First Look: The Berria Bravo is a 28mm Travel Hardtail
Berria is a Spanish brand with a very diverse catalog, ranging from road machines to all-mountain e-bikes. At the forefront of their innovation is their XC lineup, showcasing their newest developments in frame design and manufacturing. For the 2024 model year, Berria is unveiling the new Bravo, their XC-race hardtail, which now sports a unique soft-tail design.
Meant to split the difference between a fully rigid hardtail and a true full suspension, the Bravo offers a small amount of chassis flex that is meant to isolate the rider from some of the harshness of the racetrack.
Meant to split the difference between a fully rigid hardtail and a true full suspension, the Bravo offers a small amount of chassis flex that is meant to isolate the rider from some of the harshness of the racetrack.
Berria Bravo Details
• Intended use: XC
• Carbon frame
• 28mm of "Softex" suspension
• 14mm flex Tibia seatpost
• 100mm fork
• 66.5°-68° head angle (size dependent)
• 999g or 1270g frame (BR/Normal frame)
• Price: €2,399 - €5,599
• www.berriabikes.com
• Intended use: XC
• Carbon frame
• 28mm of "Softex" suspension
• 14mm flex Tibia seatpost
• 100mm fork
• 66.5°-68° head angle (size dependent)
• 999g or 1270g frame (BR/Normal frame)
• Price: €2,399 - €5,599
• www.berriabikes.com
Sporting a 100mm fork, the Bravo is generally a very conservative XC hardtail, save for the unique chassis tech. Reach numbers range from 397-465mm, and the head angle progressively steepens from 66.5° on the XS to 68° on the L. While size-specific head angles are fairly unheard of, my best guess is this was a decision made to try to keep the wheelbase of the bike fairly tight, to maintain a livelier character as the bikes grow. The seat tube angle ranges from 74-75°, further cementing the non-radical nature of the geometry.
No damper, just a little bit of flex to take the edge off.
While the exact inner-workings of the Softex flex stay system aren't quite clear, the design does revolve around the separation of the front triangle, chainstay, and seatstay assemblies, allowing for some movement between them under impact load. The point of deflection is at the toptube-seattube junction, and appears to be a sealed pivot, if you could call it that.
Painting the picture for where the Bravo fits in.
Interestingly, the seat post itself plays into the rider-suspension system of the bike, with the house-brand Tibia post offering 14mm of deflection to further take the edge off. We've seen plenty of takes on this design in the past, and they certainly do improve comfort when you can't leave the saddle through rough terrain. With more and more XC athletes choosing dropper posts, I'm curious to see how many folks end up keeping the flex post mounted, but time will tell.
Key data: Nm forces ranging from "low" to "high."
There are three colors and multiple build kits to choose from, with prices ranging from €2,399 to €5,599.
Builds have a nice mix brands and budgets, erring on the inexpensive side. Berria offers a custom builder program for folks who want to take the a-la-carte approach.
Bravo 6
Bravo 5
Bravo 7
The Bravo has already seen action under the Berria Vittoria UCI Factory Team at the Leogang XCO. With very low frame weights and the potential added benefit of the flex system, we'll be keen to see how the bike gets on this season.
For more photos and graphics, check out the high-res gallery here.
For purchasing options and more information on the Berria Bravo, head over to Berria's website.
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Half of the suspension is realistically removed from most of the bikes bought.
Softtail yay, cable tourism nay.
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And even worse:torque is not force. Not at all.
Newton=force, meter=distance. Its a basic measure for torque.
If you have to plug in the amount of force put down over a distance it doesn't make sense that your result would be calculating force.
It's close, but we're a bit to go from here.
www.pinkbike.com/photo/24019312
The MTT suspension by BMC looks like a nice idea but they ditched it from their hardtail and kept it only on the gravel, so maybe they assume the "large" mtb tires are enough of a small suspension and you don't MTT.
To sum up it seems tricky to do a good small travel suspension while keeping the simplicity of a hardtail.
Take a look at this gravel : www.cyfac.fr/cyfac-vainqueur-du-concours-de-machines-2022
It's a custom bike for the "Concours de machine", a "contest" between French bikes builders.
It's got front and rear suspension made of carbone blades but still require pivots.
Even for carbon we are talking orders of magnitude below an hydraulic valve damper though.
The energy dissipated by the frame is so much less than from the tires - and so vastly below that of a "real" damper - that it's almost detrimental to the conversation to discuss energy dissipated within the frame.
That said, a spring with minimal damping can still have value. A frame with linkage suspension and a damper would still feel awful with road tires, showing the value of typical tires, which are springs with little damping - and the effect would be even worse on a fully rigid chassis. Similarly, softtail frames can have a more favourable ride feel than hardtails.
By contrast, 12" fatbike tires or a long-travel chassis with a blown damper would be nearly unrideable, showing there's an ideal amount of minimally damped travel.
The basic suspension formula is:
• Texture is handled by minimally damped suspension, preferably with minimal unsprung mass (ex. tires).
• Obstacles (ex. roots and rocks) are handled by linkage or telescoping suspension.
• Contours are handled by the rider's body movements.
Softtails deal mostly with the first, and a little of the second. They can be a good solution for some use cases.
Valid reason to down-size from a Large to get a 'Down-Country' 66.X° head angle on the Small.
The flexy-squishy Seat Stay junction is like the BMC - URS Gravel Bike....
Dario DiGiulio: "Hold my beer, watch this..."
-W
For
A
Gravel bike
Will it help if I add a 5mm insol to my shoes?
Seriously though…is beyond stupid.