First Look: 2016 Airdrop Edit 16

iceman2058

12/10/2015 9:20am

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.

Airdrop Edit Highlights

6061-T6 Heat treated alloy tubing
150-mm Horst Link rear wheel travel
27.5” (650b) wheels
Built for 1x drivetrains
Tapered headtube
142x12mm rear axle
Threaded BB with ISCG05 tabs
Replaceable dropouts
Replaceable hanger & brake mount
Frame only, frame bundles, and 3 full build kits available
Designed and assembled in Sheffield, UK

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.

Airdrop Edit Geometry

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.

Airdrop Edit Pro Build Kit

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.