Catching Up with Commencal - Genesis of the Meta AM V4 5

It's always exciting to go behind the scenes of the creation of a new bike, to see what exactly goes into the design and development of these machines that bring us so much joy on the trails. We caught up with Nicolas Menard, Commencal's R&D boss to talk about his latest baby, the Meta AM V4.

Vital: Nico, where does the work on a new bike start from? What is the original thought, idea, concept?
NM: When we start working on a new bike, we always analyze our current frame to see what can be improved. One of the constraints this time around was to have a shock position that is higher to help the rider when playing with platform settings. But at the same time we didn't want to have a too high top tube because we wanted to be able to move around on the bike. Apart from the kinematics, this was the first constraint that made us go in the direction of the Meta V4.

Vital: You look back at the previous model, and you think “that was really the best we could do back then”. How do you make something better again? Do you start from new requirements, conditions that have changed, or just a desire to improve again?
NM: There is always the desire to improve, always. In the case of the Meta, we knew the V3 was great to ride downhill, there was no doubt. But we knew climbing could be better. So we tried to look for new solutions to provide better climbing efficiency... but without sacrificing the downhill performance. It is always hard to improve climbing without sacrificing what we like the most, downhill.

Vital: Is it a blank sheet of paper, or are there constraints already at the start?
NM: There are no constraints such as: "you need to use old tooling, old parts...". But as alluded to above, there are constraints or concepts that guide us in the design of a new frame.

Vital: Who makes the first drawings? Where does the overall look and feel of a new frame come from?
NM: I did the first design. I did some sketches to have an overall idea of where I wanted to go and then I started working on the computer, laying out the kinematics to see if I could achieve what I wanted. Once I was satisfied with the kinematics, I started work with our designer. So first idea came from me but then our industrial designer helped to show what I had in mind. I like to work closely with industrial designers, it gets the best out of us.

Vital: How many design concepts and/or prototypes did you throw away for the Meta AM V4?
NM: We did "only" 2 prototypes. We wanted to achieve the right stiffness rate and the first samples were great but were too flexy for customers. We liked it but we knew some people would complain so we add a bit more stiffness.

Vital: Are there many disagreements or other disappointments along the way?
NM: The good thing working at Commencal is that the development team and Max share the same vision of MTB, so most of the time we can disagree on some details but nothing major. In this case, before seeing the first samples, some people were a bit scared because it was a very different design to the V3 - but then they tried it and they loved it.

Vital: A lot of today’s design is computer assisted. How often does real life surprise you? Do you discover aspects of a new bike that you weren’t expecting, once you have a prototype in your hands?
NM: Theory tells you a lot of things but it is sometimes hard to get it 100% right. Sometimes you go a little bit too far, or not enough... it can be hard to measure it out. This is why testing is so important and why it's so exciting to go and ride a new bike. It sometimes surprises you a bit, but most of the time we know where we are going.

Vital: How do you feel at the launch of a new bike?
NM: At the launch of a new bike, there is always a bit of pressure. Will the journalists will share our vision? So there is always some pressure in the back of my mind but for sure I'm pretty excited to show what we did as a team on a new bike. I love to do press camps. It's a unique opportunity to share good moments with journalists, and to ride as much as we can.

Vital: How soon do you start thinking about the next bike?
NM: It's a long process. Once I end up with a new design, I'm already thinking of improvements, new solutions...

Vital:Meta AM V5 on the way?
NM: Some new things will appear, but the V4 is here to stay ;-)

Photos and video by Sam Decout