Less than a year after Big Ben broke cover, helping put Faction Bike Studio on the forefront of the 32″ mountain bike revolution, the Quebec brand is back with a new project. This time, the team is setting its sights on gravel.
Faction recently teased a new drop-bar frame on its social media feed. Like Big Ben, it looks to use tubing joined by metal lugs. While Big Ben was all metal, Faction looks to be using carbon fibre tubes between the lugs for its gravel machine.
Other details? The bike is built around TRP’s wireless Vistar group. It has a rigid carbon fibre fork and a very negative stem. Looking a little closer, the paramaters printed near the rear axle reveal 435mm chainstays and a max clearance of 2.1″ tires, confirming this is probably not a drop-bar mountain bike.
All details, or at least as many details as Faction ever releases about its projects, will be revealed next week on April 13th.
Faction recently partnered with Canadian endurance racer Andrew L’Esperance. So maybe we’ll see this beast at a race soon? Perhaps the start line at Sea Otter next week?
Faction isn’t the only Canadian front of the 32″ gravel push. On the opposite side of the country, Geoff Kabush recently rolled out of Sam Whittingham’s Naked Bicycles headquarters on Quadra Island with a titanium 32″ gravel rig of his own. He could also be bringing what is surely his first metal bike in decades to Sea Otter next week.