COAL BICYCLES 84

Coal Bicycles is a relatively new player to the mountain bike world, manufacturing a selection of steel mountain bikes in their Nottinghamshire, England workshop. With a background in BMX racing, founder Gavin White wanted to create bikes with his own vision, and having made 500+ steel mountain bike frames and counting, it’s safe to say he knows how to manufacture them. We managed to pay Gav a visit at the Coal Bikes HQ and take their first full suspension enduro mountain bike – the Coal 84 – out for a ride at one of their local spots. Let’s dig into the details and talk about the first impressions of how it performed.

THE LAB

Frame and Features | The Coal Bicycles 84 is a steel full suspension mountain bike that they’re keen not to pigeon hole into one particular category, although it wouldn’t be too farfetched to suggest it’s a modern enduro bike. It can be run with a pair of 29” wheels and 160mm of rear wheel travel, or a mixed wheel (mullet) setup with a smaller 27.5” rear wheel and 170mm travel; both of which are designed to run a 170mm fork. This switch between wheel sizes is made easy thanks to the flip chip on the lower shock mount, which alternatively offers “high” and “low” geometry settings for each wheel size.

There’s clearance in the rear for a 2.6” tire with mud clearance; compatibility with up to a 200mm rotor; boost rear axle spacing; a threaded bottom bracket; room for a large water bottle within the front triangle on every frame size; stealth dropper cable routing and neat bolt-on external cable guides that run along the top of the downtube.

Suspension | The rear suspension is delivered by Coal’s TLFS (Twin Linkage Floating System) co-rotating dual-link suspension design, which uses a Reynolds 853 and 4130 steel front and triangle connected by two machined 6082 aluminum rockers made by fellow british manufacturer Rideworks. Gavin is proud to say that all of the materials in his frames are sourced from within a 100 mile radius of their HQ. These rockers connect to the shock on both ends to create a fully floating shock. Coal selected this system to obtain the kinematics they desired as well as the overall frame characteristics – the compliant steel to offer improved comfort and grip, with the stiff aluminum links to stiffness and precision in the suspension. Opting to go for their TLFS design meant Coal was able to get the shock positioned low and centrally within the frame, in a bid to keep the center of gravity low and the 84 well balanced.

The Coal 84 is highly progressive with 45% progression in the 29” version over the shock stroke, increasing fairly linearly through the travel. Anti squat numbers hover around the 105% mark at sag in the climbing gears, which should give a reasonable pedaling platform. And the axle path begins with roughly 4mm of rearward movement up until sag, beyond which it starts to return forward until it ends at around 10mm forward of the start position – this axle path is quite comparable with a typical Horst Link bike.

Geometry | Coal selected the geometry on the 84 with the mindset of “able to hang with the best in the EWS but also be fun and agile at the bike park”. They offer the 84 in sizes Medium to Extra-Large as standard, though it may be possible to request custom sizing since every frame is made to order. In the high position of the flip chip, the 29” wheel configuration has a 64.5-degree head tube angle; 78-degree effective seat tube angle; 440mm chainstay and 18mm bottom bracket drop. A size large has a 475mm reach paired to a 616mm stack height; and a resulting 1265mm wheelbase. These are quite typical numbers for a modern enduro bike, aside from a relatively low stack height which may demand a high rise bar for steeper terrain.

Build Options | Every Coal Bicycles frame is handmade to order. They offer five paint color options as standard with two decal color options, with the ability to have full custom colorways for a surcharge. Standard price for the frame with a choice of RockShox Deluxe Coil or Air shock is £2,800, which can be upgraded to an Ohlins shock for extra. Coal will work with you to select and source components if you’d like a full build, with varying prices depending on your selected build.