Karpiel has long been a brand associated with the extreme side of mountain biking, thanks to the groundbreaking heroics of Josh Bender and his memorable films, which have now passed into cult history. While the Karpiel Apocalypse still bears its signature design and offers 12 inches of travel for the rare extremist, the new Disco Volante has been designed as the world’s most adjustable race bike.
Karpiel’s new owners, Duncon S.A, and its parent company, investment group TUP S.A, together with frame designer, Jan Karpiel, look forward to the bike’s exciting future as it continues to evolve, both in look and design, for the future of downhill racing.
The 2009 model of the Disco Volante was designed with racing in mind and features a lower bottom bracket height, lower center of gravity and more compact frame design for agility. It is more stable in the corners and over rough, traversing slopes and off-camber turns than its predecessors. Among its many new features, the following offers good examples of how far the frames have come while still retaining their Karpiel style.
Dropouts
The new Disco Volante has a replaceable right side dropout while retaining a fully welded brake side dropout for strength. Also present are recessed heads on the brake mount which increase rigidity and reduce loosening of the brake bolts.
Lower shock mount adjustment
Utilizes two eccentric bolt center barrels. Adjustment of the lower barrels allows for suspension travel adjustment. With the shock mount bolt positioned closer to the front linkage pivot, the suspension is set for maximum travel at 9.5 inches with a 3 inch shock. With the shock mount bolt positioned the furthest away from the front linkage pivot, the suspension is set for the minimum travel, which is 8 inches. In-between positions allow for fine tuning of the amount of suspension travel.
Upper shock mount adjustment
The upper shock mount adjustment utilizes two eccentric bolt center barrels that are much larger (1.5 inch OD) than the lower adjustments. The resulting settings should be: in the long travel, the bike should have a more progressive setting with the upper shock mount bolts closer to the downtube, while in the short travel, a less progressive setting is preferred (shock mount bolt further away from the downtube). The upper shock mount adjustment is also responsible for setting of the initial ride height (bottom bracket height). Also, due to a fairly large eccentric movement of the shock mount bolt, installment of a shorter rear shock (2.75 inch) is possible for those who prefer an overall reduction in suspension travel.
CNC machine work
Karpiel bikes make use of extensive, high-quality CNC parts throughout. The use of precision machined parts eliminates the distortion and warping of the suspension pick-up points that occurs during welding. It allows for the precision adjustments and exact alignment of all the suspension moving parts.
Head tube reinforcement gussets
The new forked tongue gussets are new and have never been seen on bikes or motorcycles before. Traditionally, the head tube takes the most amount of impacts, causing fatigue related stress cracks and sometimes ovalizing of the steer cup area. Traditional head tube gussets are like band-aids that cover up the most highly stressed head tube welds with an additional piece of tubing triangle in an attempt to add more material to the vulnerable area and very often result in simply relocating the cracks to the end of the gusset. The fork tongue gusset, on the other hand, completely relieves the stress on the weld around the head tube, thus relocating it down the tubes using the flexible, non-stress causing splines of the forked tongue design. Since the material used is relatively thick, it offers maximum head tube protection. It also completely surrounds both ends of the head tube with additional welds, preventing the possibility of ovalizing.
ATP Linkage system
ATP stands for Adjustable Travel and Progression. It is the only system on the market that allows for adjustment of travel, bottom bracket height and progression settings, independent from one another. As the bikes are being used all over the world, in various levels of technical terrain, including very rough courses and smooth trails with sharp turns, different suspension settings become a useful asset for versatile riders.
Composite padded pivots
As the swingarm is responsible for transferring the most shock force to the suspension elements/mainframe and the rider, the composite bushings are the padding that buffers the vibrations, extending the life of pivot bearings and other suspension components
More information on the Disco Volante is available on the Karpiel website at www.karpiel.com and the bikes can be seen in action with sponsored riders like Wil White and Antonio Levia.
