Intense Carbine 275 Review Bike Attack
Posted by blogbike on Jun 11th 2013
The Intense Carbine 275 - A Solid 650B for the Down Hill
Intense Cycles is always a favorite around BikeAttack. Why? Probably because Jeff Steber the designer, engineer and owner of Intense Cycles is more than just a great designer — he's a rider. True, designers can build great bikes, but designers who love to hit the trails design bikes that riders love. What we like about Jeff is that he's real and so is his brand: Intense Cycles, based in California.
The Bike Attack Team has had the opportunity to "field test" many of the Intense mountain bikes, but one that we've really liked is the Carbine 275, a carbon fiber full suspension mountain bike frame by Intense.
In internet chatter, some are saying that the Carbine 275 is the best all-around trail bike to date for Intense and MTBR.com referred to it as "the ultimate in the 27.5" platform." Starting in at around $4,728, we're expecting quality in a bike, which the Carbine 275 delivers.
As most of you already know, the 650B or 27.5 wheel size is gaining popularity amongst mountain bikers as they find that happy medium between 26” and 29er; providing the best of both worlds so-to-speak.
In deviating from the Intense norm, Jeff killed it with the 275, by converting the Carbine into a 650B with a simple dropout change. The Carbine 275 uses the same G1 dropout system as most of the newer Intense bikes which accommodate just about any hub standard. Check out Intense's video explanation of the Carbine and Tracer changes below. For the complete bike, BikeAttack offers the Intense Carbine 275 with two different build kits: Shimano XT/Fox or Shimano SLX/Rock Shox weighing in at around 28lbs.
Intense collaborated with German based company SEED Engineering for this bike and ultimately helped make this the lightest mountain bike frame ever produced by Intense. The Carbine uses similar geometry to the Tracer 2, but much improved and built to work beautifully with VPP suspension design which allows for 5.5-6” of adjustable travel and the Fox Float CTD rear shock. When we put it to use on the trails, we were definitely impressed with the performance and speed. The 275 is fast! It dominated the standard 26" comparative models and handled much better than the respective 29ers. Highlights of the bike were definitely a quick acceleration, great on the uphill climb and responsive handling, so we can see why some are saying it's the best all-around trail bike from Intense.
On the downhill attack, again Jeff truly found the happy medium between a 26" and 29", because the Carbine 275 proved pretty darn nimble and when we hit the jumps (even when landing a little off) the bike didn't seem "clunky" and by clunky I mean give you that feeling of bottoming out.
Check out this down hill video by RusselDowrimple, it's a pretty nice live action video demoing the Intense Carbine 275.
The Intense Carbine 275 gets a solid TEAM Thumbs up from BikeAttack.