Today, Transition has launched an all new mountain bike dubbed, the Spire. The brand says that it blends DH capability with the efficiency of a mid-travel trail bike that'll happily be pedalled up a hill, and cruise flow trail but it has the travel to take on chunkier trails.

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The Spire fills a gap in Transition's range, offering 170mm of rear-wheel travel, more than any non-DH bike the brand has on offer, and the bike rolls on 29" wheels.

It's available with either a carbon or alloy frame. The carbon offering is made from premium Japanese Toray fibre with a blend of 24T and 30T materials with the aim of striking the perfect balance between stiffness, strength and impact toughness.

The carbon frame is made using Transition's unique latex coated EPS molding process that allows for sharper frame lines and tighter edge radius control which wastes less material.

As for the alloy frame, it's made using 6061 aluminium.

Both frames get protection on the downtube, chainstay, and seatstay. There's also a geometry adjusting flip-chip at the lower shock mount with a 56mm/56mm press in headset cups which are compatible with reach adjust headsets when equipped with a dual crown fork. All frames are compatible with 650b wheels in the rear if you favour a mullet set-up.

That's not all either, the Spire also has space for a bottle cage in the front triangle, along with an accessory mount on the underside of the top tube.

Just the all of Transition's bikes, the Spire uses the tried and tested GiddyUp suspension kinematic which promises near 23% progression. It's also compatible with a shorter 205mm x 60mm stroke shock which reduces the rear-wheel travel to 160.

Moving onto the bike's geometry, with the flip-chip in the Low position, the Spire gets a 62.5° head tube angle, a 77.6° effective seat tube angle and a large frame gets a 448mm chainstay with a 480mm reach.

Then, with the flip-chip in the high setting, the angles steepen to a 63° head tube angle and a 78.1° effective seat tube angle.

The Spire comes with five different build kits (two carbon, three alloy) with two frame-only options, alloy or carbon.

At the base level, the Spire gets a Fox Float X Performance shock with a Marzocchi Z1 Bomber fork kitted on an alloy frame. The drivetrain on this bike comes from Shimano and the Deore M6100 line-up with Stans Flow D rims on Shimano hubs. All bikes get a Schwalbe Magic Mary, Super Trail, Soft at the front with a Schwalbe Big Betty, Super Trail, Soft at the rear, both in 2.4" widths.

At the top end, the new bike comes sorted with a carbon frame and a Fox 38 GRIP2 Factory fork, paired with a Fox Float X2 Factory shock. Shifting comes from a Shimano XT M8120 drivetrain with matching brakes. Then the bike rolls on a pair of DT Swiss EX 1700 Spine 30 rims.

Finally, the Spire comes in five sizes, from SM up to XXL and bikes will set you back from £2,200 for the alloy frame, £3,700 for the carbon frame and up to £6,500 for the Spire Carbon XT build.

• www.transitionbikes.com

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