Enduro riding is one of the fastest growing segments in the cycling world, as such magazines and websites are full of enduro bling. These bikes all look phenomenal but with these phenomenal looks comes phenomenal price tags.
ICAN with their carbon fibre enduro frame, the P9, have brought you that high-end carbon fibre looks, and high-end carbon fibre features but at an aluminium price point.
ICAN P9 Enduro Frame highlights
- Toray T700 carbon fibre moulded using state of the art technology
- 150mm travel
- Works with a 150mm to 160mm forks
- Boost spacing
- 29er or 27.5”+
- Massive mud and tyre clearance
- 3 year warranty
The perfect enduro mountain bike frame
With an enduro frame, you will be wanting cross-country weight and climbing ability mixed with downhill bike strength. Therefore, the ICAN P9 is made from Toray T700 carbon fibre.
Allowing ICAN to build an enduro frame that is designed to be the best features from both fields without being too centred in either one of the categories.
If you want to race enduro, you will need a frame that climbs like a dream and ICAN have achieved that. You are probably thinking that enduro is all about blasting the downhills and in many ways, it is, but crucially you must get up those hills first.
You would therefore want a bike that can climb and allow you to save effort for the fun part of charging downhill.
The suspension linkage is specially designed to limit pedal bob, as no one likes pedal bob and you especially do not want pedal bob on that last climb of the day. The day when you have put it all out there, your body is screaming to go home, the sweat is dripping in your eyes, but you need to get that final run in.
This is when you really do not want pedal bob, you just want to find a rhythm and climb, and soon you will soon have gravity assisting you. That downhill run will be all the sweeter.
With a 150mm of travel, you will find just the right balance between downhill fun and hill climbing ease. It is also not too much travel to affect how high up the bike sits; this helps with getting on if you are of smaller stature.
Once you start getting over 150mm of travel you will find that you have to start compromising saddle position, this is okay if you are a pure gravity rider but of no use, if you need to pedal up hills. It will certainly smooth out the trails and help you gain those all-important Strava times or help you find the podium in that enduro you have built your season around.
Carbon fibre construction
The frame also being made from T700 carbon means that you will not be carrying any extra weight uphill. This has been a painstakingly developed frame, the engineers at ICAN working out the precise mix of resins, composite fibres, lay-orientation and frame shaping to create an enduro frame with the perfect blend of strength and stiffness.
The strength is there for the downhill sections and the stiffness, to go with that lightweight frame and lack of pedal bob, to make every pedal stroke count on the way up.
ICAN have used the knowledge gained from building a hardtail cross country machine like the M17 and have mated it with their more gravity orientated frames and created the perfect carbon fibre enduro machine.
Super Boost Plus geometry
To beef up the frame, ICAN has gone for a Boost rear end. High quality Boost carbon fibre frames are out of the price range for many people, and now you can find out what all the fuss was about without having to rob a bank.
Boost is 148mm x 12mm rear hub, that is wide but allows a strong axle to frame interface and much wider hubs allowing stronger wheels to be fitted, wheels which will be super stiff and help you on the uphill and not fall apart on the downhill.
Not only will the Boost system make the back end of your bike super stiff, it also opens up a world of possibilities. If you are riding sun baked dry trails and wanted to set that Strava KOM that have been eluding, you? Run 29er tyres and set a time so fast people will be thinking you were riding an Ebike.
If it is autumn and the rain, sleet or snow is starting to fall, the ground is a wet swamp and trying to find grip is impossible. Change your wheels to 650b and run 27.5” plus tyres on the P9. With 3” tyres and low pressures, you will find grip where everyone else is sliding out and meeting trees.
Now, you are probably thinking that to get these wheels and tyres in that the P9 must have long chainstays and turn like an oil tanker. Well, you would be wrong.
The Boost spacing is designed to work with broader suspension linkages to allow even heel clearance, but also so that you can get away with standard chainsets to help keep to a narrower Q-factor than what you need on fat bikes or the 83mm shell of downhill bikes.
So now you can have your cake and eat it, primarily as the wider suspension linkages will mean that your suspension bearings will last longer, as they are now much burlier.
P9 frame sizing
Moreover, there is a vast range of sizes meaning that there is a frame for almost everyone. The frames come with size-specific geometry meaning that you should fit your frame like a glove fits your hand. This also helps to keep the bike nimble and stable for all heights, making the downhill sections of your ride great fun while keeping the bike nice and stable.
