First Look: Carbon Wasp Truffle - A UK-Made Carbon Downcountry Bike - Pinkbike (2024)

Frame Details

The Carbon Wasp Truffle began life as a 140mm travel Horst-link trail bike, but over the years has evolved into the 120mm travel flex-pivot bike you see today. Now, a 185mm x 50mm trunnion shock damps forces from rear wheel displacement, and bearings are used at each pivot point (with the exception of the flexing one of the seat stay, of course). The leverage ratio starts at 3.1, finishing up around 1.9.

Granted, the Truffle is not remarkably different to its immediate predecessor, with many of the changes coming down to a matter of how the frame is actually made. One of the key changes, however, is the addition of size-specific chainstay lengths and the UDH.

The frame also sees a storage hatch on the downtube. The front triangle can be made sans cable ports at the headtube, for those partial to thru-headset cable routing, but designer Adrian doesn't foresee that being a popular option. Cables aren't guided through the front triangle, but they are guided through the stays.

The Truffle has a claimed frame weight of 2.1 kg (size large). Though respectably light, it's not as light as some of the XC-dedicated flex-pivot frames from the mainstream brands. That said, it's likely no bad thing for this frame to be carrying some additional carbon, given the slack(ish) head angle and the extra confidence it may endow its rider with.

Geometry
There are four frame sizes on offer, each with a majority straight seat tube at 76°, with plentiful insertion depth for the fitment of long travel droppers. Reach comes in at 430mm, 455mm, 480mm and 510mm across the S-XL range. The 120mm fork is supported at a head angle of 65.5°. While Adrian Smith, frame designer and fabricator, provides a recommended chainstay length range (over 10mm) for each frame size, the final length is to be decided by the customer.

Carbon Wasp is able to offer this premium custom geometry feature with some degree of economy thanks to the way in which the swingarms are made. Instead of a multitude of molds for a multitude of rear-center lengths, there is a single mold only, with the chainstay and seatstay ends extended to a maximum possible length. After the part has been made, Carbon Wasp are able to machine away the superfluous carbon material and drill the pivot location to make a swingarm of the desired length.

Also helping to keep costs down is the way in which Carbon Wasp make their prototypes. Before investing in a very expensive metal mold, they 3D print epoxy tooling boards to use as more cost-efficient molds, as they figure out exactly what geometry they want to commit to. Such a mold is somewhere in the region of a tenth of the cost of a production-worthy mold. Still, the epoxy tooling boards do produce rideable prototypes - the bike seen throughout is one such frame.

Pricing & Availability

Despite Carbon Wasp's efforts to keep the price of prototyping and manufacture down, realistically, a UK-made carbon frame is never going to be that affordable. The Truffle frame, sans shock, will set you back £2,600. With a Cane Creek DB IL Air, the price is bumped up to £2,950. Carbon Wasp do not yet offer a complete build.

The frame (one size, initially) is set to undergo the TRI-Test at EFBE in Germany and as a result, Carbon Wasp will be offering a lifetime warranty with repair or replacement as necessary. The brand welcomes customer enquiries now.

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Reviews and Tech First Looks Downcountry Bikes Carbon Wasp Carbon Wasp Truffle