Bombtrack Groundwork

Groundwork. That’s Bombtrack Bicycle Co speak for Press Event. Or as we prefer to term it, Bikes, Beer & Banter. It’s a chance for sponsored riders, dealers and journos to get up close and personal with the new bikes, swing a leg over and head out onto the awesome trails, just a stones throw away from Bombtrack’s headquarters in Cologne, Germany.

Rather than go through the entire new 2019 Bombtrack range, we thought we’d share with you the ones that caught the interest of our man on the ground, Paul Errington. If you want to see all that Bombtrack has to offer, just head on over to their website.

The bike talk was strong at Groundwork.

HOOK ADV

Suspension on gravel bikes is one of those things that has divided opinion ever since the term ‘gravel’ entered the cycling vocabulary. When Bombtrack wheeled out the Hook ADV, jaws dropped.

Borrowing all the features of the HOOK EXT’s Columbus Cromor double-butted frame and 650b wheels, the ADV adds 40mm of front suspension courtesy of the Baxter fork from MRP along with a dropper post so you can get totally gnarly. Bombtrack calls the ADV a “hyper-gravel bike. Capable of travelling absolutely anywhere”.

Hook ADV. It’s like John Tomac never happened…

The frame features 12mm thru-axles both ends, loads of braze-on attachment points, an oversized T47 threaded bottom bracket and external cable routing to keep things simple and easy to maintain.

Those tyres, for the inquisitive… The Hook ADV comes with WTB Ranger 27.5 x 2.25″ up front and 2.0″ rear. Bombtrack mismatched rims too; WTB i25 front and a narrower i23 rim for the rear. That wider internal diameter from rim fattens up the profile of the tyre providing oodles of grip and a better profile to the tyre.

Excited? We are too! The Hook ADV should be available at dealers by mid September. Contact Bombtrack’s UK distributor Lyon Outdoor Equipment for more information and pricing.

Beyond+ 2

So we’ve just looked at a drop bar bike with suspension forks and now we’re looking at a flat bar MTB with rigid carbon forks? Yes you did read that right.

If your adventures are to take you beyond the reaches of a gravel bike, then the 27.5+ wheel platform of the Beyond Plus and it’s oversized 2.8” tyres should ensure you can negotiate any terrain you encounter.

When the Hook ADV just isn’t enough, consider the Beyond+

New for 2019 is the full carbon ‘boost’ fork with, triple cage mounts, internal dynamo routing and 15mm thru-axle dropouts and WTB’s i40 Scraper rims and SRAM’s “GX-Eagle” 12-speed groupset with enough gears to climb pretty much anything.

The double butted CrMo 4130 frame has geometry designed for adventure bikepacking, yet “fun and reactive to trail riding”. We’ll translate that as a bike that’ll rip the trails and also carry your bed for the night.

Tension 1

Seeing as the cyclocross season is nearly upon us, we thought this new entry level, alloy framed CX ripper might be of interest. The Tension range starts with this and works its way up the price scale to a lightweight carbon framed whippet of a bike.

Sticking to realistic budgets, the Tension 1 has a full carbon fork, thru axles front and rear and SRAM Apex 1×11 groupset. Keeping within the rules of UCI tyre widths for cyclocross, the WTB ST119 are shod with Challenge Baby Limus 700×33 tyres.

Don’t dismiss it just yet though… The max width that the frame and fork will accommodate is 700x40c, meaning the Tension could work out as a very useful ‘do it all’ companion.