap
0:24
magazine and I'm with Mike from caliber
0:25
bikes hi all how you doing and we've got
0:27
a pretty interesting new bike from
0:29
caliber which you may have seen leaked
0:30
on social media now and again or you
0:32
know spy shots here and there Mike could
0:34
you tell us a bit about it uh yeah this
0:36
is the uh the brand new caliber Century
0:38
so our kind of next tier bike in terms
0:41
of hierarchy and price point and uh yeah
0:43
so it's a it's an all new bike it sits
0:46
above the bosner and the triple be yeah
0:48
that's right yeah so yeah yeah totally
0:50
different frame yeah just sort of
0:52
developed from the ground up um yeah
0:54
totally kind of uh you know totally
0:55
different uh brand new for uh this bike
0:58
entirely yeah okay so let's go over a
1:00
few of the details of this bike so it's
1:02
a 29er it's a it's an endural bike and
1:05
it's kind of like ews ready out of the
1:07
box I suppose isn't it yeah we really
1:08
wanted a bike that you could uh you know
1:10
sort of have more people getting into
1:12
inero racing or that more aggressive
1:14
riding without having to spend top tier
1:16
bucks if you see what I mean um and uh
1:19
yeah we really wanted to kind of really
1:20
think about everything that kind of came
1:22
out of the box and just be able to you
1:24
know like you say get out of the box
1:26
maybe turn the tires and the wheels
1:27
tubeless um but ultimately go build it
1:30
in the car park and then go race it that
1:32
same day if you see I mean there the
1:33
kind of
1:35
mentality so I mean like with that in
1:37
mind we've got not only do we have uh 29
1:39
in Wheels we've got 160 travel up front
1:42
150 out rear yeah 150 and a really uh
1:44
Progressive geometry like it's it's
1:47
really surprising normally when I I look
1:49
at the specs of a bike I'll tend to size
1:51
up go for a large but when I saw the goo
1:54
on this I'm like no I'm going for medium
1:55
could you tell us a bit about the
1:56
geometry of the yes so your medium has
1:59
got a of 465 or 467 um and uh uh you've
2:04
got 64 head angle with the 2.6 Tire um
2:08
you've got 76 effective seat angle so
2:11
you know pedaling efficiency uh and then
2:14
um you've got 335 bottom bracket height
2:16
as well so yeah it puts the rider really
2:19
low into that bike and kind of enables
2:21
you to smash through things and Corner
2:23
efficiently and sort of with the
2:25
stability as well yeah yeah so it hits
2:26
the LLS doesn't it the long it all it's
2:29
got like I was trying not to say it
2:31
trying not to say to say it's like the
2:33
longest lowest slackest bike I've SE at
2:34
this price point it's like that's it's
2:36
nuts uh we won't say I don't want to say
2:39
the price until the end because it's
2:40
it's a good price so um yeah let's have
2:42
a look at the spec so we've already
2:43
mentioned it's a 160 travel Fork on
2:45
there uh what Fork is it uh it's the AR
2:48
um so you know we're really impressed by
2:50
this fork with the the new Deon air and
2:53
everything it also uses the short offset
2:56
um so we did a testing with the guys at
2:57
Rock shock uh super grateful for all of
3:00
their help in in both front and rear um
3:02
and we found that obviously the the
3:04
shorter offset work better with this
3:06
with the 29er wheels and the the slack
3:08
head angle um it just gives more
3:10
stability in The Descent so less of that
3:12
ping that you you know uh that you can
3:13
get off a route or a rock or something
3:15
uh and then when climbing uh you've got
3:17
less of that Flo flers yeah so it's a 42
3:20
mil offset on this on this Yari and this
3:22
is the RC so it's got rebound and
3:24
compression uh damp controls on there as
3:27
well so it's it's a really decent fork
3:29
and um you can convert it to a lyric
3:31
can't you if you basically yeah I think
3:33
I'm not sure off the top of my head but
3:34
so I won't quite price but it's not
3:36
crazy money to kind of basically turn
3:38
that into so so it's I mean like these
3:40
are nice features when you look at the
3:41
bike and you start like looking at all
3:43
the details the specification the
3:44
geometry you can see that like you
3:47
you've like really thought about it it's
3:48
not just let's build a big travel bike
3:51
and and get it out in front of as many
3:52
people as we can it's like let's make
3:54
something that actually works like
3:56
decent geometry uh decent specification
3:58
like we say you could convert that to a
4:00
lyric for a couple of hundred pound I
4:01
believe uh so yeah really really cool
4:04
interesting bits and Bobs and like I I
4:06
say you've worked with rock shocks with
4:08
the fork testing that with a shorter
4:09
offset and that this is actually a
4:11
special tune for this yeah so we we had
4:14
uh we were really lucky to kind of spend
4:15
a day testing with rock shock down and
4:17
Avan Forest uh and uh we sort of work
4:21
with them with our kinematics um and our
4:23
sort of leverage ratio so it's a
4:24
progressive leverage ratio um and we
4:27
work with those guys and like you know
4:28
they helped me massive ly in getting
4:30
that shot tune uh right for this bike um
4:33
and kind of gives that that window is a
4:36
terminology that the guys at Shram and
4:38
rock shock use where the majority of
4:41
riders will fit into that window and be
4:43
able to use that um thing and but then
4:45
obviously with this model there's the
4:47
option for um um tokens inside there to
4:51
change the air volume as well yeah so
4:53
yeah there's a lot lot to play around
4:54
with and and it's just I mean I don't
4:56
know I mean like uh if I go into a go
4:58
Outdoor Store I look at a bike these are
5:00
details that wouldn't automatically
5:01
spring to mind I wouldn't think oh you
5:03
guys have been out with rock shocks
5:04
testing you haven't got the I wouldn't
5:07
think oh the RAR shocks design you're
5:08
tuned specifically for this kinematics
5:11
and these are all great points aren't
5:12
they yeah you I say the bikes been by
5:14
this point when it's release the video
5:16
um be about two years in the sort of in
5:18
times of us deciding that we're going to
5:20
do this and then to this point now um so
5:23
there's been a lot of testing we've had
5:25
uh five prototypes uh various mistakes
5:28
along the way um and uh you know we've
5:31
really kind of made sure that every part
5:33
on the bike warrants being there if you
5:35
see what I mean and actually brings
5:37
something to that complete package and
5:38
it's the same mentality that we do on
5:40
all of the bikes is really make sure
5:42
that everything is there for a reason um
5:44
you know at that price point if you see
5:46
so I mean like so we've got like that
5:48
that frame it's there that's it's the
5:50
complete Enduro package really decent
5:52
suspension but I mean what about the
5:54
components on the bike what what makes
5:56
these uh endure out the box ready like
5:58
for example the tires there anything
6:00
special about the tires yeah so the
6:01
tires are kind of um you know one of the
6:03
things that kind of um when I was doing
6:04
my compare analysis that bugged me was
6:06
even on super high-end bikes um you know
6:09
67,000 they were using kind of lighter
6:11
weight carcass tires um and you know I'm
6:14
not a very good racer but I I do enjoy
6:16
the odd race every now and then I
6:17
wouldn't trust you know 100 kilos of me
6:20
on those lighter tires at somewhere like
6:22
you know OD rock or someone that's got
6:24
some prettyy nasty terrain to to bite
6:25
through their it's not something you
6:26
want to fail when you're like whether
6:28
you're racing or not you don't want it
6:29
to go like when you're in the middle of
6:31
nowhere yeah especially if it's raining
6:32
and miserable it just sucks so we Su the
6:35
uh the WTB tires with the tough casing
6:38
uh and they're the high grip compound as
6:39
well both front and rear um so give that
6:42
Ena you to really grip in the the wet
6:45
over Roots over rocks it gives you that
6:47
best um kind of grip that you possibly
6:48
get and then that tough casing uh
6:51
although a little bit heavier um it just
6:53
you know provides you with able to run
6:54
lower sort of pressures uh and be more
6:57
secure in that that knowledge that
6:59
you're likely or less likely to to sort
7:01
of damage those if you see what I mean
7:02
yeah exactly and and I mean there's the
7:04
option now you could save a better
7:05
weight cuz this is tube Now isn't it you
7:07
could you could go tubeless which would
7:09
save a bit of weight so you get the
7:10
benefits of that you know tougher tire
7:13
and uh you know without any like you
7:15
reducing the rotating mass at all yeah
7:17
yeah it you know and then other things I
7:19
suppose like the guide re brakes um
7:22
super powerful uh when we there's a
7:24
higher version of this that we were
7:25
testing and that was our kind of main
7:27
bike and then we realized how fast you
7:29
could go on that bike uh that we
7:31
realized that you know the spec below
7:33
was also going to need some really
7:34
powerful brakes exactly um so uh we
7:37
expect the guide Rees and there are a
7:39
break that we use on uh the Triple B so
7:41
we know them and they're so powerful and
7:44
and uh you know basically the caliper uh
7:46
an old downhill caliper basically
7:49
downhill caliper basically is it and
7:50
they've got a really lovely feel like
7:52
the lever on them the modulation really
7:53
great and as Mike says it's a break you
7:55
need for this bipe because you do pick
7:57
up speed pretty quickly and it's amazing
7:59
like
8:00
because of that Progressive geometry you
8:01
can really Chuck it into corners and you
8:04
know sometimes you do need to weigh in
8:05
on the anchors now and again but it's
8:07
it's yeah it's pretty impressive yeah
8:08
what other the bits and Bobs here which
8:10
are you know which stand out for you
8:12
know I can say I won't mention the price
8:14
till the end but what standout features
8:16
U well we've got the uh the shran X
8:18
Eagle group set so again that coupled
8:20
with the shock tune the sort of
8:22
kinematics and that seat angle and then
8:24
I suppose the offset of the fork all
8:26
kind of come together to enable you just
8:27
to kind of sit in that saddle and a fair
8:29
neutral position uh unless it's a super
8:32
techy steep climb and just kind of keep
8:34
those legs spinning and climb up the
8:35
other side of the hills um and uh you
8:38
know so that's a nice standout feature
8:40
with the cuz this is 1 by 12 going 1 by
8:42
12 right out like right from the start
8:44
has that affected the the design of the
8:46
frame in any way uh not really it was it
8:48
was basically we knew that that was what
8:50
we wanted to do if you see what I mean
8:51
and that was kind of yeah you know sort
8:53
of been able to to kind of tailor all of
8:55
those kinematics and everything to to
8:57
that on by 12 drive train so yeah and
8:59
having the 1X 12 like especially like uh
9:02
on on a big bike like this with a
9:04
massive cassette it means you can get up
9:05
pretty much anything can't yeah yeah
9:07
it's it's pretty s that's uh it was
9:09
quite funny the test day we did with
9:10
rock shock I was only 1 by 11 I was the
9:13
only one on one by 11 at that time and
9:15
there there were some pretty monstrous
9:16
Hills that they kept taking us up and it
9:18
was pretty brutal so I think at that
9:20
point in time i' made the conscious
9:21
decision that it was definitely going to
9:23
have Eagle on there um so um few of bits
9:27
we got the core dropper post um with a
9:29
150 travel um and then the smaller size
9:33
drops down as well so another nice do
9:35
Point like so this is a medium so medium
9:38
large extra large have 150 M travel and
9:40
then the smaller size bike has 125 125
9:43
yeah so yeah another another point
9:44
something that you may not see when you
9:45
go into the store but it it matters when
9:48
a rider gets on the bike that even the
9:49
dropper you know makes a big difference
9:51
doesn't it yeah and what else have we
9:53
got here so we've got we've mentioned
9:55
that the dropper post we've got cable
9:56
operated dropper and all the cables are
9:58
running externally around rather than
9:59
internally personally I think that's
10:01
great but is there any specific reason
10:03
why you've gone for that um well there's
10:05
two kind of reasons I suppose uh we live
10:07
in the UK designed in the UK test in the
10:09
UK it's RIT pretty rainy at the moment
10:13
uh and has been for you know the week
10:14
although we did have a a weird kind of
10:16
couple of days didn't we yeah fake yeah
10:19
um so just for changing kind of cables
10:21
uh it takes five minutes the longest
10:23
thing that normally takes me to do is
10:25
find the right size Allen key um and
10:27
then I suppose the other kind of Main
10:29
thing is cost uh to run like the
10:31
internal routing properly with tubing
10:33
tube sort of uh type of fair um there's
10:35
additional costs to those um in
10:37
manufacturing and ultimately we it
10:39
doesn't affect the right does it no so
10:40
we wanted to kind of you know if we were
10:42
going to spend any cost anywhere it
10:43
needed to bring some value to that sort
10:45
of uh that Rider it makes more sense to
10:48
like rather than I mean internally rout
10:50
it looks lovely but if you can spend
10:51
that money and get that decent
10:52
suspension on there go for a shorter
10:54
offset for or even more development time
10:56
it just makes more sense doesn't it yeah
10:57
we tried to kind of be as clever as can
10:59
in terms of the rooting uh and keep it
11:01
kind of out the way and and kind of
11:03
mounting it on the rocker link there so
11:04
yeah this is really neat it doesn't flop
11:06
about yeah so there's less likelihood of
11:07
It kind of being caught by an ankle or
11:09
something as you're pedaling or your
11:11
heel sorry and and stuff so it just kind
11:13
of tucks it all out the way and that's
11:14
on both sides as well with the brake
11:16
hose M and I noticed that like well I've
11:19
been riding this bike but that bar is
11:20
pretty wide is it 800 mil 800 mil yeah
11:22
on all sizes uh we figure that uh the
11:25
bike can you know if you wanted to make
11:27
it narrower it's easier than making a
11:28
handle bike grow to cut it down so yeah
11:30
you can't cut them bigger can you no
11:32
generally not um there are idents on
11:35
underneath the grip so you can easily
11:37
see uh where you want to cut it down to
11:39
so but yeah figur 800 out of the box um
11:42
you know sort of just makes it uh you
11:45
know for everybody basically yeah
11:47
excellent and uh one thing that I've
11:48
noticed about this bike is the distinct
11:51
lack of branding I mean we've got
11:52
caliber here and maybe you can't see it
11:55
on the camera but we have Sentry written
11:57
here and on the inside of the chain stay
11:58
there but it's really subtle I mean is
12:00
is this a pre-production bike is this
12:02
like a prototype or is this how it's
12:03
going to look no this is how it's going
12:04
to look uh this is production so yeah
12:08
the you know there kind of I suppose the
12:10
main AOS of this two years ago um we
12:13
kind of decided right we're going to do
12:15
this bike but then in the the back of
12:16
our minds at that point yeah we were
12:18
like kind of a bit sort of nervous that
12:21
uh was someone going to drop and we
12:22
won't say the price a lot more than a
12:24
bossnut for instance uh on a caliber at
12:26
that point in time um so we kind of you
12:29
know wanted to kind of you know create a
12:31
look that people ultimately will see
12:33
that bike and go oh that looks really
12:35
nice yeah and then have to kind of look
12:37
for the brand and ultimately then
12:39
they've made that kind of decision in
12:41
their mind that they like the look of
12:42
the bike and not kind of swayed by brand
12:44
or or something similar yeah I mean
12:46
makes a lot of sense cuz you come in and
12:47
you look at this bike and you see it's
12:48
like whoa the geometry is right right
12:50
wheel size right suspension travel
12:52
everything's right oh it's caliber holy
12:55
that's like wow that's pretty impressive
12:56
isn't it yeah it's something we actually
12:58
did uh on our first bikes um was our
13:01
first two hard tailes was creating kind
13:04
of a lot of um of the brands that were
13:06
on the bike so as consumers walked in
13:09
they would uh form an opinion of what
13:11
that value that cost of that bike was uh
13:13
and then when they got to sort of read
13:15
the the the sort of in the store or read
13:17
any kind of thing on the websites they
13:18
would then kind of be pleasantly
13:20
surprised we hope uh by the actual price
13:22
tag of the bike if you say me versus the
13:24
specification we keep talking about we
13:26
not mentioned the price yet but I mean
13:27
now you know everything about it I'll go
13:28
over it one more more time really
13:30
Progressive geometry uh Great Wheel
13:32
stack with really tough tires which is
13:34
it might not sound like an important
13:35
thing but it is isn't it cuz tires
13:36
aren't cheap if you graded tire that
13:38
could be an extra 100 quid on a bike
13:40
easy yeah you know for a top tier brand
13:42
you're looking at about 60 70 a tire
13:44
yeah PTI 1X 12 150 dropper post 800 mil
13:48
bars four pot braks how much is this
13:50
going to cost uh with the go Outdoors
13:51
discount card which is a fiver this
13:53
would be £2,000 like £2,000 for a bike
13:56
ready to race out of the box build like
13:58
you say build it in the
13:59
race it yeah really good and in fact you
14:01
are your team is racing this at the ews
14:03
yes we really lucky to have Chloe Taylor
14:05
on board uh so she's out in New Zealand
14:07
currently um so she'll be racing the
14:09
full ews season um she's on the the tier
14:13
above this so the next level with but
14:15
ultimately it's the same geometry same
14:16
frame uh same kinematics it's just a few
14:20
um specification changes so the forks go
14:22
to the lric
14:23
rc2 um the uh rear shock is the uh Super
14:27
Deluxe coilover with the remote lockout
14:30
a grip lock grip lockout um it goes to
14:33
code brakes um so and then it goes to GX
14:36
Eagle but ultimately everything else uh
14:39
and a Reverb sorry everything else
14:41
effectively is the same bike you know
14:43
the the the backbone the kind of sole of
14:45
the bike is is the same if you see what
14:47
I mean so I mean like so this is 2,000
14:50
the centry pro is 2800 2,800 you do get
14:53
a few upgrades but you know like you say
14:55
this is it's the same chassis it's the
14:57
same backbone so you could go for for
14:59
this you could enjoy riding it for a
15:00
year and then be like you know what you
15:03
know you put a lyric on it upgrade that
15:05
to a lyric whatever put the change the
15:06
cartridge you know whichever way you go
15:08
for it you're getting a decent bike in
15:10
the end aren't you yeah like I said
15:11
before like the real aim for this model
15:13
was to bring people into that more kind
15:15
of uh you know aggressive uh trail
15:17
riding or injur riding uh be able to
15:20
kind of feel confident in doing some of
15:22
the bigger races whether that's in the
15:23
UK or or kind of going out to the Alps
15:25
or something with your mates um you know
15:27
sort of you still have to have a
15:29
downhill bike and a trail bike you know
15:30
all of those kind of things we're kind
15:32
of hoping now that more people will be
15:34
able to sort of just have this one bike
15:36
and do an awful lot of riding um and uh
15:38
yeah sort of I think we've left the the
15:41
main selling point of this bike to the
15:43
end as well got B cage yeah it does have
15:46
a b cage yeah yeah it's not mounted
15:48
inside the front triangle unfortunately
15:50
but so for all you people out there like
15:51
I hasn't got a B cage well it has it
15:53
does there you go so it's a win yeah to
15:56
keep that low stand over height we uh we
15:58
wanted to kind of you know keep that as
16:00
a main must if you see what I mean so
16:02
unfortunately it's it's just m down
16:03
there but it's not the end of the world
16:05
it's not the end of the world yeah
16:06
awesome well thanks for that and if
16:07
you've got any questions about the
16:09
caliber Sentry please let me know I'll
16:11
also put Mike's email in the comments so
16:14
you can email in directly uh but yeah
16:16
comments below uh any questions below as
16:18
well don't forget to subscribe up here
16:20
somewhere I'm sure Amanda will change it
16:22
like she did the other day and uh yeah
16:24
that's it the Calibur Sentry cheers Mike
16:25
thanks very much guys
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