2018 Intense Bikes

[BRR]

I've been looking for a new all mountain/Enduro bike for a while and was leaning towards the carbon offerings from Vitus or YT due to the seemingly great value for money you get going down the direct seller route. I then came across some press stuff about Intense now going the direct route and after checking out the specs their 'Expert' models seemed to stack up well against the competition so have ordered a Tracer mainly as it was cheaper than the equivalent Vitus and no Capra's available.

I guess I'm a bit nervous about spending such a chunk of cash on a bike I've not been able to test or even find many reviews on, though the 2017 reviews are generally positive and that's when the equivalent bike was £2k more

has anybody on here had a go on a 2018 bike and any ideas on if they've met the new price point by skrimping on quality?

cheers

[P-Jay]

I had a Tracer Foundation for a few weeks (long story) it was pretty much perfect, made in the Far East now rather than handmade in the US which should mean a higher standard of fit and finish, some cool features like the seat clamp and a revised version of their VPP system which places the linkage over the BB shell so it should stop functioning as a mud trap and effect the top out.

All the numbers (weight, geo etc) look good, paint and finish is of a very high standard, frame looks great (some say it's a bit 'generic' but it's not at all - see the how the top tube tapers towards the seat tube.

[BRR]

Thanks for the reply, I remember seeing an article a few months back about them turning the old workshop into a warehouse due to the demand for aluminium frames dropping and the cost effectiveness of getting carbon frames done in the far east. I'm hoping it all stacks up to be as good as it looks as though it will be going on the specs/numbers. it's amazing what spec of bike you can get now for around £3k, equivalent bikes were £6k a few years back

[P-Jay]

BRR said:

Thanks for the reply, I remember seeing an article a few months back about them turning the old workshop into a warehouse due to the demand for aluminium frames dropping and the cost effectiveness of getting carbon frames done in the far east. I'm hoping it all stacks up to be as good as it looks as though it will be going on the specs/numbers. it's amazing what spec of bike you can get now for around £3k, equivalent bikes were £6k a few years back

Yep, we can all thank YT et al for that. It got very, very silly for a while, when Intense first released the new Tracer the top of the range was £9,999.00 and still didn't come with pedals! It's till silly money, but under £7k now.

I'm sure Bike Shops won't like more and more Brands 'going direct' but the rest of the retail world went on-line a decade ago, they've had a good run of it, the clever shops built an E-Commerce site to build onto their brand and will do well, the ones that thought they could carry on as they were will fail.

[Sa Calobra]

If I was buying unseen it'd be Commencal.

You REALLY do need to try a bike first though.

If you aren't 100% comfortable on a bike you ended up damaging yourself.

[BRR]

I got to spend a few hours on the bike over Cannock chase doing FTD yesterday, thought I'd share some feelings about the bike in case it's of any use to anybody else..

The perceived quality of the bike is great, in the flesh it looks and feels like a quality product, I guess time will tell if the perceived quality turns out to be true.

The geometry is spot on for what I want

The carbon frame is reasonably light, though not massively more so than an equivalent decent aluminium frame, not sure it's worth the typical extra £1k (on say a YT) of the Alu frame

Riding a longer travel bike over Cannock made really light work of most of the trails there and it was incredibly fast going down the trails and made them feel quite easy, maybe even a little dull at times where as my shorter travel XC bike is not as fast on the same trail but can make you feel like you're going to die which is good sometimes. on the plus side the bike gave me the confidence to try some of the black routes that I didn't have the guts or skills to do on my XC bike

it was also nice to only see one other Intense over there amongst the sea of YT bikes, though I imagine now that Intense are priced more akin to the YT offerings this will probably change

[Gio G]

I have the 2017 Tracer in Expert build, however purchased mine through a bike shop, got a pretty nice deal on it. With the new direct model, it makes these bikes much cheaper! The 2017 Tracer Expert model in their "outlet" section looks to be more expensive than the 2018 bike. I was told the 2017 spec was better..

I love mine, great product, well built! I noticed recently that Hope's HP165 was reduced by £2,000!! It is impacting everyone...

Dirty shot..



G

[Gio G]

[quote=Sa Calobra]If I was buying unseen it'd be Commencal.

Soho bikes sell these, when I asked one of their staff members about them, as they caught my eye, comparing it to an Intense, he told me to steer clear of them. Terrible customer services and parts took forever to arrive, very uncomplimentary about them....

G

[BRR]

From what I can tell the 17 & 18 share the same frame and suspension, the difference being the wheels and drivetrain with the 18 having SRAM GX rather than Shimano XT, I'm not sure which is best to be honest so just went with the 18 as it was slightly cheaper

Which mudguard did you go for? I need to get one for mine

[BRR]

Gio G]a Calobra said:

If I was buying unseen it'd be Commencal.

Soho bikes sell these, when I asked one of their staff members about them, as they caught my eye, comparing it to an Intense, he told me to steer clear of them. Terrible customer services and parts took forever to arrive, very uncomplimentary about them....

G

from the limited amount of reviews I could find the commencal didn't come out particularly well and on the mountain bike forums there are a number of people complaining about their customer service. I'm starting to see a lot of people complaining about YT's service too, which is a big change to the sort of comments people were making about them a while back so perhaps they're being hampered by the rate in which they're growing, though their bikes are such great value it's no wonder they're still so popular. it will be interesting to see how it goes with the direct seller model, I would have preferred to buy from a shop but the cost saving swayed me

Edited by BRR on Monday 29th January 14:34

[Gio G]

BRR said:

From what I can tell the 17 & 18 share the same frame and suspension, the difference being the wheels and drivetrain with the 18 having SRAM GX rather than Shimano XT, I'm not sure which is best to be honest so just went with the 18 as it was slightly cheaper

Which mudguard did you go for? I need to get one for mine

Do you get a nice little Intense tool set with the bike? I went for an RRP EnduroGuard - £9 off eBay.. fits well, looks nice too...

G

[Sa Calobra]

Soho bikes is going under isn't it?

Pinkbike etc all rate the V4.2 very highly. I rode a V4 for two years and swapped it out for a Transition Scout which I never got on with. It just felt awkward. Selling the frame now and bought a V4.2. Yes Commencal have mixed reviews customer service wise. Such a pity as their bikes are for decent riders. Specialized make very neutral handling bikes. Commencal feel better the faster you go

Im struggling to see a bad review of the V4.2 though. I've seen the mbr/mbuk mag's (pile of st) go on about tyres not best, heel rub and in one bizarre review 'seat tube too Long' even though the frame was clearly a XL..

So their bikes are great but their customer service is bad. They delivered my new frame to somewhere I'd worked at years ago even though the order clearly had the correct address on....

I've never had a broken Commencal so can't comment on parts. All my bikes are assembled and checked regularly.

[BRR]

Sa Calobra said:

Soho bikes is going under isn't it?

Pinkbike etc all rate the V4.2 very highly. I rode a V4 for two years and swapped it out for a Transition Scout which I never got on with. It just felt awkward. Selling the frame now and bought a V4.2. Yes Commencal have mixed reviews customer service wise. Such a pity as their bikes are for decent riders. Specialized make very neutral handling bikes. Commencal feel better the faster you go

Im struggling to see a bad review of the V4.2 though. I've seen the mbr/mbuk mag's (pile of st) go on about tyres not best, heel rub and in one bizarre review 'seat tube too Long' even though the frame was clearly a XL..

So their bikes are great but their customer service is bad. They delivered my new frame to somewhere I'd worked at years ago even though the order clearly had the correct address on....

I've never had a broken Commencal so can't comment on parts. All my bikes are assembled and checked regularly.

it's the v4 I've seen the bad reviews of I think (by people on forums), not the 4.2.

The scout seems a real marmite bike with some people loving it and others hating it, they look nice but I've never had a go on one

[BRR]

Gio G said:

Do you get a nice little Intense tool set with the bike? I went for an RRP EnduroGuard - £9 off eBay.. fits well, looks nice too...

G

I got a tool thing with different attachments, it wasn't Intense branded though. I've got a bunch of tools anyway so didn't need it

there's some other stuff in the bag of documents it came with but not been through it yet

I got the guys to set it up as tubeless, the first time I've had it done, after reading so many passionate arguments about it I really don't understand what the fuss is about, no noticeable difference to a normal setup using an innertube as far as I can tell

[Sa Calobra]

BRR said:

it's the v4 I've seen the bad reviews of I think (by people on forums), not the 4.2.

The scout seems a real marmite bike with some people loving it and others hating it, they look nice but I've never had a go on one

Ah so not just me! I tinkered with it but never felt comfortable.

[P-Jay]

BRR said:

I got the guys to set it up as tubeless, the first time I've had it done, after reading so many passionate arguments about it I really don't understand what the fuss is about, no noticeable difference to a normal setup using an innertube as far as I can tell

I tease the tube less faithful sometimes, every few months a new product comes into the market, various sealants, now with glitter! and of course Pro Core - I tell them I got fed up of burping tyres in corners and the hassle of seating the bead etc by using a 'vulcanized polymer insert' and I'll sometimes get a few nods of acknowledgement before they realise I'm describing an inner tube.

There are two things I'm absolutely certain of when it comes to MTBs:

1) If someone had invented a decent Nylon pedal in the 90s, no on would have bothered with Alu pedals
2) If we'd spent the 90s/00s pissing trying to seal tyres with glue and tyres that need a small team of people to get on the rim, if someone came along with inner tubes a few years ago we would have all jumped to them immediately and vowed never to go back.

[Gio G]

BRR said:

I got a tool thing with different attachments, it wasn't Intense branded though. I've got a bunch of tools anyway so didn't need it

there's some other stuff in the bag of documents it came with but not been through it yet

I got the guys to set it up as tubeless, the first time I've had it done, after reading so many passionate arguments about it I really don't understand what the fuss is about, no noticeable difference to a normal setup using an innertube as far as I can tell

I am yet to go tubeless.. maybe I am just behind the times... What colour did you go for?

G

[BRR]

Mine is almost identical to yours



Don't think I'd bother with tubeless again as I can't feel any benefit and it's more hassle

I've ordered one of the front guards like yours, it's the best looking one I've seen and cheap too

[Herman Toothrot]

Tubeless is the best change to MTBs in the last 15 years. If you burp tyres have leaks, struggle to mount them you are just doing it wrong or trying to use non-tubeless parts. These days it's just tiresome riding with people who use tubes, punctures all the time. Indeed guided MTB companies I've used have specifically stated please be considerate and setup up your bike tubeless before joining us.

[Sa Calobra]

That's a good-looking bike!

Tubeless is great and faff free. Where I ride you (well me) don't get many punctures; Peaks, Lakes, Calderdale. However if I rode in the Surrey Hills, Spain I'd puncture enough to go straight to tubeless.

Next new tyres I'm going straight to tubeless.