The Evolve FS is not your typical weight weenie superlight XC bike, it's complete beast of an XC bike. If you are looking for a rocket fast XC bike that will get to the top quicker than anything out there and yet have the stability and aggressive geometry to handle some seriously gnarly terrain, the Evolve FS gets pretty close to that one bike for all. The frame weight of 1,240 comes into the territory of a lightweight hardtail yet the with a slack 65º head angle and 495mm of reach, this pushes it well into the aggressive trail category. If you don't want to get caught up in all the bike genre lingo - the Evolve FS that will suit anyone that likes going fast, likely a huge gas tank from road miles, cannot resist smashing lap times even on "chill" days and enjoys giving enduro bros a run for their money. If pure XC is your thing, then this can be setup with 100mm rear travel and a 100mm front fork for blowing up your VO2 max, or for the everyday ride with a bit more forgiveness, the 110mm rear, 120mm front will go like a whip but will give that bit extra when it comes to the downs. Running a different stroke shock will yield 100mm or 110mm of rear travel and is compatible with forks up to 120mm of travel, versatility does seem to be a common them amongst the ARC8 bikes. Sitting in a similar category as the Transition Spur, the Evolve FS is a full kilo lighter, longer and slacker. You can only imagine how light you could build the Evolve FS up as even with burly parts. Like the bigger travel Essential it has the same slider rear suspension which offers a longer lever for more tuning of the leverage ratios, what this means is you get a nice linear curve and when you overlay that with the natural progression of an air shock, you get a well controlled, low leverage ratio kinematics. This translates to small bump sensitivity and far easier sag tuning from the get go. How can you not look past the simplicity and clean lines? Also like the Essential II ,the Evolve gets the carbon flex pivots in the rear seat stays for completely maintenance free and consistent performance. If your 80% of your rides are climbing/going full gas, like like to hang at a few marathon / 24hr races and enjoy chasing down your enduro bros on your "not suitable XC" bike.
