Bike Check: Andy’s Focus Spine C SL
The Spine falls into the trail bike category in Focus’s mountain bike line, with 120mm travel front and rear and 27.5” wheels. Partway between a xc race bike and a long travel all-mountain bike, the Spine has enough travel to have fun wherever you’re riding without losing it’s ability to climb and ride flat or rolling terrain. This is good, as there’s very few ‘down’ trails in Victoria that don’t contain their fair share of climbing. Focus has built the carbon version of the Spine with wet winter friendly internal cable routing, reliable Fox and Shimano parts, and a KS LEV internally routed dropper post. The Spine C SL also comes Fox’s remote adjust so you can switch from descend, trail, and climb modes on the shock and fork with the same bar mounted lever.
Mid-travel, and mid sized wheels keep the Spine feeling at home wherever you take it
The Spine C SL has a ton of remotes and levers, but internal routing keeps the frame looking clean
Focus nailed the graphics with a chevron pattern running from the headtube to the dropouts
Focus hit a number of small details, like a built in chainstay guard
Suspension comes via a Fox Float Performance Elite, with remote adjust
Internal cable routing tucks nicely into the frame just behind the head tube on the Spine
Fox 32 Float FIT 4 keeps the front end running smooth, and with nicely colour matched graphics
There’s a whole bunch happening on the bars, but it gives you considerable control within fingers reach
Internal routing, which can be adapted to 1x/2x/3x, dropper, electronic, or whatever else you want
Focus set the Spine C SL up with Shimano’s ultra reliable XT parts throughout
Andy’s added XTR trail pedals, for extra platform with a very low profile
Another look at the fancy chevron pattern down the top tube
The Spine C SL rolls on DT Swiss wheels and Schwalbe Rocket Ron’s
