5 BIKES YOU'VE PROBABLY NEVER HEARD OF

Global supply chains may be struggling but there are plenty of smaller brands striving to get their products onto the trails. Here are five upstarts with new models in the works

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1 EMINENT HASTE

EJeffSoncrant’s Eminent brand has received plenty of attention in North America with its quirky Onset 140, but with a high-pivot idler design and chiselled good looks, the brand’s new Haste MT and LT could be the bike that makes it a household name. Both Haste models use 29in wheels, but contrary to expectations, the LT is actually the shorter-travel model, with 140mm, while the MT gets 160mm. To keep costs down, the two frames are identical, but switching the lower link plate and shock alters the travel. Eminent’s complex AFS suspension system is utilised, where the rear axle ‘floats’ between two pivots and the shock is compressed at both ends. That’s not all; the main pivot is well above the chainring and employs an idler to help control chain growth as the suspension compresses. According to Eminent, the 15mm of rearward axle path (through 80% of the travel) helps the Haste eliminate “hang up” and just “reset and move onto more chunk” with every bump. There’s a lot going on outback, but the full carbon front end is just as in your face, with a hench set of tubes and an imposing, Mondraker-esque reinforcing strut behind the head tube. eminentcycles.com

2 REICHMANN SENDURO