Home > Bike Types > Mountain Bike

First Look: Prototype Airborne 650b Enduro Machine

8 Comments
Support us! Bikerumor may earn a small commission from affiliate links in this article. Learn More

Trevor Airborne Prototype Enduro 650b

Trevor Gay is a busy man. When he’s not acting as the marketing and team manager for both Airbone Bicycles and DK BMX, you can sometimes find him out product testing new products at the races. That was the case when we ran into Trevor and Josh at the AOA Mayhem Enduro where we spotted the new Airborne 650b prototype enduro bike. Both bikes were seen airing it out over the Wilds course, where we caught up with them after the race…

Airborne Prototype Enduro Bike (2)

Airborne Prototype Enduro Bike (3)

Airborne Prototype Enduro Bike (10) Airborne Prototype Enduro Bike (4)

Designed as 650b enduro specific bike, the prototype offers 6″ of travel front and rear. Up front the head angle currently sits at 65.5 degrees and houses an internal tapered headset. Production bikes will have additional provisions for internal dropper posts and a water bottle cage in the main triangle.

Airborne Prototype Enduro Bike (7)

Airborne Prototype Enduro Bike (9) Airborne Prototype Enduro Bike (8)

The rear end of the bike is outfitted with an X-12 type 142x12mm axle system that runs a Maxxle. The rear suspension is very similar to a Horst link, but the rear pivot is not below the rear axle, just in front. As for the rear shock, it is mounted to the downtube and is actuated by a standard seatpost rocker link.

Airborne Prototype Enduro Bike (6)

Both bikes were running Vee Tire Co 650bx2.4″ rubber meaning there should be plenty of tire clearance.

Airborne Prototype Enduro Bike (12)

Josh Patton was also on board a prototype with a slight different build for his race bike. There were also a few different anodized bits on the suspension linkage. Airborne is shooting for Fall availability with two complete builds which will sell for somewhere around sub 2k and sub 3k for the complete bike. Frame and fork packages may be available as well with frames sold in small, medium, and large. As with all Airborne bikes, they are sold direct through the company’s website which will have a completely new, robust design this October.

Airborne Prototype Enduro Bike (11)

There were also some prototype Onyx hubs on Josh’s bike complete with his name laser etched on the hub shell. The Onyx freehub body offers basically instant engagement meaning once these hubs are on the market they will offer some serious competitions to the current hub options. The company is also prototyping road and even fat bike hubs so look for Onyx to be getting much more press in the coming months.

airbornebicycles.com

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

8 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
DeafDaddy
DeafDaddy
9 years ago

America’s Canyon? Speaking of Canyon, does anyone know if their bikes will be available for us Americans down the pipe? Canyon has gone on record saying that they’re exploring the (remote) possibility of making their bikes available for US consumption.

No pun to Airborne since I’ve never ridden one or encountered one on the trails, but they’re considered small potatoes compared to Canyon…

Ck
Ck
9 years ago

Sub-2K 150mm FS bike? Really curious what that ends up getting spec’d with. Big fan of Airborne’s product lineup.

Also curious about those hubs. I’m in the market for a fast engagement rear hub.

RickyBob
RickyBob
9 years ago

If the bike is spec’ed like it is in the pic, $3k is a bargain. xx1, pike, dropper post, what else?

Big Cow
9 years ago

Airborne still exists?

El duke
El duke
9 years ago

At least they’re not making ti road bikes. Lol. Looks nice tho.

mike
mike
9 years ago

Never seen a huffy get airborne……

eric
eric
9 years ago

Airborne left all their old customers without warranty when they rolled up the company the first time. Fortunately I’d just gotten my warranty replacement frame.

There’s no way I’d buy another bike from them.

Antipodean_G
9 years ago

It’s interesting to see what company is pulling what tubes from the ‘stock tubes’ catalogue these days.

Subscribe Now

Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.

Subscribe Now

Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.