VITUSES CARPE 29 CRS
£2,699.99 A carbon ibre beauty with no-compromises kit
Vitus always manage to spec incredible kit at reasonable prices; the buying power of owners CRC/Wiggle is immense, and us riders can reap the rewards. The Escarpe even boasts a carbon fibre front triangle, with no significant downgrades elsewhere.
The frame
Recently updated, the Escarpe has a new T700 carbon mainframe, paired with a 6061-T6 alloy rear end. Vitus claim that mixing these materials gives the best balance of frame stiffness and compliance. Cables are routed internally, you get a bottle cage mount inside the front triangle, and there’s inbuilt chainand seatstay protection, plus a rock-strike guard on the underside of the down tube. A more generous seatpost insertion depth than on the outgoing bike allows longer-travel dropper posts to be used.
There’s 140mm of rear wheel travel, courtesy of Vitus’s four-bar
Horst-link set-up, which they’ve tweaked to add more progression and improve pedalling efficiency. They’ve updated the geometry, too, taking the long, low and slack route. Our large bike had a 478mm reach, 440mm seat tube, 440mm chainstays and 1,249mm wheelbase. The 77.5-degree effective seat tube angle is the steepest on test. A flipchip changes the head angle by 0.5 degrees, from 65 to 65.5 degrees, and the BB drop by 6mm, from 35mm to 29mm. The Escarpe is also available with smaller 650b wheels with very similar geometry.
The kit
The Shimano SLX M7100 drivetrain doesn’t have the prestige of the Sonder’s GX Eagle or the Focus’s XT parts, but it works really well. You also get SLX brakes, with a four-pot calliper and 203mm rotor up front for extra stopping power. RockShox provide the suspension – a 150mmtravel RockShox Pike Select+ fork with Charger RC damper and a Super Deluxe Select+ metric-sized, trunnion-mounted shock. The bike rolls on DT Swiss’s M 1900 wheels wrapped in triple-compound Maxxis Assegai and Dissector tyres. Aside from the 170mm-travel Brand-X Ascend XL dropper post, most of the other kit is from sibling brand Nukeproof, although on our test bike their Neutron saddle had been swapped for a WTB Volt. This spec would be decent value for money on an alloy bike at this price, and is incredible when you consider you’re getting a part-carbon frame, too.
The ride
With its steep seat tube angle, the Escarpe’s geometry puts your body in a comfortable position on climbs. The rear suspension is supple, absorbing the majority of trail chatter and boosting grip. It does this without bobbing excessively, even with the shock’s lockout lever in the ‘open’ position. Up front, the Pike fork wasn’t as sensitive as we were hoping. It’s fitted with RockShox’s latest DebonAir spring, which makes it less likely to eat into its travel, at the loss of some off-the-top smoothness. To get our desired levels of comfort and grip, we had to fill it with volume spacers and run a lower air pressure
than usual. Still, the suspension was easier to set up than on the Sonder.
On the descents, not only did we have plenty of grip, but the suspension also provided ample mid-stroke support and bottom-out resistance. This made the Vitus fun to ride and easy to generate speed on over rough terrain. With a taut but not overly stiff feel, it egged us on to ride harder and faster.
One of our testers running flat pedals found that the chain- and seatstays were wide enough to catch on his heels with every crank revolution, resulting in paint scuff after one ride. There was little to no chain slap, thanks to the inbuilt protector and the mech’s clutch mechanism, but there was some rattle from the internally-routed cables on rough terrain.
We’ve no complaints about the SLX drivetrain and brakes, with both offering reliable performance. It’s impressive that Vitus have found room in the budget for DT Swiss wheels. The 3C MaxxTerracompound Maxxis tyres offer great grip and damping in a host of different trail conditions, and Vitus have specced a reinforced EXO+ casing at the rear, so the bike can be pushed harder without fear of flats or tyre roll. While the 170mm post is the longest on test, it didn’t have quite enough drop to stop the saddle contacting our bums on the steepest descents, without additional manual adjustment.
The geometry (which we left in the low position) makes for calm descending, with the chassis feeling stable and composed until we strayed into DH bike territory. With no need for constant weight shifts, we could focus on having as much as fun as possible. Overall the Escarpe impressed, with plenty of pop across a wide range of terrain, branded parts and a solid price tag. It’s a true onebike quiver that’s ripe for upgrades.
STABLE AND COMPOSED UNTIL WE STRAYED INTO DH BIKE TERRITORY, WE COULD FOCUS ON HAVING FUN