Ultra budget super versatile carbon frame 5 Year Review. My go to quiver killer with 145mm of travel and 27.5 plus and 29 wheel options. Delivered from Shenzhen China with care, and also seen as the Heller Barghest in the US market. Started life as a 29+ P8 and has gone through a lot of identity changes in the past few years.
This bike has been my go “quiver killer” for the last 5 years since purchase in 2017. It is by far my favorite shoulder season and winter bike here in the Northeast US. It has been set up as a 29+ with its original P8 seatstay and rocker, a XC 130 29er, a 3.5″ fat bike and lastly a true 27.5+ 145/150mm travel bike. Overall it has been my best preforming bike with only a few minor issues regarding the headset and lower shock mount bolt. It is built strong and to last, with many build options and a pretty standard 200mm shock.
When the leaves start to fall and the trail seems to disappear, I always set this bike up with true 3″ tires on 45mm id rims set to 12 / 15 psi. The hidden roots and rocks magically disappear and climbs may be slower than a 2.2″ 29er, but I have endless traction to get up them in a lower gear.
My original build of this bike was when it was sold as an Icanbike.com “P8” and I paid $600 in late 2017 to get this shipped to the US from Shenzhen in a really well packaged frame box that was delivered 7 days later. Melody from Ican kept in great contact and sent pictures of the frame packaged when it shipped along with the shipping information.
The frame was listed as a 27.5 plus frame, however the insane 60mm bottom bracket drop almost required me to build it as a 29+bike. I ordered a Manitou Machete 120mm 29+ fork (easily ABS+ tunable) and mounted a used Fox Float Evol rebuilt shock off of a Giant Trance. I laced up a pair of Stans Flow 29mm internal width rims with DT DB spokes to Koozer 72 P.O.E. hubs and mounted a 3″ WTB Ranger tire up front and with a 2.6″ tire in the rear. The original build was under $1500 with M7000 SLX brakes and drivetrain, and a trans X 100m dropper post. This came in one grand under the Heller Barghest build of the revised version frame that appeared a few months later. I ended up with pedal strikes galore, but this was still the best riding bike I have ever owned, pushing my 140mm Franken-Turner RFX 26+ build off the bike stand. I started with a 140mm 29+ fork to solve some of the issues.
Of course I wish I went to a P1 27.5+ build right off the bat after some pedal strike induced falls on some Northeast slow but chunky XC, but ended up taking other paths in the build.
In 2018 I had enough with low bottom brackets and contacted Ican when they released their P1 frameset. It turns out that the front triangle and chainstay were the same, and they contacted their engineers to see if swapping the seatstay and rocker for under $200 shipped would work for me. I did have to grind down some areas of the rocker to clear a Evol shock, a revision I think Ican remedied later (the rocker was beefy so this was no concern to me, and I epoxied the grind to prevent future wear). With the new setup, I was eager to set my bike as a 29″ XC rocket for the summer. At that time I was also building a 2010 Gary Fisher Rumblefish for myself, which (spoiler alert) as a headtube to headtube comparison would beat out this frame on XC flow. The Ican P1 did perform well, granted I installed a handlebar remote to switch between climb trail and descend on both the front fork and the rear shock. Both bikes were set up with 2.35″ Bontrager Team XC rear tires for an equal comparison. I used a Terrene 2.8″ McFly Light in the front of both bikes.
Since the Rumblefish owned the summer speed runs, and winter boredom started to set in in 2019, I decided to build The now P1 up as a big and beefy winter bike with 3.8″ DHR Minion tires up front that measure 3.5″ and 3.25 Vee’s in back. This setup worked surprisingly well and let me even loan out my 4.8″ tire fat bike to a friend so we could take both bikes on epic beach rides.
The Machete surprisingly fit the 3.8″ DHR tire on 50mm Mulefut rims with no problem. A DHR would not clear. The rear limitation was actually chain clearance, and was maxed at 3.25″ on an Easton Arc 45 I build up to an XT 36 P.O.E. hub for this trip. It handled epic winter beach rides without a problem.
Since I still had a fat bike, this mid fat setup had limited uses and the modification bug was biting. In 2020 I wanted to try something new and went “Mullet.”
I really liked how the mullet worked and built a front 35mm i.w. wheel with 2.6″ Bonty XR2’s front and rear. I found an amazing deal on a 27.5 27 iw Industry 9 wheel and couldn’t pass it up. Eventually I rebuilt a 130mm “Lyric” (29+ Pike) fork to stiffen up the front since this bike liked to fly around the corners. It ended up with a modest 67 degree head angle and 13″ BB height, but for some XC, the tire combo and long front center would end up with me washing out the front, and was not too confidence inspiring.
So for the final build, I solved some of the issues that the bike had at first. I rebuilt a 150mm Pike 27.5+ fork to add 10mm more front travel for added traction and feel without changing the axle to crown length. I was able to re-shim the fork and add a Debonair spring shaft to tune the ride. I increased the tire knobs to a beefy Terrene Chunk Light 27.5 x 3″ I had bought on clearance. I thought the added tire “Chunk” would really slow me down, but the added traction on fall leaves and hidden roots and rocks actually made me faster while the leaves were down.
In the rear, I rebuilt a Monarch and added a Debonair chamber to add some feel to the shock in colder weather. I should have done this much earlier since I found out that the Float Evol really wallowed down in the mid travel while the debonair was more linear with more mid support. I no longer felt the need for remotes and that allowed me to focus only on the correct gearing. Most of the trails I ride are carved out by glaciers, and undulate uphill then downhill over 30 second intervals. You are always turning, changing gears, and earning all of your descents. Having a supportive shock is a must, but it needs to have small bump compliance to keep you from washing out in a root laden turn with oak and pine leaves hiding the muddy grease beneath. I found a winner in this now obsolete monarch design.
And so, 5 years and 3000 trail miles later, this is my favorite all around bike of all time. it will not win any XC races, but will keep me smiling on the trails all year long. To see the final build specs and geometry, click here:
