Intense are back with a new, full range of carbon bikes and a World Cup team. Last week saw the launch of the new Intense Primer and we’re excited to get our hands on the Intense M16c pro downhill bike.
Here’s what our man – and elite downhill racer – Olly has to say about Intense’s new super bike.
Olly gives us his first impressions of a true thoroughbred downhill race bike, the Intense M16c Pro. Keep an eye out on Wideopenmag for a full review in the next few months.
The basics
- £7,500.00 RRP (yep, you read that right!).
- EPS moulded high modulus carbon frame.
- 9.5″ travel.
- Full internal cable routing.
- 27.5″ (650b) wheels.
- saddleback.co.uk
Posh and fast.
I think we can all agree that Intense are the Ferrari of mountain bikes. They’ve been ridden by legends, they always turn heads and they are stupidly fast. OK they aren’t made in Italy but many of them do come in red.
Not red.
The one I have been sent isn’t red, it’s the stealth Intense M16c in large. It looks awesome. This is the Pro option, retailing at a pretty hefty £7500. It is for many people, the DH bike that dreams are made of.
With that whopping price tag – almost twice that of other perfectly decent downhill bikes – it has a lot to live up to way more than just a good reputation.
Turning heads. Aggro. Strong lines.
Out of the box, there is the obvious similarity with another large American brand in terms of how the linkage operates. The carbon has been left largely untouched other than a few black stickers to give it a kind of 2 tone effect. It has very strong lines on the bike which give it this really aggressive look. Due to its image, my assumption is that the Intense M16 will really turn heads.
Sizing up.
The large I have got does look a little bit shorter than I thought it was going to be. They also do an XL though, which is nice to see in these days of riders crying out for larger bikes. The other thing I notice about the geometry is that the BB is slightly higher than a lot of bikes nowadays (365mm / 14.375”) and the head angle is a spot steeper 63.5 degree.
I assume that is due to the fact the bike is meant to sit in the travel more than a lot of bikes meaning the geometry of the bike will be right once a rider is on it. All will make sense once I get it on the track I am sure.
The kit.
The build kit I received is as follows: Rockshox Vivid R2C rear shock, Rockshox World Cup forks, Stans Rapid 30 wheels, Maxxis Minion tyres, SRAM X0 7 speed gears and cranks. Shimano Saint brakes and Renthal bars and stem. It does seem as though they haven’t really held back on parts.
Let’s see what she can do.
My plan is to try to look through the awesome looks, hefty price and successful history of the brand and focus on how this bike actually rides. Let’s see whether it can stand up to the expectations that I and I believe others will have of it.
This is going to be a fun test so look out for the full review in a couple of months’ time!
Who’s our test pilot?
Olly is an elite downhill racer from Bristol. He races the British Downhill Series, the IXS Cup and anything else he can sin his teeth into. He’s hell of a fast and is guaranteed to be able to push a bike like in the Intense M16c fast enough to give it a proper test.
