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Foundry Cycles Prepares to Launch a 27.5″ Carbon Tomahawk Race Missile

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Foundry Tomahawk 27,5 prototype (2)

Amidst a few racks of stealthy, blacked out demo bikes that Foundry is known for, there was something odd at Saddle Drive. Something with color. Something with 27.5″ wheels. Hiding in plain sight was Foundry’s newest prototype, the Tomahawk – a 27.5″ carbon hard tail.

Still firmly in the prototype phase, we got a chance to check out and ride the new Foundry missile. Check it out, next.

Foundry Tomahawk 27,5 prototype (7)

If the color didn’t tip you off that this wasn’t a standard Foundry, the huge Prototype stenciled on the top tube should have clued you in. There were a few different Tomahawks, in a few different colors – but all still fairly subdued in the Foundry manner. As it turns out, there is no guarantee the colors will ever make it to production. Foundry is simply testing the waters with various paint jobs that may or may not see the light of day.

Foundry Tomahawk 27,5 prototype (8) Foundry Tomahawk 27,5 prototype (5)

Typical mountain bike standards are employed with a tapered head tube and BB92 press fit bottom bracket.

Foundry Tomahawk 27,5 prototype (4)

The rear axle uses a 142x12mm Syntace style thru axle with dedicated vertical dropouts.

Foundry Tomahawk 27,5 prototype (6)

The rear brake is tucked into the stays with a carbon post mount. No quick release axle on this bike, though it doesn’t mean it won’t have one for production. And yes, demos and transporting were a little hard on the paint.

As far as the ride of the Tomahawk, it is distinctly tailored towards racing and built around a 100mm fork. This thing is stiff. But, thanks to the smaller wheels it is also quite nimble and it was a blast to ride on the trails around Snowbasin. It was the kind of ride where I wasn’t avoiding the jumps – I was seeking them out.

Foundry claims the pre-production frame weight is somewhere around 1,100g, and should launch sometime this Fall in an initial run of XS, S, and M sized frames.

 

 

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Quickie
Quickie
10 years ago

Step 1 – Obtain Hong Fu 650b frame.
Step 2 – Draw attention to it by writing “Prototype” and painting it.
Step 3 – Convince people multiple moulds were made and tested.
Step 4 – Order more Hong Fu frames and markup the price before resale.

Notquickenough
Notquickenough
10 years ago

Step one: make sweeping assumptions on bike rumor
Step two: come off as a D-bag, but feel good about how much knowledge you just dropped

Argh
Argh
10 years ago

hongfu has internal cabling and QR dropouts

Yoshi
Yoshi
10 years ago

What is the point of Foundry again? Proto Typing paint colors? Failure to Launch!

Tread
Tread
10 years ago

Quickie, how did you get to be so quick??
Your insights are mind blowing…

badbikemechanic
badbikemechanic
10 years ago

Doesn’t the name Foundry imply metals? In any case they should paint their bikes. These QBP China bikes look awfully generic.

Quinn
Quinn
10 years ago

[deleted]

sillyboy
sillyboy
10 years ago

Foundry, you guys have to do a little better than this.

http://www.hongfu-bikes.com/html_products/2013-Super-Light-650B-Frame-291.html

mike
mike
10 years ago

it’s a marked up chinese OTS frame with a warranty that is slightly better then if you bought a cheap one factory direct.

Matt
Matt
10 years ago

I don’t know about Foundry bikes, but keep the 27.5s coming. They will dominate and all other wheel sizes will bow in submission.

ChrisC
ChrisC
10 years ago

You guys *DO* realize that this is not the Hong-fu, right?

1) Seat tube on Hong-fu squares out at the bottom, the Foundry is round;
2) Rear dropouts are completely different;
3) Hong-fu top tube curves down, the Foundry is straight.

Simliar? Sure, but not remotely the same frame…

ColinR
ColinR
10 years ago

I’m not a huge fan of Foundry, but this definitely isn’t a HongFu. The dropout placement is different, the headtube is different, and it appears the BB area is different as well.

Chadquest
Chadquest
10 years ago

My favorite part about riding my 650b bike for the last 4 years of testing, is that it rides just like a 26″ bike, but my friends think i am still cool.

Topmounter
Topmounter
10 years ago

Wow, HongFu already has a new design.

Ripnshread
Ripnshread
10 years ago

I just wish companies like QBP would offer cheap carbon open mold frames with the actual manufactures name on them. They would be inexpensive for us and QBP could sell us an “extended warranty”. QBP has great customer service for its retail partners. Why the BS wool pulling? It just makes them look like horrible scammers. Yea, it has different head tube…and dropouts…but you too could decide what options you want if you ordered a container load too… I’d rather hear that their goal is to buy cheap open mold frames, slap on an extended warranty and let everyone make some good money.

Yoshi
Yoshi
10 years ago

In all reality the HongFu probably has a stiffer BB area due to it’s shape… I just wish one of these HongFu companies would come out with a superlight carbon SS frame w/ Sliders.

RC
RC
10 years ago

Calling this a HongFu is an insult. The HongFu frames look way better.

Pedals
Pedals
10 years ago

The way you people talk about QBP as if you know what’s going on behind their doors is laughable. If your assumptions about Foundry’s relationship to QBP are correct we might as well start calling Cannondales ‘Schwinns’.

mudrock
mudrock
10 years ago

Foundry is just following a business model that has been successful for 20+ years. The other QBP house brands, Surly and Salsa, do the same thing and have intense customer loyalty. I have no doubt that Foundry is designing in-house, but so what if they aren’t?

Rip, Pedalforce has a model similar to what you’re talking about. On One has Chinese frames for less also.

Segg
Segg
10 years ago

Whoever makes these, drop-outs definitely look better and more solid than flimsy HongFu design.

Yoshi
Yoshi
10 years ago

The Beargrease carbon likely comes from the same factory…

Topmounter
Topmounter
10 years ago

I never thought there was any subterfuge going on with QBP’s house brands. They are what they are… They off-shore engineering and manufacturing to Asia and keep prices reasonable by not getting too far off the available menu relative to the number of units that they are willing to commit to ordering. I’m more familiar with Salsa and Surly, but I’ve always liked the results.

K11
K11
10 years ago

this whole flood of average carbon anything will only get worse, until people just stop buying.

there are great or better non carbon options out there, some american made, just need to look.

Nathan Graeme
Nathan Graeme
10 years ago

The Foundry should be called FRAUDULENT CYCLES.
This frame is available from http://www.anasazibikes.com
ANASAZI BIKES also produces bikes for FOCUS, GHOST, STARDALLI, SETTE,

JUST KEEPING IT REAL

Lawyerknowitall
Lawyerknowitall
10 years ago

The consumer advantage to buying a brand name bicycle vastly outweighs the price difference of getting the similar frame direct from the manufacturor. The company has a duty to conduct quality control to protect the consumer. If rider injury occurred because of product failure through negligence, design, manufacturing, etc., the consumer is protect by being able to recover from the company. The company can can recover from the manufacturor. If you bought a hong fu bike and and it broke, causing you serious injury through no fault of your own, you are suing a faceless entity with different laws and procedure. I have read several cases, specifically the chinarello and replica sl4s in which people have suffered hundreds of thousands of dollars of medical bills, lots wages, etc., because the frame was unsafe. They had no one to sue but aliexpress, which was unsuccessful. Product liability law is very dynamic and made to protect the consumer. You are all benefitting from it every second of the day.

Dirty sanchez
Dirty sanchez
10 years ago

Anybody stupid enough to buy a frame directly from a third tier factory in china deserves it when they crash their teeth out of their head.

Eyal
Eyal
10 years ago

@Lawyerknowitall fear mongering is what big brands do, and you must work for one.

I’ve been riding a HongFu FM066 for a year now, and it’s perfect. Millions of people are buying these frames and I don’t hear about any catastrophes!

dogboy
dogboy
10 years ago

Wow Eyal, hyperbole much?

Jethro
Jethro
10 years ago

Bike looks pretty nice.

Riley
Riley
10 years ago

Wow, I am amazed at how many, flat-out, dumb people there are that comment on here. [deleted] You provide links to crap frames that you think are identical but not even remotely similar are so bad it is just sad! Keep buying your direct from the manufacturer frames and have fun- just don’t complain when the crap hits the fan. Oh wait, you ARE that person that complains about everything. Go back under your bridges, Trolls!

NinerNiner
NinerNiner
10 years ago

Eyal, seriously? Millions have bought from them?
So much speculation with no fact.

I ACTUALLY rode a Foundry Broadaxe at Dirt Fest last year.
It was dialed. It handled and accelerated like a champ.

More lively feeling, lighter, cheaper than a niner AIR 9 RDO?
With a thru axle rear and 10 yr warranty?
Next spring, I am in. Just need to save more cash.

Whoever is making their frames, keep it up!

RED
RED
10 years ago

All I’ll say is that I LOVE the colour. Yes COLOUR. 🙂

Andrew
Andrew
10 years ago

Yeah man, that Olive Drab is gonna turn some heads quick smart, in the other direction… albeit not as fast as that ludicrously boring and kind of fugly frame.

Grind
Grind
10 years ago

I’m just happy it’s not another flash yellow paint job.

NinerNiner
NinerNiner
10 years ago

Eyal, seriously? Millions have bought from them?
So much speculation with no fact.

I ACTUALLY rode a Foundry Broadaxe at Dirt Fest last year.
It was dialed. It handled like a champ.

More lively feeling, lighter, cheaper than a niner AIR 9 RDO?
With a thru axle rear and 10 yr warranty?
Next spring, I am in. Just need to save more cash.

Whoever is making their frames, keep it up!

Antipodean-G
10 years ago

Colour, yep it’s pretty cool I have to say. And as drab as it is (pun there maybe?) it’s pretty daring to slap on a production (?) bike; especially when weighed up against all the awful stuff going around these days that people seem to lap up.

But on the colour… no one’s mentioned the stanchions on the fork match the frame. THAT is pretty damn cool…. if it lasts or makes it to the final version.

Jacob
Jacob
10 years ago

So amid all the hate or whatever people have about this company, I do have to give them a little praise on this bike. I was borrowing a bike for a race, and it turned out that it was missing a few parts, and wasn’t 100% functional. Foundry happened to be at the race, and also happened to be nice enough to lend me one of these 650B bikes. It. Was. Awesome. One of the most playful, and consistent bikes I have ever had under me. It was crazy lightweight, with the XX1 drive train, and pretty much stayed pinned underneath me the entire time. Over drops and jumps, it handled better than expected, being a hard tail. But all in all, super dialed, and super awesome. These guys deserve the benefit of your doubts, and a little bit of your money (if you have it). Super sweet group of guys, and a pretty damn sweet bike, too.

cb
cb
10 years ago

If you want to see all the new bikes in 2014, visit the best mtb catalog: controlbike.com

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