First Look: The Aper KOMPace Has "Rising Pivot Technology"
High-pivot bikes continue to prove popular, but most only provide a truly rearward axle path (their main selling point) during the first part of the travel. As the suspension gets deeper into its stroke, the axle starts to move vertically, and then often forwards slightly towards bottom-out. In theory, this reduces the ability to absorb square edge hits when already deep in the travel.
Aper is a startup bike brand from Greece, founded by two mechanical engineers, Nikos Lamprou and Giorgos Kostopoulos. Aper is Latin for wild boar, which roam the Erymanthus mountains in Greece near where the company is based. Their first bike, the KOMPace, is a 160 mm travel enduro bike with something they call "rising pivot technology".
Suspension
The axle moves up and backwards throughout the whole travel range, thanks to a virtual pivot point that moves upwards and back as the suspension compresses. One of the most extreme high-pivot enduro bikes we've seen recently is the Forbidden Dreadnought, which has an axle path that moves backwards by 30 mm over its travel range. The Aper's suspension system has 45 mm of rearward movement over its 160mm of vertical suspension travel.
It achieves this with a main pivot that slides on a linear rail (somewhat like Yeti's Switch Infinity system), which moves up and back at a roughly 45-degree angle as the suspension compresses. A link connects the rear triangle to the mainframe and helps define the axle path, which curves upwards very slightly as it moves back and up through the travel. The 60 mm stroke shock is mounted such that it slides parallel to the rail, minimising rotation at the shock eyelets. An idler pulley moves with the swingarm, minimising pedal kickback and keeping anti-squat levels in check.
The rear axle path (orange) is far more rearward than most high pivots, maintaining a path that approximates the fork's trajectory (blue). On this scale, most bikes would have a rear axle path that looks almost vertical, then slightly forward towards full travel.
According to Aper, the leverage curve is regressive (there's more leverage over the shock at the end of the travel than at the start). This will likely require an air shock with plenty of volume spacers to work well.
Aper doesn't have anti-quat or anti-rise numbers to share just yet (I'll update this article when they do) but it's safe to say that the anti-rise (the effect of braking forces to compress the suspension) will be on the high side.
Geometry
Aper is offering three sizes, each of which has two BB height/frame angle options thanks to a flip chip which is located on the lower shock mount. Aper says the flip chip can be used to run the bike with a 27.5" or a 29" rear wheel. However, the geometry chart shows a 9 mm difference in BB drop between the settings, and a 27.5" wheel is 19 mm smaller in radius than 29", so the geometry won't be fully compensated. So, it's sort of a halfway house between a geometry adjuster and a wheel-size compensator.
According to my calculations, with 29" wheels in the low mode, the BB height will be around 348 mm; with a 27.5" rear wheel in the high mode, it will be around 338 mm. Both fall within the normal range.
The aforementioned flip chip.
Construction
The frame is CNC-machined in-house out of 7075 T6 aluminium (somewhat like Pole's bikes). It features a bottle mount with a claimed one-litre capacity, SRAM UDH hanger and an anodized finish with a choice of colours. The rail system benefits from a maintenance grease port. The claimed weight is 4.080 g (S1, w/o shock). Maximum seatpost insertion depth is as follows: S1: 345 / S2: 356 / S3: 367 (mm) *values valid for most shocks. [These values are higher than those published in the press release and the original version of this article].
The Aper KOMPace is available to preorder now at aper-bikes.com. The price is €3,469 for the frameset including headset, seat clamp, chain device, thru-axle and idler, for orders placed before December 31st.
Author Info:
Must Read This Week
Over to the next person....
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellipsis
Also Pinkbike comments: Not that innovation! Boooooooo! This bike I’ve never even ridden is going to suck! And it’s ugly! Boooooooooo!
Shouting out the 303 roots just goes to show how far back in the day the Aper crew has been kicking it in the MTB scene!
After clocking serious hours on the early prototype (we're talking over a year), and hearing tales from riders way better than me (some of them rocking it at the tippy-top elite level), I can tell you only good things. What really blew my mind wasn't just the downhill performance (which you'd expect from a rig with these characteristics), but the almost complete lack of pedal bob.
Even on the beat-up proto – left filthy on purpose after a ton of abuse – the rail system held up like a champ. No wear and tear to stress about. (FYI, the current rail system is a different one with beefed-up specs.)
The proto I had in my hands weighed in at about 17.5 kg, packing 170mm 36ers, FOX X2, GX Eagle, Saints, EX511's, DD tires – and no carbon bits except for the handlebars. AFAIK the claimed frame weight is a tad lower than 4kgs, including chain device, rear axle, headset, and seat post clamp.
Oh, and on a personal note, everything down there is A-OK, even after a few wipeouts! "
Nah, I reckon even big ballers will be A-OK, stop fretting folks
Even with an airshock you have stuff it with spacers and pressure to work, but turning it into a pogo stick.
I glad those days are mostly over.
I really would like to see PB doing a full review for KOMPace, I am curious if they'll agree with me.
Personally, I don't like high pivots much - I had a couple and found the suspension traits made a big impact on how they rode.
It might be daydreaming, but it seems like it would weight less and be easier to tune. It just would take some imagination to go against historical stay layout.
My next invention is to solve pedal feedback with a freehub clutch, perhaps like a Classified hub, that is only engaged when the cranks are rotating. So, bluetooth crank rotation would send a signal and the freehub would engage. Of course only solves pedal feedback when coasting.
"However, the geometry chart shows a 9 mm difference in BB drop between the settings, and a 27.5" wheel is 19 mm smaller in radius than 29", so the geometry won't be fully compensated. So, it's sort of a halfway house between a geometry adjuster and a wheel-size compensator.
According to my calculations, with 29" wheels in the low mode, the BB height will be around 348 mm; with a 27.5" rear wheel in the high mode, it will be around 338 mm. "
If so, that's a seriously long bike. I suspect chainstay at sag is 440mm ...
That's where the name comes from.
getyarn.io/yarn-clip/76be178e-d106-49f0-a7a0-2c1a45847367