Intense 5.5 EVP

[Liam1611]

Well seeing as I've had this bike for a few weeks now I thought it was about time to let everybody else cast their eye over it.


So here goes.



18" Intense 5.5 EVP



Chris King Headset



And Rear Hub

The Specs are as follows.

Intense 5.5 EVP 18" Frame
Fox Talas 36 20mm Bolt Through with 160/120mm Travel Adjust
Fox RP2 Rear Shock 145mm Travel with Boost Valve
Chris King Headset
750mm DMR Wingbar 2
Deore LX R/H Shifter
Lizardskins Peaty Grips in fetching Blue with Da Bomb End Caps
Purple Skull 45mm 5 Degree Rise Stem (Same as Superstar Razor DH Stem)
Hope Mono M4 Front
Hope Mono Mini Rear
Front Wheel is a Hope Pro Evo laced to a DT Swiss EX500 Rim shod in Geax Lobo Mas Loco 2.5 Tyre and 203mm Hope Floating Rotor
Rear Wheel is a Chris King Rear Hub laced to a DT Swiss EX5.1D Rim shod in Geax Loba Mas Loco 2.5 tyre with Sram PG 980 Cassette and 180mm rotor the name of which currently eludes me.
Shimano Saint Rear Mech & KMC Chain
Raceface Evolve DH Crank with FSA Pro MTB 36 tooth chainring
DMR V12 Pedals
Raceface X-Type FR/DH Bottom Bracket
E-Thirteen Chainguide
Charge Chopstick Seatpost, Non de script seat clamp and an Evans Charge Spoon Alternative (Madison own brand)
A smattering of Anodised goodness.

How does it feel?

Fast and it scares the living daylights out of me, but it's planted and goes where I point it. And before anybody mentions it, yes the grass has been cut since these photo's were taken.

Kind Regards

Liam

 

[suburbanreuben]

What grass? All I can see is Piss-a-beds.

Nice bike!
It's amazing how much you can raise by selling the stuff in your shed...

 

[jonnyboy666]

nice machine, always wondered how the geometry compares to a santa cruz blur as they are basically the same design.

also, just out of curiosity, is your crown race installed all the way on the fork crown? it looks like there is a gap, or a spacer?

 

[superstu]

Very very nice!

 

[Liam1611]

Tis true we certainly have more Dandelions than grass, but I'm no gardener as I'd rather be riding than digging up weeds when it' sunny.
As for selling stuff, some of the bits and pieces I've sold have been taken off the Intense and some were split from my old Kinesis, the Intense cost me £725 and I managed to split and sell the Kinesis for about £550 so overall £175 ain't a bad price for what I ended up with.
As for the crown race, it's a crown race spacer which allows the forks to fully rotate, not that I'll be doing bars spins anytime soon, still trying to get to grips with how fast this thing goes. The VPP used by Intense is owned and licensed by Santa Cruz which is the reason why they look similar, one of the ways to tell the difference is the linkage on Santa Cruz bikes are on the inside, Intense are on the outside and the frame is very similar to the Santa Cruz Blur.


I may wipe it down with an oily rag and enter it into the BOTM competition.

Kind Regards

Liam

 

[jonnyboy666]

yeah the vpp suspension design was designed i believe by both companies together, it was more the geometry i was curious about, having not actually compared the angles etc online yours looks quite slack, so more like a Blur 4X as opposed to the Blur/xc/lt/trail models but having quickly google image searched the 4X even that looks to have a steeper head angle although you have a longer fork than the pics i saw not to mention the spacer on the crown.

 

[Liam1611]

The 160mm forks certainly help slacken the angles and I think its approx 65.5° with a little help from the spacer. Maximum "recommended" fork travel length for the frame is 140mm.

Kind Regards

Liam

 

[jonnyboy666]

ooh you naughty rule breaker you!

 

[Liam1611]

The frame is well out of any warranty and I don't ride hard enough to worry about the frame cracking, plus with all the reinforcement at the head tube I don't think I have anything to worry about any time soon. It's built like a brick shithouse and the slacker angles certainly help get over some of the stuff I've faced down over the past few weeks, it just rolls over rocks and boulders without any cares or worries.

Kind Regards

Liam

 

[boxxer]

yeah the vpp suspension design was designed i believe by both companies together,.

Nope!

Outland created VPP and sold it to Santa Cruz who licence it to Intense....

I have pics of the first Outland VPP bike from the late 90's