Airdrop Bikes was born out of one man's passion for mountain bikes and his desire to break away from the 9-5 grind. With 12 years of industrial design experience, Ed Brazier took a leap of faith, quit the day job and went about building his dream. The Edit is Airdrop's first bike, and judging from what we've seen of it so far, it appears to tick all the boxes of the modern all-mountain, trail, or enduro slayer; 66-degree head angle, 435-mm chainstays, 76-degree effective seat tube angle, and a long front-centre optimized for use with 35 to 50-mm stems. In order to keep costs down and stay in touch with their customer base, Airdrop sell direct to the consumer.
The Edit features a classic Horst Link rear triangle layout, which Airdrop says has been tuned to provide a good balance between plushness, progressivity, and pedalling efficiency.
The Airdrop features bang up to date trail bike geometry, starting with the slack head angle, low BB, and short stays. The medium's reach of 453-mm is more or less what would traditionally be considered a size large, which is in line with the current trend towards longer front-centres and shorter stems. The steep, 76-degree seat tube angle should provide an efficient and comfortable climbing position.
There are 3 complete bikes available in addition to a frame-only and a frame bundle option. Airdrop also offers custom orders for those extra special requests. Here is the mid-level Pro build, which features a classic SRAM portfolio of proven parts together with Joystick finishing kit. Note that the current version of the Edit does not support Stealth dropper post routing, but they say it is likely to be added at a later stage.
E William_Smithon
12/30/2015 10:46 AM
enrico650
12/20/2015 2:51 PM
stiingya
12/11/2015 10:56 PM
stiingya
12/12/2015 2:09 AM
Looking at their website seems they are doing bikes without wheels as an option. That's cool! I've read some less than stellar reviews of Srams wheels. And seems like you could spend that money better elsewhere. Nice!
Bummer that it's a split rocker link though. Kinda defeating the purpose of a 142 rear end if it's not connected to anything laterally solid at the other side?
Colin McCarthy
12/12/2015 12:34 PM
csermonet
12/12/2015 3:11 PM
Colin McCarthy
12/13/2015 7:47 AM
stiingya
12/13/2015 12:36 PM
Chain stay bridge looks fine. But seat stay bridge is tiny. And the long stays themselves act as levers on the small bridge. Even if you rode it back to back and couldnt notice the difference your still putting more lateral strain on the bearings and increasing wear. Not as effective as welding the rocker if not casting it together. I know that's armchair engineering.
But the logic is sound and most bikes have moved past bolting rocker plates together.
Problem with new geo XL's is just that the market is small. Giant stopped sending XL reigns at least to the US this year. If they can't sell enough to make it worth while it's hard to think a new small company could?
Colin McCarthy
12/13/2015 1:05 PM
I agree with you that it would be better with a one piece rocker link, maybe they'll wise up and make one in the future. It would bring the price up but would be well worth it. Giant made the Reign with such a low stack that I'm not surprised they weren't selling XL's when there are plenty of other bikes out there with similar reach numbers and higher stack. They also didn't even bother bringing the XL Glory AL into America, which make me think they hate really tall people
Jonnie Asplin
12/11/2015 9:47 AM
shutter2ride
12/11/2015 9:58 AM
stiingya
12/13/2015 12:39 PM
Website specific says they are only assembling in the UK. Just like most bike companies, made in Asia. You can't get em cheap and also get them home made!
shutter2ride
12/11/2015 9:13 AM
csermonet
12/10/2015 11:01 PM
Colin McCarthy
12/10/2015 11:27 AM
gazelle11
12/11/2015 6:57 AM