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Chiru Adds Unique New 29er & 650B Full Suspension, Hardtail Mountain Bikes

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2014 Chiru Rangi Rangi 29er full suspension mountain bike

As Eurobike was wrapping up, I passed by Chiru’s booth only to find all the bikes disassembled and boxed. Which was a shame, because they looked really good when I’d walked by earlier in the show. Thankfully, founder Pierre sent over some studio shots of the new frames, a collection of 29er and 650B hardtail and full suspension bikes, the latter using his pivotless flex stays on the rear.

Above is the 29er Rangi Rangi, a 100mm trail bike with geometry skewing just a bit more toward racing down the mountain than up it. The head angle is a bit slacker than what’s typically found on a 100mm XC full susser, and the BB’s a bit lower. The frame, like the others here, is a mixed modulus carbon fiber, and this one comes in at 1.90kg without shock.

2014 Chiru Rangi Rangi 29er full suspension mountain bike

Cable routing is external, and it uses a standard threaded BB, which should make mechanics everywhere happy.

2014 Chiru Rangi Rangi 29er full suspension mountain bike

A big downtube meets with a tapered headtube to keep it all laterally stiff. At the back, a 12mm thru axle does the same.

2014 Chiru Rangi Rangi 29er full suspension mountain bike

The oversized chainstays and dropout section help prevent torsional flex, and that’s only amplified by the lack of a pivot near the rear axle. To get away with this design, the seatstays flatten out and are laid up to flex. Chiru’s certainly not the first to use a design like this -Gary Fisher did it long ago with the Sugar- but they made it look really good.

Not shown, Chiru still has their multiple wheel size bike in the line. It’s not quite the any-wheel-size-you-want RMK shown at Eurobike 2012, but still cool. Called the Dual Nine75, it uses the same pivotless rear end as these, but with geometry dialed for a 29er front wheel and 27.5″ rear. Check it out on their Facebook page.

2014-Chiru-SIX50-650B-full-suspension-mountain-bike

The Dual Six50 is the mid-sized wheel equivalent of the Rangi Rangi. It shares the same 100mm travel and 2.35 tire clearance, but appears to have a bit tighter, racier geometry. Frame weight is claimed at 1.85kg without shock

One of Chiru’s long standing themes is frame sizing that goes along with wheel size, and these two are no different. The 650B bike comes in Small and Medium, and the 29er in Med., Large and XL. Price is $2,090 USD for the frameset.

2014-Chiru-Pulse-29er-carbon-hardtail-mountain-bike01

The Pulse is the 29er hardtail, which gets updated graphics for 2014. We featured this one in 2011 for it’s unique BB shell that lets you run any type of bottom bracket you want. It’s designed with some of the flex stay technology to make for a more comfortable, long distance race bike. Frame weight is 1,320g (claimed), available in M/L/XL.

2014 Chiru Six50 650B hardtail mountain bike

The Six50 is a new model that is a straight up race rocket. No flex stays, no adaptable bottom bracket. Just an efficient frame with tight handling and rear thru axle for maximum power transfer. Unlike the rest of the collection, this one does get internal cable routing.

2014 Chiru Six50 650B hardtail mountain bike

Frame weight is 1,250g (claimed), available in Small and Medium.

Both hardtails retail for $1,790 USD. All bikes will be available in March 2014. Chirubikes.com

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16 Comments
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Chunky
Chunky
10 years ago

Exactly.

I prefer the standard bare carbon that you can get direct, from the same frame supplier….

Or get one painted yourself in slightly more tasteful schemes.

Steve M
Steve M
10 years ago

Boy the old theory of a straight line between a and b is completely shot on this group.

AZBikeFreak
AZBikeFreak
10 years ago

Sweet. I was waiting to see when they would make these “Cheap Chinese Carbon” frames with 142×12. I’ll order mine through eBay shortly.

LawyerKnowItAll
LawyerKnowItAll
10 years ago

You are paying an extra 1k for paint, quality control, a warranty, and an insurance policy. I’m my professional opinion, it is completely worth it even if the frame is just an open mold design.

CHIRU
CHIRU
10 years ago

If you look closely into the rear triangle, you will see that this is not an open mold frame.

Marcel Hagener
10 years ago

To all the comment writers above and whoever else is reading this : what is the matter with you guys not signing in with your real name. It seems that 99% write comments under some pseudonym. People do this to hide….I guess. What from….is my next question. Silly child play behaviour really….grow up and stand to what you write and say.
And yes I am one of the sponsored Chiru riders….and I am opinionated.
The molds for the frames belong exclusively to Chiru and they are NOT open molds! I have had enough heated discussions with the CEO,owner of Chiru regarding this because I wanted a certain frame now and not a year later. Pierre is very meticulous with his frames. He actually does things different so that people can not just say they are open mold frames. Damn it. People just writing stuff without knowing anything about the brand.

Devin
10 years ago

@CHIRU/Marcel: if you use the front triangle from an open mold and a proprietary rear end, you should highlight that. Cause that’s what it looks like if people only have studio shots of fully painted frames to compare to say, Hong Fu.

This is not a bad thing! There are lots of very happy riders on open mold bikes- and if you’re really doing some proprietary stuff, show it! What makes them different? How are they better? BikeRumor readers are experts at spotting and identifying any open-mold frame you can source; trying to pull wool over eyes is generally a recipe for people flaming your brand and not taking ANYTHING you say seriously. My $.02.

PS- my name is Devin Zoller.

Bike
Bike
10 years ago

The first bike pictured looks like a direct clone of features of many prominent bikes. The shock mount and link look a lot like a Scott. The seat tube looks a lot like a Specialized. The head tube blend and downtube looks exactly like the Cannondale Trigger Carbon. The chainstays borrow heavily from Specialized near the main pivot. And the seat stays look like a copy of Cannondale too.

I’m only being critical of that because the title of the post says “unique,” yet the bike looks absolutely familiar.

It doesn’t matter who ‘designed’ that frame and molds and who now owns the molds if the frame still looks like a direct copy of existing frames.

Our bicycle designs are bound to converge as there are so many brands working in a small field, but this seems a little too obvious to be coincidental.

Johan
10 years ago

I like the colours.
Please keep threaded BB and external routing, just so much less hassle.
The frame weights , particularly on the hardtails, seem pretty heavy.( compare Scott, Trek, Felt)
1k for paint , quality control, warranty etc seems excessive as many of the Hong-fu frames also have quality control and warranty.

Marcel Hagener
Marcel Hagener
10 years ago

I beg you pardon …. “Bike” or whatever your name is. You are saying the top tube looks like so and so seat tube looks like so and so….you mention three mainstream bike brands and you reckon these sections got all copied and put into one frame….what is your point?! A bicycle is compared to other mediums of transport a simple structure….there are only that many tubes you put together and they form a frame. And if you want that frame to perform then different engineers in different parts in the word will most likely come to similar designs. It drives me nuts that there are cyclists commenting in this and other forums that so-and-so is a copy of so-and-so. Look at aerodynamics with car designs , hydrodynamics with kayaks and surf ski designs….they all look similar in the end. They need to in order to obey the law of physics. Same goes for a full suspension XC racing bike in the end. If Specialized would have existed a hundred and some more years ago and patented the Diamond shape bike frame….which is still for a rigid road bike or mountain bike the strongest and lightest design….what then? Nobody else allowed to use it? BS.
@ Devin: Why don’t you go to the Chiru website and ask him (Pierre) what is different. And your comment regarding Bike Rumor readers are experts….mate I have been reading comments on this website for a while and one thing is for sure there is a lot of BS being said….only a few comments with information worthwhile to read. Have you ever been to a factory over in China? Have you ever seen a Chiru bike apart from on the screen?

Devin
10 years ago

@Marcel, it seems like you’re getting a little hot under the collar- if you think I was insulting the brand, apologies.

Like it or not, there are myriad companies that say “Check out our latest and greatest!” and then roll out whatever frames they can source from a supplier. And it’s also quite easy to use a front end and sub in a different (and possibly) proprietary rear end; put together a large enough order and most smallish OEMs let you make small changes to “open” molds (guess what, I know from experience!)

So, like I said before, using a front triangle you like (that’s available to multiple “brands”) and a proprietary rear triangle (pivotless, UNLIKE the Hong fu front end that bears a remarkable likeness to the Chiru 29er front end) you can build a great bike. But jumping down peoples’ throats when they comment on the stunning resemblance (NOT like “ohh, kinda looks like a Scott.” More like, “Ohh, is EXACTLY like the front triangle on my FM036.”) when the website is totally devoid of information doesn’t exactly come across as forthright and believable. Yeah, people talk a lot of BS- combat this with actual information, as in show something on the brand website that substantiates you doing something different.

Mindless
Mindless
10 years ago

@Marcel Hagener: We do not sign with our real name because it is not our real job.

sillybike
sillybike
10 years ago

Bad website as well! Brand not going far! Sorry! its a FM036 !

EM2
EM2
10 years ago

@Chiru make a couple of dozens test bikes , tour them to the LBS for free and let the people love them
@everyone did you notice that the pivotless Chiru frame cost the half compared to the major brands crap ?

Ripnshread
Ripnshread
10 years ago

No one would care that your bike was made by Hongfu-bikes if it had a Horst link rear end. These days products are either a commodity or actually “unique”. A single bar “pivotless” rear suspension mountain bike is in no way “unique”. Its seen as an old technology that was only kept alive because Spec held the patent on the Horst link and sued the crap out of anyone who tried to sell anything similar in countries where they held patent rights. The arcing axle path of a single pivot bike if just not the best design imop.

Andy
Andy
9 years ago

Yea that is the SAME FRAME that Hong-Fu and XMI play are selling for a WHOLE LOT LESS. You get those factories to make you a frame and put your own graphics on it and sell it for more than 2x the cost….its the same frame sorry.

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