Is it a cross-country bike, is it a down-country bike, or is it neither? Our sources tell us that Commencal is set to launch the Commencal Tempo trail bike tomorrow.
With 120mm of rear wheel travel, you would think that the Commencal Tempo is a bike set firmly into the new down-country sub-category of bikes, but we’ve been told that ‘down-country’ is a dirty word in Andorra and that the Tempo is very much a trail bike.
Not a great deal is known about the 2023 Commencal Tempo, which is hardly surprising as it’s not due to launch until tomorrow 29th November, but what we have seen from athlete’s social media posts is a short travel bike roughly based on the design of the Prototype Enduro bike the Commencal Enduro Project EWS team raced throughout the 2022 season.
Being a Commencal, there isn’t a thread of carbon fibre in sight on the Tempo’s frame. The Andorran-based bike maker has instead stuck with alloy for the front and rear triangles, plus the two CNC links that connect the two together. The new frame follows the signature look of the Commencal Meta, only with a slightly bent top-tube to accommodate even more standover height.
Commencal athletes have been training on, testing and even racing the Commencal Tempo all season, and we have seen builds with 120mm RockShox SID forks, but we expect production models will come with 130-140mm travel forks.
We also expect a highly polished launch video for the new Commencal Tempo trail bike, so watch this space for more details coming tomorrow.
Edit MTB.