Up next in 10
Full suspension bikes are usually made from alloy or carbon fibre, but not the Swarf Contour. Using robust steel piping and a single-pivot suspension design, this 29er trail bike offers impressive durability and a rather unique ride quality. Wil and the team test the slender steel singletrack groover as part of the UK-made full suspension group test from Issue #119 of Singletrack Magazine.
Read the full review here: https://singletrackworld.com/?p=10253517&preview=true
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
hey guys this will hear from singletrack
0:02
magazine and the third and final bike in
0:06
our UK made a full suspension group test
0:08
comes from swarf cycles this is called
0:11
the contour now the contour is a brand
0:14
new model from swarf and the bike we've
0:16
got here is actually a pre-production
0:18
version so very very new very fresh this
0:21
is a short travel 29 inch trail bike so
0:23
we've got 115 mil travel on the back and
0:25
that's paired to 130 ml fork on the
0:27
front a reverse mullet if you will the
0:30
first thing you can probably tell by
0:32
looking at this bike and those slender
0:34
tubes is it is indeed made from steel
0:36
that's quite unusual because most full
0:39
suspension frames out there are made
0:40
from either aluminium or carbon fiber
0:42
this is made from steel however and that
0:44
allows Adrian Bedford of swarf cycles to
0:47
make these in the UK there will be four
0:50
sizes available in this bike Adrian
0:53
won't be offering custom geometry on the
0:55
contour he reckons he's got the numbers
0:56
spot-on and we'll go through some of
0:59
those numbers now so we're looking at a
1:02
sixty six and a half degree head angle
1:04
on the front 75 point five degree seat
1:07
angle and on the medium-size that I'm
1:09
riding about a 440 mil reach so not too
1:13
racy not too enduro kind of somewhere in
1:15
between and after all this is a bike
1:17
designed to to go uphill and downhill
1:19
and long days in the saddle the rear
1:23
swingarm on this is is a single rigid
1:26
piece of steel so there are no pivots on
1:28
the back the seat stays themselves if
1:31
you look closely or actually flattened
1:33
out ever so slightly and the idea there
1:35
is that they'll actually flex slightly
1:37
as the suspension cycles through its
1:39
travel without pivots on the back you're
1:42
looking at a slightly lighter simpler
1:44
and easier to maintain system and the
1:47
swing arm has been oriented so there is
1:50
minimal flex in the first place for
1:52
those six days and if you do take the
1:54
shock out you can actually feel a small
1:56
amount of resistance as those seat stays
1:58
Bend through the travel but it's very
2:01
very minimal now the suspension design
2:03
itself we've got a CNC machined alloy
2:05
rocker linkage compressing that rear
2:06
shock on our test bike here we have a
2:08
concrete double barrel coil inline shock
2:11
with no fewer than five damping a Jeff
2:14
the suspension feel is really really
2:16
nice it's not the plushest that I felt
2:19
but it is very very smooth it's got a
2:21
really nice controlled feel through that
2:24
hundred and fifteen mill one thing I
2:26
have noticed is it does feel genuinely
2:28
like there is more travel than that a
2:30
lot of brands say that with their bikes
2:32
that they they have more travel than the
2:34
number says on paper but this bike
2:37
genuinely feels like that's the case and
2:39
I don't believe it's necessarily through
2:41
the linkage design or anything going on
2:44
there it's more due to their being a
2:47
little bit more compliance with that
2:48
steel backend the rear wheel has a bit
2:51
more give and a little bit more
2:52
flexibility to move around on the trail
2:53
and in my experience it's not a bad
2:56
thing
2:57
flex is often a dirty word when you're
2:59
talking about full suspension bikes this
3:01
bike it doesn't have a huge amount of
3:03
lateral movement on the rear wheel but
3:05
there's just a right amount of twist
3:07
through the back end that means the rear
3:09
wheel can hold a line and move around
3:11
rocks and roots when you're kind of
3:13
charging downhill rather than bucking
3:15
you off line you know pinging around
3:17
like a pinball so it feels really smooth
3:20
to ride really controlled surprisingly
3:23
capable when you when you point it in to
3:25
pretty ugly stuff downside of that steel
3:27
frame construction is it is quite heavy
3:30
so you are carrying around more weight
3:32
and definitely compared to the other two
3:34
bikes on test you do feel that on the
3:36
climbs with this bike it's a little drag
3:38
ear and you know you're pushing around a
3:40
bit more mass but if that's not a big
3:43
deal to you you will get a beautiful
3:45
riding trail bike that's very smooth
3:48
very compliant and enjoys all sorts of
3:52
different types of riding now if you'd
3:54
like to read the full review of the
3:56
swarf contour make sure you check out
3:58
issue 119 a single track magazine jump
4:00
on single track WorldCom for more
4:02
information thanks guys to route
4:28
you
#Sports