Today, Intense Cycles announced an updated version of their Carbine. In addition to gaining 15mm of rear squish — up to 155mm now — Intense reworked the geometry substantially. The frame gets a longer top tube, shorter chainstays, a lower stack height, and a 1.5° slacker head tube. Those changes add drastically to the bike’s wheelbase, roughly 38mm (1.5in) across all sizes.
From the looks of it, Intense has moved the Carbine from the trail/all-mountain segment firmly into enduro territory. In fact, Intense goes so far as to call it “an uncompromising 29” enduro race machine” on their site.
Intense offers five different builds on the new Carbine, in descending order: Factory, Elite, Pro, Expert, and Foundation. The top three builds get an “SL” version of the frame that uses a different carbon, titanium hardware, and a carbon link to shave 200g off the weight. On the Expert and Foundation builds, the frame uses steel hardware and an aluminum link.
All the builds are SRAM and RockShox heavy with prices ranging from $10,399 for the Factory build featuring ENVE wheels, down to $3,999 for the less blingy, but capable Foundation build. There are also two frame-only options: the SL frame for $3,399 and the standard frame for $300 less. Four frame color options are offered — two for the SL and two for the standard.
Full details on the new Carbine are available on the Intense website.
