Intense Socom FRO
Frame and Fork:
Frame – Intense Socom FRO (LG)
more pictures of the frame can be seen in the gallery (click to enlarge)
Why the Intense Socom FRO?
The Intense Socom has been of interest to us for awhile for a lightweight downhill project and we were able to get a hold of one to do this project. It’s one of the lightest downhill frames available and has proven to be quite strong in its first year. In 2008 with the small changes Intense made, it’s even better. There are plenty of other light DH frames that are even lighter than our Socom.
While a lot of people have built some really light Socom’s, the goal with ours was to be lighter than most of the one’s we’d seen (38 - 40lbs) while still retaining the downhill vitals (suspension, tires, drivetrain, brakes, etc). A lot of bikes tend to put on 2.35″ tires, singly ply tires, air shocks, single crown fork, XC rims, carbon fiber guides, and other easy methods to quickly lighten a bike that often compromises its strength and race-ability. Our goal was to maintain the coil rear shock, 2.5″ dual ply/UST tires, a solid DH rim, and a slew of other facets we felt were important in a DH bike that we’ll expound on further.
Socom Frame spec’s
- 1.5″ headset
- 73mm Bottom Bracket (allows for lighter cranks and more clearance)
- 135mm x 12mm rear dropouts or 150 x 12mm dropouts
- ISCG-OLD
Shock - Rock Shox Vivid 5.1
The Vivid is new this year and we’ve heard good stuff about it so we thought it was appropriate to incorporate one into our build. Teamed with an Obtainium Performance titanium spring, it’s a super light setup that maintains a light suspension platform and retains the feel of the coil rear shock that air often can’t compare to. The Obtainium TI spring is one of the few titanium springs you can get that will fit the Rock Shox Vivid. In addition to that, it’s possibly the best TI spring on the market now given their history, features, and materials. The spring is unique and you can read more about it in our Obtainium writeup.
(click to enlarge)
Fork – Pushed Rock Shox Boxxer World Cup
(click to enlarge)
Why the Boxxer WC
The Boxxer was chosen for a few reasons. It’s by far one of the lightest dual crown DH race fork on the market at this time. It’s lightweight and it’s easy to maintain and troubleshoot. The Boxxer Team could be swapped in for some added weight (~1lb), but has less maintenance.
The Boxxer WC is light, real light. It weighed in at 6.2lbs. It has 32mm stanchions and offers 8″ of travel. It’s easy to adjust and with the air cartridge it’s easy to dial in. PUSH Industries did a few tweaks to the fork with more to come later to finish it off.
(click to enlarge)
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