- Now for this week's Pro Bike,
we're gonna be doing something a little bit different:
taking a look at the Icon Explore.
Now this is a bike I've been desperate to get my hands on.
I've seen videos online and some photos.
It's an incredible machine.
Now what this does, is takes people
who have got disabilities or riding difficulties
up into the mountains, out trail riding,
and enjoying mountain biking, just like everybody else,
with this incredible machine.
So, we're gonna take a look at
some of the details that are on this bike.
Some of it's mountain biking, some of it's
just crazy bespoke genius stuff.
Lets take a look, it's the Icon Explore.
(hard rock music)
Rear hub and-- hello mate! How are you?
Like it?
Now obviously it's a very dynamic machine
and you can see that it's got
two wheels up front, so it's really stable.
This huge fat tyre at the back
with tonnes of grip and tonnes of power,
which we're gonna get to, great steering,
but this is the really special bit about it, check this out.
It leans!
It's the only machine in the world that does this.
It's incredible.
This articulated front end means that this bike can traverse
bits of trail that a three-wheeled bike
for adaptive sports could never do.
Okay, lets start at the cockpit
and the things that we'll recognise.
Thomson stem and we've got Easton bars, they're havens.
MT7 rear brake, Magura obviously.
And then another Magura up the front, we've got an Evo 5.
We've a junction down in the middle here,
which splits so that brake lever there
is working both of the front 203 rotors
for some serious stopping power up the front.
Hope hubs on these 20 inch wheels, they're Pro 4's.
And we got Creepy Crawler Max's tyres on the front.
That's actually a 20 inch trials tyre.
Serious grip, so when you put on that anchor,
this baby's gonna stop pretty quick.
Now the rider being secure on the bike
is crucial to the design of this weapon.
So, it's got a really clever solution to that.
This Ride Engine kite surfing harness
holds the rider in place so they can't go anywhere else
other than right there, because they need to be
absolutely stable on this bike.
Rear wheel sits on a Salsa 170 hub
and a Surly fat bike rim, this huge tyre.
I do love fat bike tyres, they're amazing.
You're probably distracted by this
incredible 3,000 watt electric motor.
Drives this machine along at an absolutely incredible pace
with incredible grip with this rear tyre.
It's all held in place with quite beautiful CNC work.
We've got Pannier mounts at the back here.
So you can not only take yourself out into the mountains,
but you can take anything you
require whilst you're out there.
All of the gubbins for the battery and the electronics
is held in place here, and it's all surrounded
by this beautiful carbon fibre fender.
That's actually structural, you can see that going down
and it's part of the suspension system
with that Fox float, giving you
some really plush back end movement.
So, this is the man, Christian Bagg,
who designed it, made it.
Christian, how did you come up with this idea
and how long has it taken?
- I'll give you the short version of the story.
I was, I was on a back country trip with my not-yet wife,
sit skiing, cross-country sit skiing,
and every tree we went by,
and if you're familiar with the outdoors
there's plenty of them,
every tree I went by, I would tip towards it,
because that's where the snow's softer,
and I would fall into the tree well,
making for a long, long back country trip
and a very frustrated soon-to-be wife.
So I went back home to the drawing board
and thought, how do I get one ski to go do what a knee does?
And I solved it and I, so I made this articulating framework
and when I was making these bikes,
or starting making an offroad bike,
it dawned on me one day, after tipping into trees
with rocks around instead of snow,
that I could flip this thing, this framework that I made,
and allow me to sorta navigate the same kind of terrain
in the summer as I was in the winter.
- So you've obviously got a little bit of a technical mind.
You must have some background in this
that's not just like every day.
- Yeah, so I'm a machinist by trade.
When I broke my back, I was doing my apprenticeship
and I went back to work sort of about a year after
and I'm tall and six foot five,
and so immediately I had to make my own wheelchair
because my then chair didn't fit me.
So I've been sort of building and
solving problems my entire wheelchair life.
- So how long has this project taken you?
Because it's an incredible amount of work,
there's so many parts to it, they're ingenious.
How long does that take?
- Well it's been the better part of 10 years on the bike.
Probably the ski, closer to 15.
So it's really going from wheelchairs
to cross-country skis, to the bike,
to sort of everything, as you know,
everything we do, as a person who uses a wheelchair,
we're reliant on a piece of technology.
So I've been focused on those pieces
of technology for the last two decades.
So it really is the culmination of two decades.
- Well, so and in that time, there must have been
an awful amount of testing; what's its limit?
Because I mean it's so powerful.
I mean you said this one's even more powerful
than the one you're on right there.
I mean, what can it do?
- Well that's funny because when I started doing it,
it was to make it hike up mountains, to go with my family.
And then it got a bit too fast for hiking.
And then it was like, well, I could go test it
with a friend on a bike and we could sorta share that time.
And then one day I got the call from that friend
and he said, lets go out to the mountains,
and I'm thinking we're going on a test ride,
and I show up and there's 15 people
going for a mountain bike ride.
I'm on the weekly ride and I don't know it.
And I'm terrified because I don't know what its limits are.
And I go and, lo and behold,
you go mountain biking on this now.
And then just this week, a friend took me down
some downhill stuff here in Squamish and Whistler
and, again, didn't know, and, lo and behold, it works.
- Yeah cause I've seen you riding in Whistler
and it's going well.
- Yeah, it's amazingly fun.
- And what's next? I mean you must have
a pretty busy mind, so what's gonna
- Well it really is as far along as it need be
to satisfy all the things that I wanted it to do.
So it's getting it out into the hands
of everyone else to use it and experience
the things that I've been experiencing.
On two levels, people like yourself and like me.
But we also have a version with
a smaller rear wheel for like kids
or people with less ability but still
want to access the nature around us.
I love going fast and I think you love going fast,
but I almost love watching
the people who can't go fast experience that more.
It's kinda crazy.
- Yeah, that's crazy.
Well I've just thought, there are two of them.
I mean it would be rude not to, wouldn't it?
- I think it would be, yeah.
- Wouldn't it? Let's do it.
(hard rock music)
- Woah. (chuckling)
Oh, (beep). Oops, sorry dude.
I find it really hard.
My brain just wants to do the opposite thing.
Thanks for watching this amazing Pro Bike
on the Icon Explore.
Thank you, Christian for coming along.
If you wanna-- honestly dog, really?
If you wanna subscribe to the channel,
why don't you click on the logo just there.
And if you wanna see my Canyon Sender Pro Bike,
then click just here.
- And if you'd like to see more
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