Christian Textor's Prototype Bulls Enduro Bike 6

You might have spotted the spy shots floating around the internet already, in which case you know that Bulls has been busy working on a new prototype carbon enduro bike. Curious to know more, we sat down with Christian Textor to talk about it in more detail. Christian has been racing for Bulls since 2013, originally on the DH team with Wyn Masters and more recently taking on the EWS with a couple of top-20 finishes to his name already. Hit play below to listen to Boris and Christian chat while you cruise the pics and read about the details.

Bulls Enduro Prototype

The new bike rolls on 29-inch wheels, and is optimized for 160mm of travel both in the front and the rear. For steeper races, a 170mm fork can be used as well. The bike features a 65.5-degree head angle, which is not too slack by today's standards but which according to Christian makes it easy to get your weight over the front wheel for generating good grip. Running a shorter offset fork and a shorter stem keeps it balanced.

Continuing to examine the geo, standing 1m83 tall Christian rides a size large which offers a reach of 470mm. An XL with 490mm of reach and a medium with 450mm of reach will also be released. The chainstays are 435mm long, which is on the short side for a 29er (although not crazy short by any means). The rear axle is boost, but the outside width of the stays and axle have been made slimmer than normal, so the feet aren't hitting stays - every millimeter counts when threading needles on the EWS circuit.

When it came to the suspension, Bulls went with a Horst-Link layout based around a 230mm shock with a 65mm stroke. The relatively long shock and stroke provide for a bigger adjustment range which Bulls says makes the bike easier to tune compared to bikes with shorter shock bodies.

In terms of frame design, Christian was always annoyed when having to strap things to his bike, so the "stash pocket" above the BB was born. This pocket provides storage space for spares, partially hides the water bottle and keeps center of gravity low.

This open area also provides access to the internally routed cables which makes working on your bike easier. The cables are routed through the chain stays which makes for a super clean look, and this opening also makes it easy to flush dirt out of the stash pocket.

The prototype shown here is very close to what the production bike will look like, there might still be some minor changes to hardware and such details before Bulls releases the final product. Stay tuned!

photos and interview by @maddogboris