Commencal has a rich history when it comes to making race winning downhill bikes. The pedigree goes all the way back to the nineties when the brand’s founder, Max Commencal, helped design one of the most successful downhill bikes of all time when he worked with legendary French brand Sunn. Then, as now, he isn’t afraid to try different things in the search for speed, and this is the fourth iteration of the Commencal Supreme — and it’s quite a radical departure from the previous bikes, especially when it comes to suspension design.
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Called the HPP system, it’s essentially an ordinary linkage driven single pivot but with a couple of differences that turn it into something rather exotic. The biggest difference is that instead of being at roughly the same level as the top of the chainring, the pivot for the swingarm is considerably higher. This means you get a much more rearward axle path, which Commencal reckons gives improved bump performance.
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It also means that the wheelbase grows significantly as the suspension compresses, improving stability when you’re deep into the travel. Such a high pivot point would usually cause huge issues with chain growth and pedal kickback as the suspension compresses, so to get around this the extra long chain takes a more circuitous route, threading vertically up from the cranks and then over the main pivot and back to the cassette via an idler cog. That means that chain tension from pedalling — anti-squat — no longer has such a great effect on suspension performance.
This isn’t a new idea by any means, but the Supreme is one of very few modern bikes to use this system and Commencal is pretty much the only mainstream manufacturer to do so. The suspension also boasts 220mm of rear wheel travel compared to 200mm up front, when most bikes on the race circuit have 200mm at either end.
As well as there being more of it, it’s also more progressive relative to the old Supreme, with a shock leverage curve that’s been tweaked to be more sensitive at the start of the stroke and with greater support in the middle — thanks to the rat’s nest of linkages and levers that drive the low slung shock.
A sucker for punishment
You can read more at BikeRadar.com
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