POLYGON COLLOSUS N7

BIG HIT, LOW PRICE

Words by Drew Rohde | Photos by Sourpatch & Brian Niles
Video by Brian Niles/Treeline Cinematics

SPONSORED CONTENT

Typically, when we get new bikes for our Dissected series, the price tags are high enough to make even us bike industry veterans squirm. In recent months, however, we’ve seen more competitive pricing across the board, which means budget-minded brands like Polygon will be working harder to drive prices lower for mountain bikers looking to maximize their fun to dollars-invested ratio. Enter the Polygon Collosus N7, a 170mm, 29-inch wheeled enduro bike with an impressive sticker price of just $1,999. Let’s dig into Polygon’s value-minded enduro bike’s spec; six-bar suspension platform; geometry and intended rider.

As with all of our Dissected Features, this is not intended to be a long term review or endorsement of a product but is instead a chance for our viewers and readers to get a deep dive look into some of the newest tech and products in the mountain bike space. We thank Polygon Bikes and Bikes Online for the opportunity to create this feature and getting you some valuable beta on this affordable enduro bike.

THE FRAME AND FEATURES

Suspension Platform – Built using Polygon’s 6061 ALX triple butted and hydroformed aluminum, the 170mm Polygon Collosus N7 features their IFS six-bar suspension platform. Independent Floating Suspension or IFS is designed to offer a very neutral and predictable feel throughout the travel. Extra energy was spent controlling the wheel path, pedaling efficiency, and separating input forces from braking and pedaling.

FRAME | Polygon gives the Collosus internal cable routing for all in the front triangle, and in the chainstay for the rear derailleur, but opted to run the rear brake outside the chainstay. Frame protection features include a nice shuttle pad on the upper portion of the downtube, as well as an armor plate near the lower portion of the downtube for rock and bash protection. Other frame protection includes a ribbed chainstay protector, although we wish it was a bit longer for more coverage up near the chainring.

GEOMETRY | Polygon says their Collosus enduro bike line is “Designed to be tough.” With thoughtful choices around spec selection and geometry, the Collosus does appear to be geared towards the burly end of the spectrum. Available in four sizes from Small to XL, we’ve opted to review the size Large after this Dissected feature is complete. The Large comes with a 480mm reach, short 435mm chainstays, an overall wheelbase of 1,266mm and a stack height of 634mm. The angles sit right in the sweet spot for enduro rigs with a 63.5-degree head tube angle and 77-degree effective seat tube angle.

SPECIFICATIONS | Brands have their work cut out for them when it comes time to spec a bike that’s designed to be ridden hard, but needs to hit a certain price point. Concessions always need to be made when price points are set, and for that reason you’ll see some interesting options that are designed to blend performance with value. A base level RockShox Zeb 170mm fork boldly leads the Collosus down the trail, while a RockShock Super Deluxe Select + handles the hits out back.

Drivetrain duties are a mixed affair with Shimano’s Deore 12-speed shifter controlling a Deore M6100 derailleur. The KMC X12 chain moves along a Sunrace CSMZ800 11-51t cassette. Managing the speed of this enduro machine are a set of Tektro HD-M735 brakes with 4-piston front and 2-piston rear caliper clamping onto 203mm rotors. Rolling spec on the Polygon Collosus comes in the way of in-house alloy double wall 35mm, 32-hole rims that are wrapped in 2.6” Vee Tire Co Flow Snap tires in their Tackee compound.

Cockpit and touchpoint spec features Polygon’s in-house alloy bar and stem with a Tranz-X dropper post with either 150mm or 170mm of travel, depending on frame size. A WTB Volt saddle keeps riders perched in comfort.

THE WOLF’S FIRST IMPRESSION

As with all our Dissected Series episodes, these are not intended to be long-term reviews or endorsements as they are made with the support and collaboration with the featured brand. That said, during our filming and creation of the feature, we do get to spend enough time on the product to form some initial opinions, which we’re especially happy to share in this case.
We spent a solid week staring at the Polygon Collosus N7 in our office before heading out for our film days. During that week we stared at the paint, lines and spec and pontificated on how it would perform, what the weak links would be and how it would compare to bikes we normally ride, which are admittedly, ridiculously priced for most hobby-level riders.
For those unsure about building a consumer direct bike, we’ve made a pretty detailed video here, but BikesOnline.com also has a great library for their Polygon builds. Setting up the suspension was a straightforward task, with 27% sag out back and setting the fork to the open position with about 2.5-5 PSI over the factory recommended settings for my weight. Getting the brake levers to feel right was a little more time consuming and still, they’re not quite “Home.” But to be fair, I spend countless hours aboard Shimano, SRAM and to some extent TRP brakes, with almost zero time on Tektro’s, so that’s to be expected.

Once on the trail, the Polygon Collosus N7 felt rather comfortable and in-line with the other bikes we’re regularly testing and riding, albeit with a $5 – $7,000 price savings. Climbing this 40.8-lbs machine left us with some mixed feelings initially. The Tackee rubber could be causing some drag, as it doesn’t look like the suspension was the culprit, but nevertheless the end result was a bike that proved to be a bit slow and heavy feeling on the steeper climbs. Of course, it is a heavy bike that has prioritized durability and descending confidence. On lower-grade climbs, traverses and flat, pedally trails, the bike rides well in its travel and doesn’t bob excessively at all. There’s a pleasant amount of pedaling support in fact. It’s only the steepest of climbs where we began looking for the reason this bike had us huffing. Our long-term review will hopefully have us solving this.

When it came time to drop into the descents, it took even less time to get comfortable with the Collosus. In fact, audio clips from our video will likely display the impressive performance of Polygon’s affordable enduro machine. Right away the IFS six-link suspension platform won us over, as did the performance of the affordable RockShox dampers. Time will tell if the Select + level shock will last, but that’s what the long-term review will be for! The fork offered a nice progressive ramp and we may end up adding a volume reducer to the rear to better match the fork, but even with some four to five-foot drops to flat landings, we weren’t hitting bottom of the rear travel, which is exciting as we plan to push this bike harder and farther.

For our filming of this segment we headed out to one of the steepest, rockiest and most-demanding tracks nearby. It’s broken wheels, holes in tires and rider’s skin with ease. While we noticed some squirm coming from the rear end on the hardest compressions, possibly from the rear wheel or the tire casing. We’ll work to solve this, but we rolled everything out with speed and confidence just the same. This bike is fast, composed and simply rips, leaving us very impressed by its $1,999 price tag. The fact we spent the day charging some very rugged and steep terrain without a single issue, loose bolt or otherwise is impressive. When we sit back and consider that we did all that on a bike that costs a fraction of what other bikes that we’ve tested, and broken, on this same hill, it’s hard to nitpick the little spec issues.

We look forward to our long-term review of the Polygon Collosus N7 and will do our best to keep you informed in the coming months. For now what we can say is, if you’re looking for an affordable, big-travel 29er that doesn’t have to be the lightest and best pedaling rig, but will allow you to charge hard and fast down some steep and rugged trails, you should head to bikesonline.com and check out their current deals.