Aussie Designed Enduro Machine

Things have been relatively quiet with Craftworks in recent years but it seems this is about to change. They’ve joined forces with suspension design specialist i-Track to create a unique Australian designed enduro bike that’s due to be released shortly.

Currently you’ll find a handful of downhill bikes that employ a really high suspension pivot and modified drivetrains with idlers used to eliminate pedal kickback. The benefits include an exaggerated rearward axle path for better performance over square edge bumps.

This machine uses a similar concept but applies it to a 160mm travel all-mountain or enduro bike. Running 27.5 wheels it will be offered in two frame sizes; medium and large. Both sizes will run a 455 seat tube and simply vary in reach and wheelbase length to suit differing rider heights. At 75 degrees the seat angle is steep (good for climbing) while the head angle is relatively conservative for an enduro bike at 66.6 degrees.

The images shown are prototypes but the real thing is expected to land in Australia by April.

Here’s the blurb from Craftworks:

Craftworks ENR

The world’s first available to the rider AM/Enduro bike with a substantial rearward axle trajectory with optimised dynamic stable pedalling platform.

The release of the Craftworks ENR also marks the beginning of a new collaboration with another home town company from Adelaide South Australia – i-track suspension.

The new Craftworks ENR features the patented i-track suspension system to deliver kinematic characteristics that have not been available until now. i-track started with the objective of finding a mountain bike suspension layout that combined the square edge performance of a substantially rearward axle path with ideal anti-squat properties for exceptional pedalling characteristics.

The i-track anti-squat increases throughout the pedalling zone in the travel, providing a dynamically stable pedalling platform, yet drops off towards the end of the travel to allow for big hit compliance – with one big advantage - i-track has the additional rearward axle path throughout the travel. The leverage ratio curve is progressive/linear/digressive to perfectly complement to digressive/linear/progressive characteristic of common air shocks. This results in small bump sensitivity early in travel, and a predictable feel throughout travel.