It wasn’t terribly long ago that Privateer launched their first bike, the 161. It was late 2019 when we first connected with the brand and saw their prototype long-travel enduro bike; a long, hulking, aluminum bike made to last on the enduro circuit with ease of maintenance.
The bike released a year later in 2020, with the shorter-travel 141 on its heels. Now the brand has the second versions of both bikes ready to roll for this year.
Privateer says this comes after three years of development and 500,000 meters of descending. Here’s what’s new on the bikes.
A-L-P Suspension
This may be a play on the bikes’ playground in the alps, but Privateer says A-L-P stands for Aligned Linear Progression Suspension. Like the previous versions, the new 161 and 141 use a four-bar platform.
The brand says they considered all the trends on the market: mid-pivots, high-pivots, 6-bar designs, but came back to the Horst link for its versatile characteristics, like customizable anti-rise and anti-squat.
The A-L-P suspension is said to be sensitive in the beginning of the stroke and give a “coil like feel even with an air shock,” provide pedal support across the gear range, have bottom-out resistance and stay linear through its stroke for predictability. Privateer says the platform is stable under braking.
The suspension kinematics give the back wheel a high leverage ratio for more traction and grip in the start of the stroke, which overcomes shock stiction easily and minimizes fatigue.
Privateer also worked with Fox for custom shock tunes.
To make things even smoother, Privateer used notably massive shock hardware: 42mm Enduro Max main bearings with secondary seals on all bearings. Like the previous versions, the bikes get a forged, one-piece rocker.
The geometry
Geometry was a major part of the first versions. As bikes have trended longer and slacker, Privateer seemed almost an extreme take at first. When it comes to the latest generation, the geometry seems to have settled a bit, but it relies on what made the bikes as stable as they were before.
Both the 161 and 141 get steep seat tube angle, with an 80° effective on the 161, and a 78.5° effective on the 141. That’s essentially where they sat on the first versions.
They also continue with size-specific chainstays, but do adjustability with a +/-10mm flip-chip, as well as a mixed-wheel chip to add a 27.5 wheel to the rear.
Geometry still does see other changes, like lengthened wheelbases, shortened seat tubes and increased stack heights.
Frame features
Other features on the 141 and 161 include replaceable ICSG tabs for bash guards and chain guides, in the event a hard impact does damage further than the hardware.
Like the first versions too, there is external cable routing. Privateer improved water bottle clearance and frame protection.
Builds and availability
The Privateer 141 will sell with a 150mm fork and will have the “same level of durability and adjustability as the 161 but with a trail/all-mountain focused geometry.”
It’ll be available as either a full 29er or a mixed-wheel build.
A complete build comes with a Fox 36 Performance Elite and Float X shock, a SRAM GX 12-speed drivetrain, Hunt aluminum Enduro Wide wheels, and Hayes Dominion A4 brakes for $5,389.
A frameset with a Fox Float X Performance Elite shock is priced at $2,389.
The 161 is priced similarly. A complete build with a Fox 38 170mm fork, Float X2 Performance Elite shock, Shimano XT/SLX 12-speed drivetrain, Hayes Dominion A4 brakes and Hunt Enduro Wide wheels is priced at $5,479.
A frameset with an X2 shock sells for $2,479. Privateer’s claimed weights are:
- P2 141 – GX – with inner tubes: 17.3kg/38.1lb
- P2 161 – SLX – with inner tubes: 18.5kg/40.7lb
- P2 frameset – Frame w. all hardware and shock: 5.45kg/12lb
The bikes are not UDH compatible. Privateer explained:
“We made the decision early on in the development of Gen 2 that we wanted to prioritise adjustability. We feel through our approach to forward thinking geometry, kinematics and durability we give the rider a really good starting point to have amazing performance out of the box. The addition of a flip chip for mix wheel use and a chain stay flip chip that gives an additional 10mm of rear centre allows riders to really dial in their Gen 2 bikes. UDH makes rear centre flip chips a little more complicated, so we made the decision not to use it on Gen 2.”
Complete bikes and frames will be available in May though they say they are limiting quantities this year due to “the current difficulties in the bike industry.”
See the Privateer website for more information.
