Adam M: When you ask yourself what makes a great trail bike, versatility and capability are usually the first things to come to mind. You wouldn’t be wrong there, that’s a must have. More important than just those traits, a great trail bike needs to be fun! In all directions. It cant be a one trick pony. The new Rascal is the bike in our lineup that embodies this best. An efficient pedaler, confident descender, precision handler.These qualities all add up to the best and most fun bike we’ve made yet! The philosophy here was to make a bike that is not only versatile, but comfortable and familiar. The Rascal is easy to get along with. It handles low speed tech with ease and punches above its weight class when things get faster and rougher. This makes it confidence inspiring allowing you to ride at your best more often. That feeling combined with our patented CBF suspension design and trail bike focused geometry is what makes the Rascal... well, the Rascal.

Matt B: Agreed, both are great components. In the end, this spec just makes the most sense to us. While the Code is currently marketed as SRAM’s most powerful brake, the reality is that there are more powerful options out there for enduro and DH bikes making the Code a more attractive brake to handle the rigors of modern trail bikes. As trail bikes become more and more capable they require more powerful brakes to keep up with the pace these bikes are being put through. The Lyrik spec is a similar story. Before the ZEB, the Lyrik was the RockShox fork of choice for Enduro and longer travel bikes. Now that the Lyrik has been given a focused travel Range of 140-160 it too is becoming more of an attractive spec on trail bikes. The Pike is an excellent fork and would be a great fit on the Rascal, but with it’s max travel of 140mm you don’t have the option of bumping it up to 150mm.The Lyrik gives our customers the option to do that. Really this is an exercise in forward thinking. Noticing the shift in category focus for certain components and making a spec decision accordingly. I think that in the not too distant future these two components will be seen as less of the beefier option and more of the right option for this application.

Adam M: We have a whole lot of fun picking spec! The Rascals' 130mm of CBF Suspension packs a whole lot more punch than expected. This bike pedals crazy efficiently and is made to enjoy the ups as much as the downs. Because it is so efficient, the slightly weight penalty for the beefier fork and brakes isn’t noticeable on the climbs, and it sure makes the bike a blast to bomb downhill on.

Matt B: The Rascal certainly rides best in the stock configuration. 140mm fork and a 210x50mm shock for 130mm in the back. Yes, people sure do like to over fork their trail bikes. I get it, so instead of shunning it, we allow people to have that option where we can and by choosing to spec the Lyrik we have done just that. If you are going to have one bike for all the riding you do then this is sometimes the best option to dial in the bike for whatever that kind of riding may be. Plus 10mm is fine and our frames pass testing using a 10mm longer fork than what the spec is to make sure it is 100% safe to do so. We do not recommend removing spacers or using longer stroke shocks to get more travel out of the rear. As far as talking about these... I’m totally comfortable with the fork conversation. I think it is good for riders to know that they have the option if it is something they really want to do. I’d rather keep the can of worms closed when it comes to changing shock spec though. Thanks!

Adam M: All of our bikes are tested and designed to allow for over-forking by 10mm. We personally like the ride quality and geo just the way it is with the 140mm fork, but a 150mm fork is just fine too if that’s what you’d like! However, we don’t recommend changing anything with the rear shock travel–not only will it void the warranty and may cause some not so fun clearance issues, it just doesn’t ride as well. Chris Canfield knows how to design rad suspension kinematics and we know you’ll like it just as is!

Matt B: Yes this bike reflects the final component spec, but with one exception. That exception is the front tire compound explained below. As for the handling... The handling characteristics of this bike are pretty spot on to what we were going for. I feel like many bikes in this travel class can skew more towards “mini-enduro” in terms of their geometry (longer reaches, slacker head tubes, steeper seat tubes). The Rascal is decidedly not that, which makes it a ton of fun! Around us here in Carbondale, Colorado we are fortunate enough to live in a very dynamic landscape with incredible riding. We have a bit of everything here, but there is no shortage of long climbs and big descents. We needed a bike as versatile as the terrain around us. The Rascal is the bike you take out on an epic high country mission one day and then rip through rolling flow trails the next. Our frames pass testing with a 10mm longer axle to crown length than the spec fork. Riders can bump the fork up to150mm to get the front end a little slacker and slow that handling down a little bit too. Something that has enough top end stability, but still comes alive at lower speeds. This is heavily influenced by the terrain and riding we have here.

MattB: I know you are familiar with these newer Continental tires. The bike you are on has the Endurance compound front and rear. I can see how that compound may not be the most confidence inspiring in Squamish. That is not the final spec, but it is what we were able to get when we needed these bikes built.The Spec for the bike will be mostly the same, but it will have the soft compound on the front tire and maintain the endurance compound on the rear tire. The soft compound up front is just better all around. More supple, more traction, more confidence. I chose to keep the endurance compound on the rear tire for two reasons: longevity and less rolling resistance for those long days in the saddle