This is the bike that Chris Kovarik took to 5th place at the Willingen Downhill World Cup in 2006. The course was super short and fast with massive jumps, the winning time was under 2 minutes. It was one of the first in the trend towards bike-park motorway style tracks. Ahead of its time maybe? Kovarik and the Intense team decided to run short travel bikes, with single crown forks from Manitou!
The bike was a prototype, hand built by Jeff Steber at the Intense factory in California. In his own words “Basically I used the main triangle of the 6.6, Uzzi rear end (larger tubes) with 6.6 dropouts, geometry is M3 ish, travel will be in the 8.5″ range, weight 7.5 – 8 lbs, some extra gusseting.” The bike later went into production as the SOCOM.
It’s a very cool bike, but by modern standards the head-angle looks insanely steep at around 66degrees. Combined with 26″ wheels, it’s hard to imagine it could have been stable at speed. If you ever needed proof of how burly a racer Chris Kovarik is, this is it!
UCI DOWNHILL WORLD CUP – WILLINGEN, 2006
1st Steve PEAT Santa Cruz Syndicate 1m 58.30s
2nd Greg MINNAAR TEAM G-CROSS HONDA +1.17s
3rd Gee ATHERTON Giant / TEAM ANIMAL +1.25s
4th Nathan RENNIE Santa Cruz Syndicate +1.69s
5th Chris KOVARIK MS-INTENSE FACTORY-RACING +2.09s
| Frame: | Prototype Intense 6.66 FRO. Easton Aluminium. 8.5″ (216mm) travel |
| Rear Shock: | Manitou Swinger 6-way, Coil. |
| Fork: | Manitou Travis, coil. 180mm travel |
| Pedals: | Easton Flatboy |
| Grips: | ODI/Intense lock on |
| Cranks: | Shimano Saint |
| Chainring: | e.thirteen 40T |
| Chain Device: | e.thirteen |
| Rear Mech: | Shimano XTR |
| Cassette: | Shimano 9-speed |
| Brakes: | Shimano Saint 203mm |
| Handlebars: | Easton Alloy |
| Stem: | FSA DH300 Alloy |
| Seatpost: | Easton Alloy |
| Saddle: | Plateau |
| Hubs: | Shimano Saint |
| Rims: | 26″ DT Swiss FR2350 |
| Tyres: | 26″ Intense FRO DH 2,35″ SR50 Compound. With some treads removed |
| Weight: | Estimated 16-17kg |
