Intense Cycles (United States) - Press Release: We won’t lie, it has been really difficult to keep quiet about this one. The next generation INTENSE Tracer 279 is all-new, and completely redesigned and engineered from the ground up. It’s our hard-hitting 170mm (6.7”) travel Enduro bike… and in our eyes it’s the ultimate modern day long travel mountain bike. The Tracer 279 has been in development for well over three years, with an early alloy prototype Tracer 279 helping Isabeau Courdurier win the Enduro World Series back in 2019.

The Tracer has been in the INTENSE line up since 1999, but a lot has changed in those 20 years. Back then 100mm (4”) of travel and a 70º head angle was seen as extreme, but of course now it is all about longer, lower, slacker, with 279 ‘mullet’ mixed wheel sizes (29” up front, 27.5” on the rear) and lots of responsive suspension travel. A bike that can pedal up and along as well as it can descend.

As with all INTENSE bikes the early aluminum prototype frames were hand crafted, shaped and welded by our very own Jeff Steber (CEO and Founder) in our California HQ. With our alloy prototypes we are able to make adjustments quickly in-house by cutting or shifting any of the individual pieces and then welding them back into place. This is also the first bike that INTENSE Factory Racing’s Aaron Gwin has been involved with from start to finish, alongside Jeff and our other global Ambassadors.

We can’t give too much detail and information away at the moment, mainly because we are not launching the bike just yet. The current situation with global product and component shortages have held things up a little, so the full launch date is to be confirmed. But we are so keen to show the world what we have been up to that we sent out two frames to two of our long standing brand ambassadors, Chris Kovarik in Canada, and Bernat Guardia in Spain. Both are ex-World Cup racers and know a thing or two about full suspension mountain bikes.