Road Test
ELEPHANT NATIONAL
FOREST EXPLORER
BY PATRICK O'GRADY
➺ NEW MEXICO'S Sandia Mountains
are not the Alps, and I am definitely not
Hannibal.
But I did spend part of late spring and
early summer herding an elephant along
our local mountain trails — an Elephant
Bikes National Forest Explorer (NFE), to
be precise — and if we never made it to
Rome, well, neither did Hannibal.
Actually, if Hannibal had started his
expedition with 650b-wheeled Elephants
instead of the four-legged variety, he might
have made better time crossing the Alps
and had a shot at seizing the Eternal City.
The National Forest Explorer is intended
for traveling light and fast, whether you’re
commuting from home to work, doing a
long out-and-back on your local dirt roads,
or bikepacking into the high country to see
if there’s any prime real estate on the other
side.
“Think long, unsupported days in the
saddle,” said John Speare of Elephant
Bikes, where Glen Copus puts his 25 years
of experience to work building bikes in
small batches in the South Perry district of
Spokane, Washington.
The Forest Service-green NFE starts
out as a double-butted True Temper front
triangle mated to a 4130 chromoly rear
triangle, with a lugged crown and low-trail
fork drilled for internal wiring in case you’d
like to rock a dynamo hub up front. Three
sizes are available — small, medium, and
large — and my large NFE frame was said
to hit 4.5 lbs., with the fork adding another
2.25 lbs.
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ADVENTURE CYCLIST
f e b r u a r y 2 016
SPECIFICATIONS
ELEPHANT BIKES NATIONAL
FOREST EXPLORER
3. Head tube angle: 73°
Price: $1,385 (frame and fork
only)
6. Standover height: 835mm
Sizes available: Small, Medium,
Large
8. Fork rake: 65mm
Size tested: Large
10. Wheelbase: 1056mm
Weight: 25.1 lbs. without pedals;
frame weight, 4.5 lbs.; fork
weight, 2.25 lbs. (with 290mm
steerer)
11. Frame: Double-butted True
TEST BIKE MEASUREMENTS
1. Seat tube: 58cm (center of
spindle to top of seatpost
clamp)
2. Top tube: 57cm (actual, center
to center; 58cm effective)
4. Seat tube angle: 73°
5. Chainstays: 435mm
7. Bottom bracket drop: 70mm
9. Fork trail: 45mm
Temper front triangle with
4130 chromoly butted rear
triangle. Guides and stops for
fully housed cables to brakes
and rear derailer; three sets
of bottle mounts; rear rack/
fender mounts
12. Color: National Forest green
(RAL 6021)
13. Fork: Nova brazed and lugged
crown, drilled for internal
dynamo-hub wiring. Disc tab,
low-rider/fender mounts, Nitto
Mini mounts
14. Handlebar: 42cm Ritchey Comp
Curve, 73mm reach, 128mm
drop
15. Stem: Ritchey Pro 4 Axis,
100mm, four-bolt clamp, +84/6°
16. Shift/brake levers: Gevenalle
GX
17. Brakes: Avid BB7 Road
mechanical discs
18. Rotors: Avid, 140mm rear,
160mm front
19. Front derailer: Shimano CX70
20. Rear derailer: Shimano Deore
Shadow 10-speed
21. Crankset: Shimano 105,
175mm, 50/34T
22. Cassette: Shimano 10-speed,
ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG
12-36, 12-13-15-17-19-21-2428-32-36T
23. Bottom bracket: SM-BBR60
24. Seatpost: Ritchey WCS,
27.2mm, 400mm
25. Saddle: XLC Comp 100
Series
26. Headset: Ritchey Comp
27. Chain: SRAM PC-1051,
10-speed
28. Hubs: Shimano Deore, 32h
29. Rims: WTB i23 Frequency
30. Tires Schwalbe Thunder
GEARING IN INCHES
3450
11
76.5 112.5
13
70.6 103.8
15
61.2 90.0
17
54.0 79.4
19
48.3 71.0
21
43.7 64.3
24
38.2 56.2
28
32.8 48.2
32
28.7 42.2
36
25.5 37.5
Burt, 650b x 2.1
Contact: Elephant Bikes,
2001 E 17th Ave. Spokane,
Washington 99203,
elephantbikes.com.
Built up and ready to ride, with a pair
of Shimano PD-M540 pedals, my NFE
weighed 25.9 pounds. It’s something
of a pygmy pachyderm, even with the
signature biplane fork crown and wishbone
seatstay that the press kit says “makes the
bike an Elephant.”
It certainly got a lot of attention down
at The Bike Coop, where a customer
hollered, “Wow! Cool bike!” and everybody
wanted to know where I was riding it.
Somewhere and soon, I thought, catching
the forest-green fever.
Without any extra weight that wasn’t
attached to me, the NFE was rarin’ to go —
so much so that I had to keep a close eye
on it during a shakedown cruise on some
rolling, swoopy New Mexican singletrack
peppered with sharp stones and cacti.
Some stodgier bikes will correct your
errors, or at least resist them, but not this
one. If you want to get into trouble, the
NFE will be happy to oblige. Not that it’s
scary or sketchy — it just has more jump to
it than your typical 29er.
The bike’s geometry and 650b wheel
size have their roots in randonneuring,
according to Speare. The 73-degree
head-tube angle with 65mm of fork rake
anticipate a small load carried over the
front wheel — less than 15 lbs. — while the
high-volume, supple 650b tires available
from companies like Compass and
Schwalbe suit the type of riding Speare
said an Elephant customer has in mind,
especially if he or she rides a small or
medium.
“The load slows down the steering a
bit,” Speare said. “Pretty much all of our
customers run it with a front rack. Without
the load, it’s super lively and requires a
lot of attention to steering input, which, if
you’ve been riding mostly 29ers lately, will
feel pretty foreign, I imagine.”
It was definitely a change of pace. If a
29er sometimes feels like a road bike with
fat tires, the 650b-wheeled NFE feels more
like a mountain bike with drop bars. Just
for fun, I took my old 26-inch hardtail
out on the same circuit and felt many
similarities, right down to overcooking
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some of the same corners.
Speaking of cooking, my NFE
arrived spec’d out like a meal at a Pacific
Northwest restaurant specializing
in regional foods. Speare included a
matching green porteur rack from
Haulin’ Colin (Seattle); an Ozette XL
rando bag and Jr. Ranger panniers from
Swift Industries (also Seattle); a Pika seat
bag from Revelate Designs (Anchorage),
and Gevenalle GX brake/shift levers
(Portland, Oregon).
This marked my first outing with
the Gevenalle levers, and I found them
an impressive alternative to the usual
integrated shifters. Like bar ends, they let
you mix and match Shimano’s 10-speed
road and mountain components, but with
the advantage of being able to switch
gears while riding on the hoods. They
don’t look as elegant as STI or SRAM’s
DoubleTap and take a bit of getting used
to, but you can quickly hit the 34x36
without having to reach for the drops,
leaving you free to focus on cleaning that
S-shaped rock garden that just appeared
dead ahead.
With everything attached, I put five
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ADVENTURE CYCLIST
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lbs. in the rando bag, added 10 lbs. to
the panniers, and stuffed my 2.6-lb. Fly
Creek UL2 into the seat bag. Then I set
about climbing some of the neighborhood
singletrack.
As Speare said, putting weight over
the front end settled the NFE down a bit.
But the handling remained responsive —
cornering at speed and in close quarters
was a breeze, and I was even able to
trackstand while searching for the best
line through a rock-studded section of
trail.
“Yeah, once you get a feel for the
handling, you can pull a U-turn on
most trails,” said Speare. “This is not a
traditional touring bike — it’s more geared
for endurance/long days, dirt-road, selfsupported, minimalist bike camping.”
Indeed, four NFE customers finished
the grueling 2015 Oregon Outback, a 365mile, self-supported tour of that state’s
dirt-road boonies. Bikeportland.org
publisher Jonathan Maus wrote about his
experience with the Outback, and it made
Hannibal’s alpine expedition look like
one of the National Lampoon “Vacation”
movies.
“That’s a good illustration of the
scenarios this bike was designed for
— super-long, hard days with lots of
climbing,” said Speare. “Minimalist
packing is essential to optimize the
comfort of where you’re spending your
time — in the saddle.”
Frankly, I didn’t spend nearly enough
time in the NFE’s saddle. After reading
Maus’s account of his odyssey, I felt even
less like Hannibal (and nothing at all like
Odysseus). My outings were confined to
the greater Albuquerque metropolitan
area, my meals were slightly elaborate
affairs cooked on a five-burner gas stove,
and I slept in my own bed instead of
under the stars.
What can I tell you? I’m a sluggard
who enjoys his comforts. But if I were
just a little more adventurous, you
might catch a glimpse of me herding an
Elephant over the mountain to see what I
could see.
Patrick O’Grady has written and cartooned about
cycling since 1989 for VeloNews, Bicycle Retailer &
Industry News, and a variety of other publications.
To read more from Patrick, visit maddogmedia.
wordpress.com.