First Look: Last Bikes Glen and Coal - One Platform, Two Bikes

Last Bikes might be most recognizable for their extremely lightweight, yet expensive carbon frames, however, they also produce aluminum bikes that focus on workmanship and quality while maintaining a respectable weight.

The new aluminum Glen and Coal platforms are built with the same front and rear triangles, but use specific links to achieve 150 and 165mm rear wheel travel, respectively. This means that riders could theoretically switch between two styles of bikes by simply swapping the linkage and fork.

These frames weigh 3.1kg and are designed for aggressive trail and enduro riding. That’s about 1kg heavier than the Tarvo, which they claim to be the “lightest enduro bike in the world,” but it’s also about €2000 less.

Last also includes a personal and unique touch when purchasing their bikes that goes beyond choosing customizable parts. When collecting a bike from their German headquarters, an accompanied test ride is offered to fine-tune the setup and balance the suspension.



Frame Details

Although Last builds all of its carbon frames in Germany, the aluminum frames are welded in Taiwan and then finished by a five-axis milling machine close to home.

Both Glen and Coal are rated for category five gravity riding and have been put through EFBE testing. This means that they receive a six-year warranty, three-year crash replacement and a 50% discount on any needed frame components.

The shorter travel Glen can be set up with a 150 or 160mm fork. All four frame sizes can be set up to function as a full 29er or run with a 27.5" wheel outback. As for the Coal, only the two larger-size frames can use a full 29” setup. The fourth can be sent to 170 or 180mm.

Last also look to have sorted out all of the finer details, such as the necessary down tube and rear triangle rubber protectors, A BSA bottom bracket with a clamped ISCG tab and captive washers on the trunnion pivot bolts.

In terms of colors, there is the industrial brushed raw aluminum and an anodized matte black finish as well as a dark blue powder coat option.



Suspension Design

The Glen and Coal platforms run on a single pivot rear triangle, but a small push rod and rocker link control the leverage ratios.

Last does things a little differently by calculating the progression from the sag point to the end of the travel. They state that the Glen has a 19% progression that increases linearly whereas the Coal is slightly regressive at the start, giving an 18% overall progression.

Wheel size-specific links, allow for a choice of either the 27.5 or 29” rear wheel without changing the geometry or suspension kinematics by any significant degree.

Another interesting aspect is the rider-specific anti-rise that increases with each frame size. The anti-rise is tuned to 100% when resting at the 30% sag position.



Geometry

Each one of these frames has specific geometry that is tailored across the four sizes, which are aptly depicted by the riders’ height. This extends beyond balancing the reach and the chainstay length per size, but also the seat tube angles as well — the larger the frame, the steeper the tube angle gets in order to help prevent taller riders from ending up with their weight too far towards the back of the bike.

Depending on the fork of choice, the head angle on the Glen is appropriately slack for a modern trail bike, at 64.4° with a 150 fork or 63.9° with a 160mm fork. The seat tube angles hover around 78° on average. As expected, the longer travel Coal’s angles are about 1° slacker with the longer 170 and 180mm forks, as are the seat tube angles.

The reach on the smallest Glen frame starts at 440mm. That number jumps up 30 mm per size except for the 195 frame size topping out at 535mm. As mentioned those chainstays vary across the size list. Starting at an quite short 430mm on the two smaller sizes, the rear centre length stretches out to 438 and 447mm on the larger frames.

One of the constraints with using the same front and rear triangles with different suspension components is that it often affects the reach. This is the case with the Coal as the reach is 10mm less per size than the Glen.

Tall riders have been asking for higher stack heights, and both of these frames see significant jumps as the frame size increases. The two larger sizes of the Glen are built with stack heights of 643 and 661mm. Those two numbers are further increased by 8mm on the Coal.





Pricing and Specs

Last is a smaller boutique operation that produces 500 frames per year and offers a semi-custom component list using its bike configurator. Suspension from Fox, Rockshock, EXT and Intend can be part of this package too.

Pricing starts at €2499 for the frame only but suspension and rolling chassis packages are available in addition to complete bikes.

We are looking forward to spending some time on Glen over the next few months and weighing in with our thoughts in a long-term review.

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Reviews and Tech First Looks Trail Bikes Last Bikes Last Coal Last Glen