Vincent Bikes is a niche brand, specialising in curating small numbers of bikes to suit South African mountain bikers. As endurance-racers, neither of the two owners has ever ridden anything too gnarly, so they collaborated with South Africa’s original downhill racer and suspension guru, Robbie Powell, to produce the Vincent Bikes X17 Black Shadow, a 180mm-travel full-carbon Enduro/Trail bike. We rode it for a few weeks and here’s what we think.
Every Vincent Bikes bike purchase involves direct interaction with either Nico Rust or Albert Cronje, the two engineers who started the brand a decade ago. Nico is based in Heidelberg, Gauteng and Albert is based in Sedgefield, Western Cape. Nico delivered the X17 Black Shadow to us and then, when we realised the stem was too long, he came and fitted a shorter one. An hour’s drive each way. Having had some interaction with a few Vincent Bikes owners in the past couple of months, this is standard and not just because we are a media brand.
While we usually only get a test bike for around three weeks, the Vincent Bikes guys wanted us to get a comprehensive feel for the X17 Black Shadow at a range of trails and in different conditions. That we sure did! We rode it in three different provinces and at six different trails parks. A bike with that much travel must be ridden where there’s decent gradient and/or rugged terrain.
THE BIKE
The X17 Black Shadow is a beast of a bike. It’s the first thing you think when you see it. It’s got a matt black carbon frame that’s burly where it needs to be and with the rear shock mounted on the middle of the downtube crushing any chance of a bottle cage option. It’s long and slack, with really wide bars, big wheels and serious suspension.
Like any serious gravity bike, suspension is the priority. How you carry your liquid refreshment is up to you. There’s no place for a bottle cage so a pack is what we used to carry our liquid. In terms of geometry, the headtube is a slack 64.2 degrees and the seattube a steep 78 degrees with fairly neutral reach of 457mm (on the Medium).
With its seemingly god-like status in the suspension world, the Ohlins suspension on the X17 Black Shadow is a standout feature. Wherever we rode the bike the attention it received and discussion that ensued almost always began with the Ohlins suspension. It comes with an Ohlins TTX rear shock with 180mm of travel and an Ohlins RXF fork with 180mmm of travel. That’s a lot of travel for South Africa, but we looked forward to seeing how it performed.
The suspension isn’t alone in higher-end status on the X17 Black Shadow. The Vincent carbon rims are paired with DT Swiss 350 Hybrid hubs and the drivetrain is Shimano Deore XT 1×12 with a RaceFace Aeffect Crankset. The brakeset is SRAM’s G2 hydraulic with 203mm rotors. For the cockpit, there’s a X-Fusion Manic dropper seatpost with Selle Italia SLR saddle and Rapide 35mm stem holding E13 carbon bars. The bike came with a Maxxis Assegai upfront and a Minion DHR on the rear – both 2.5 inches wide.
The X17 Black Shadow is essentially a linkage-driven single-pivot design. The only design that really is similar that we have seen is the Revel, a niche American brand that uses what it calls the Canfield Balance Formula which is designed around the ‘Centre of Curvature’, which it claims points the chain-line and corresponding drive forces around the top of the chainring through 100 percent of the travel, delivering no bob and constant pedalling efficiency throughout the travel.
While rounded and smoothed, the tubes are mostly squared or rectangular in cross-section shape, which implies strength. As mentioned earlier, the downtube and seattube are key connection points for the rear shock, which follows an almost straight line down the linkage to the seatstays. From the side, the inverted-V linkage looks compact and simple, but from the top it’s not. There’s a floating middle link in the centre pivot that enables the pivot to sit in line with the seatpost. It makes good sense when you watch it move as it seems to significantly reduce the amount of ‘bob’ under pedalling forces, but allows superb action from trail obstacles and surfaces.
The weight of our test rig was 15.5kg with pedals and sealant. That’s very good for a 180mm-travel bike.
THE RIDE
A bike with 180mm suspension front and rear is historically consigned to descending – fast. Climbing a bike with that much travel has never really been discussed because it’s normally shuttled to the top of a climb by motor vehicle or lofted up via chair lift. But mountain biking is constantly evolving and here was a long-travel bike with a 1×12 drivetrain weighing just 15.5kg. So, climb it we did.
It certainly surprised us. With such relaxed geometry and at that weight, it obviously doesn’t climb fast. But it climbs steadily and efficiently. As mentioned earlier, the unusual linkage for the rocker seems to significantly reduce bob when pedalling. If this was a big brand, we’d be able to give you a graph or video to show you. And there would be a trick name for this. But this is a tiny brand that sources this frame from a factory in The East. So, this is what you get – our best effort at describing it.
We did a few 3-4 hour rides on the X17 Black Shadow and it was surprisingly capable. On big-gradient rides, it climbed the long, steep pulls steadily and obviously consumed the descents eagerly. Technical climbs required the usual well-timed power and good line choice, but it really did scale everything we aimed it at. Except this one rocky slope (actually a descent we rode in reverse) where we simply did not hit it with enough pace. But everything else that went upwards, we conquered.
We upped the suspension pressure and rode it on some marathon-style rides at a few Gauteng trails parks and were able to roll with the pace of the group without slowing them down. There were times where we did feel like we were on a long-travel bike – but mostly later on the ride due to fatigue – more from lack of rider conditioning than bike suitability though.
But the X17 Black Shadow isn’t built to ride far, it’s built to ride fast on descents. And that’s what we spent most of our time doing on this bike. We rode a variety – long and smooth, long and twisty, long with varying terrain, short and steep, steep and gnarly, rocky, rooty, rutty, loose, firm and even loamy (we had to go to Mpumalanga for the loam).
It’s hard to fully challenge a 180mm bike on the majority of trails we have in South Africa. But we gave it a good go. It took a couple of rides to get the suspension really dialed and then it was play time! We found the X17 Black Shadow to be super stable on steep and rough descents. That inserted a layer of confidence that made us more ambitious. Braking less, braking later and sometimes not feeling like braking was needed. That’s important on a gravity-designed bike.
It was sure through corners, although we did have a few nervous moments on sketchy, loose surfaces where a front-wheel washout seemed imminent. But a quick forward weight shift managed to save it. At least we began to know the bike’s limit. Although we don’t get tied up in bike weight, the X17 Black Shadow does feel light when jumping or skipping over rocks.
We’re not suspension gurus, but can report that the Ohlins suspension was very smooth and we didn’t once bottom it out despite some lower pressures and medium-to-biggish jumps and drops. Was it significantly different to other suspension we’ve ridden? Besides the smoothness, not noticeably. The wheelset impressed us. Those DT Swiss hubs roll beautifully and the carbon Vincent rims give the bike a really solid feel on uneven surfaces.
Something else that impressed us was that despite riding the X17 Black Shadow for over six weeks in the thick of a wet and muddy summer, with numerous post-ride washes, there wasn’t a creak or squeak to be heard from the frame pivots. The day we returned it, it was as quiet as when we first rode it. Nico told us that they strip and rebuild the frames completely when they arrive in the country, ensuring all the pivot bearings are properly seated, greased and appropriately tightened.
SUMMARY
We haven’t ridden many 180mm travel bikes in the past, certainly none in the past 10 years. While it’s great to have that much travel, it may be a little too much for most South African trails or Enduro lines. Nico did mention that they are able to have the suspension on the X17 Black Shadow reduced up front to 170mm and at the rear to 160mm, which is a little more suitable, we feel.
Other than the bars being a bit wide for our test riders, there’s nothing we can fault on the X17 Black Shadow. It’s a very well built, balanced bike that offers loads of confidence on any descent and climbs with surprising efficiency. It’s obviously ideal to race Enduro on, but is also appropriate to ride challenging trails on – all day if you have the appropriate physical conditioning.
PRICE: R106 000 (as at early April 2023)
MORE INFO: Vincent Bikes website
