24/6/07: Commencal Elite Dealer Trip

Last week Commencal and Madison (Commencal's UK importer) invited their top twelve dealers, of which we suprised but chuffed to discover we were one, to the Alpine resort of Les Deux Alpes. Venue for the upcoming Freeraid Festival, Commencal were launching their 2008 range, which we were amongst the first to see.

Serge, the product manager, presented the new models to us, and talked us through all the design changes, and then the R&D team, and Max Commencal himself, were on hand to answer any questions we had. It was all very insightful, and really useful to talk directly to the guys designing and testing the bikes.

So what's the 2008 range like? With such great bikes already, thankfully it's mainly minor tweaks than a complete overhaul. The Meta 4 & 5.5 have a new rear end, but the geometry, travel and how the suspension works are pretty much the same. The Combi hardtails get the hydroformed top tube that's on the current Metas, and design-wise there are some interesting new paint jobs and a theme of splashes of white trim.

With our appetites whetted, we were then handed a 6" travel Mini DH bike and a lift pass, with all the trails freshly cut for the Freeraid Festival waiting for us. Needless to say, with a perfect blue sky warm Alpine day, and a glorious backdrop of verdant meadows and snow peaked mountains, we had a great day's riding. The longest run was a 1600 metre vertical drop, with singletrack, berms, drop-offs and even a bit of woodwork thrown in, which got the adrenaline surging the arms cramping and, despite not having to ride uphill all day, completely shattered come the last lift at 7pm!

We will of course have test bikes of both the new Meta 4 & 5.5 as soon as they're in the country, hopefully towards the end of the year.

Dan