When Emma (Spoke founder and its founding designer) and I went to the Queenstown Bike Festival a few weeks back we opted not to take a bike for her as the Foes distributor had mentioned having a medium bike available. He didn’t say what it would be but when he showed up with it I didn’t even realise it existed. Obviously I do now. Emma’s initial rides were positive; it’s a bit more bike than she’s used to but was definitely fun to pedal. She only spent a couple of days with the bike, but now it’s back for a bit more of a going over by regular reviewer Mark Dangerfield.
I have to start by saying that we think it has to be the best looking Foes ever. The nice hydroformed down tube and the monocoque top tube work well together and thankfully there are no embossed flames.
So the major difference from most other Foes bikes is this thing is actually designed around a Fox RP23 and not a Curnutt. Foes have still managed to design the 5.25″/5.75″ travel bike around a 2.3:1 ratio providing a nice easily-tuneable ride. Like a bunch of trail bikes coming out at the moment the Shaver features adjustable travel, which is changed by a simple movement of the lower shock mount and the whole platform is designed around a simple link actuated single pivot. According to the boys at Blue Shark (the New Zealand distributor) it has much better small bump compliance than its big brother the FXR.
Here’s a look at the non-drive side of the business end of the Shaver.
It wouldn’t be a trail bike without a 12mm rear axle would it? The Shaver employs the Shimano 12mm axle if you were wondering.
Sun Ringle’s 1555gram SRD wheel set looks pretty burly and it’s one of the more affordable carbon options out there, so we’ll be bringing you a separate review of these guys as well as the new dual compound Intense 2.35 Invader tyres.
