- Probably yeah, all that sugar in your tea.
He has whipped cream, is it whipped cream?
On an earl gray.
- It's not whipped cream, it's a London fog,
it's London fog, it's frothed milk.
- Whipped cream on an earl grey, you (beep).
- I'll win you over.
(energetic hip hop music)
- Hey, I'm Matt,
and we're here at the 2021 Pinkbike Summerfield test
in Sun Peaks.
You might know We Are One Composites,
from their Canadian made carbon rims.
Well, with our field test being so close
to their headquarters, just down the road in Kamloops,
we couldn't pass up the opportunity
to get a hold of the new Arrival.
It's their 29 inch wheel bike,
which has 152 mils of rear wheel travel.
That's a little bit less travel
than the rest of the test fleet,
but there's more to a bike
than just the amount of travel that it has.
This is We Are One's first endeavor into building a frame.
The construction and the complete bike is assembled in-house
and uses upcycling to reduce waste.
All of the materials used for the frame,
including three types of carbon, aluminum links,
titanium hardware, stainless steel bearings,
and the rubber protection,
all come from within a 500 mile radius of Kamloops.
In our test,
Henry and I are riding the medium/large size,
which has a reach of 475 millimeters.
The head angle sits at 64 degrees
and the seat tube is a nice 77 degrees.
These numbers are fixed
because there are zero geometry adjustments.
The Arrival uses two short co-rotating links
that deliver 152 mils of travel.
Both of the builds feature a 160 mil Fox Factory 36
and a Float X 2 .
That's enough about the details,
let's get into how this bike performs.
- Okay. It's time to talk about
the We Are One and how it climbs,
let's get right to it.
I did the efficiency test on this bike,
it had the fastest time, it was two minutes flat.
Three or four seconds quicker than a couple other bikes,
but what is the story on the trail, on the single track?
How does this thing climb?
- Oh man, yeah, it's pretty dreamy.
It's very light, C2 bangles, a nice steep 77 degrees.
- [Mike] 32 pounds.
- [Henry] 32 pounds.
It does have somewhat short chain stays for a medium large
at 437, but I never found traction was a problem to get.
The low front end helped a lot here, and yeah,
the thing was just a mountain goat.
- Yeah, Henry?
- Similar, it, you know, there are so many times
that people say, oh, the smooth up sensitivity
with the mid stroke and the end strokes support.
- Yup.
- And it you know normally there's a collective I,
well I think the We Are One actually does
stake a good claim to that.
And climbing, it's nice because it's a bike that yes,
it does climb well seated and does grip,
but if you want to just hobby your way above the saddle,
to kind of really position the center,
it still has that platform.
- [Mike] Yeah.
- [Henry] It's, I, it really impressed me.
- So what about in the tight stuff?
We have longer bikes, we have bikes that are slacker,
how does this compare to those in the tight,
tricky climbing sections?
- Yeah, it's a little bit shorter.
So yeah, really easy to maneuver the bike
through tight switchbacks,
get all your timing over like little lunges
and stuff like that.
Yeah, really no issues here.
Really good seated position, and like Henry said,
you can get out of the saddle and you still get traction
and the bike's not going to squish
or squat out on you.
- [Mike] Right.
- So there's no adjustment on this bike whatsoever,
and so if you're fighting reach and you're a bigger guy
and you're always looking at the reach
versus the stack number,
and you need to get your bars up higher,
it is going to take away from the reach, eventually.
Even if you use a high rise bar.
- Okay.
So guys, before we move on from climbing,
it sorta sounds like this is an Enduro bike
for someone who doesn't want a bike like the Norco,
like someone who still cares about the climbing
and it isn't just about I'll get there when I get there,
maybe they want to do a big day of peddling.
- Yeah, I mean, I think that this,
of the five bikes we have,
this is actually quite similar to the Capra.
And in a lot of ways, I know this is going to
maybe turn a few toes,
but I think it's what the Capra wants to be.
- [Mike] Yeah.
- It has that small bump, it has that, I mean,
we're going to talk about it later,
but I can't really say enough good things
about the suspension platform.
I think it's a really, really cool,
- [Mike] The dual Link system used on the Arrival.
- [Henry] Yeah.
It manages to combine so many enviable traits
in one package, and I think for something short travel,
it uses its travel really well.
And it doesn't need to go to 165 mil,
such as the YT,
but still managed to give a comparable,
if not better feel.
- Right.
Matt, would you agree with that,
it sort of gets the most out of the travel that it has?
- Yeah, totally.
I mean, you mentioned peddling all day,
that's essentially what an Enduro race is.
So this thing is super efficient
and it's just really balanced.
The suspension does have all of those characteristics,
and I was really impressed from the get-go.
I knew these guys weren't going to miss a beat
when they built this bike.
- Okay, talking about how the We Are One gets the most
out of it's suspension is probably a good time
to move on to descending and,
I don't think I'm too out of line in guessing that
if the bike was the best climber of the bunch,
it's probably the least best descender.
Matthew?
- Yeah, you might think that, but you'd be surprised, yeah.
It went almost as fast as the YT,
just squeaked out by like a 10th of a second.
- [Mike] So it was the second fastest,
- [Matthew] Correct.
- on our timed course.
It was faster than the Norco high pivot bike,
it was faster than the GT high pivot bike,
- By three seconds.
- it was faster than the 170 millimeter travel Enduro
that we all liked so much,
that we brought as a control bike.
Why do you think that is?
- [Matthew] Well, it's a pretty efficient bike,
it's really snappy.
When you pick this thing up, it's super light as well.
When I got on this bike,
it was really important to make sure that I set it up with
a 23 to 25% sag.
- That's, I'm going to stop you there.
That's interesting because that's actually a bit less
than we see on some Enduro bikes,
that are 30 to 35%, and the bike has less travel.
In my mind that should equal a rougher, slower ride.
So tell me why it doesn't.
- Well, once I got my own bar and stem on there,
and I was comfortable with the cockpit set up,
yeah, this thing really came alive.
I felt a little bit more at home,
and that's when I laid down the fastest time.
And it was just so efficient in the travel,
it's crazy, you know,
to use that 152 mil travel against all the other
big bruiser bikes out there,
it just stays up in the travel
and has support when you want to pump through corners
or over like an upcoming obstacle,
really lightweight to pick up.
And then again, yeah, that lightweight,
easy to throw into corners.
- All right, so what would your favorite cliche terms be
for the We Are One's handling,
would you say it's playful
and nimble and all of those things?
- It's definitely nimble, it could be playful,
but it's also pretty planted too.
- Yeah, well that was my next question, actually.
I'm gonna, I'm gonna toss this over to Henry,
can this bike really hold align like the bigger travel,
more relaxed, longer bikes can?
- [Henry] It's, uh, because I think we've been
waxing lyrical about how impressed we are
with the suspension system.
You know, if there's any way I could transplant that system,
the geometry of the Transition,
that would be a really interesting possibility.
Because it would help us isolate things a bit more.
- I think it offers a lot,
I think that it tracks really well,
considering how efficient it is,
and I think it's handling is very good, regardless of that.
- [Mike] Yeah.
- [Henry] You know, talking about cliches,
this thing can turn on dime,
it's really, really impressive.
- So both of you guys have mentioned how efficient
the bike uses its rear suspension.
You mentioned that the relative lightweight of the bike
is 32 pounds for an Enduro-y type bike,
that really helps.
It's a little steeper, a little quicker handling.
What I want to know is, on the trail,
does it feel as solid as a bike
that weighs five or six pounds more?
Is there any flex,
is there any weird things going on that you were,
you could tell?
- [Matthew] I know, so like flex can be subjective,
but yeah, this thing just felt really nice.
Never had any weird chatter
or like moments where it stepped out over choppy terrain,
and then it's also really quiet,
like the chain never slapped.
I was pretty surprised because there is nice armor there,
some rubber protection, but it's not in an massive amount,
and it does go through the seat stay
and the chain stay, in sort of a tight spot.
But yeah, really quiet ride.
- Next up, we're going to talk about
component spec on the Arrival.
I'm going to start with you, Matt, what did you like?
- Well, this is the We Are one Arrival bike,
it obviously comes with a bunch
of the We Are One components,
like the bar and stem, but the union rims, man,
these things are nice and stiff, but vertically compliant.
I know a lot of those things get tossed around, the
nomenclature and, yeah.
- That's the cliche of cliches, Matt.
- Exactly.
- But I mean, if it applies, it applies.
- But these things really work,
they're pretty bomber and they're,
they really suit this bike.
The other thing that I really loved
is the Eagle drivetrain.
I'm a SRAM shifting fan boy,
and I just love the, the low leverage of that,
and the snappy feel,
- Yeah.
- really light action.
- There was another interesting component spec on this bike
and that's the Magura brakes,
we don't see those a lot on bikes.
What did you think of them?
- [Matthew] Well, you don't see them a lot,
but I do because they're on both of my personal bikes.
- There we go.
- Yeah,
they do have some drawbacks, but I would put these as a pro.
I think they just have incredible power, modulation,
and I really love the light lever action
and it just bites the rotor really quick,
but it's in a controlled way.
- What about the cockpit, Henry?
- You know I've said this before,
I really, I really like everything,
I, I really respect and admire bike.
- Yup.
- But the handlebars.
- I liked them, why didn't you like them?
- Well, the peculiar shape,
I felt that the back sweep came really late.
I felt,
- Your hands end up in the same place though,
they're just a different shape.
- [Henry] No, they don't. No, they don't.
- Yeah, they do.
- [Henry] No, they don't.
- I have some on my bike at home.
- This is what we had on the GT as well.
Great bike,
- Yep.
- just rein it in with the kooky handle bars,
for goodness sake,
and it might be that I need to ride it for a month
and get used to it.
I'm not adverse to that,
but hopping between these bikes,
it definitely muddied the water.
and I think only when I swapped
it on a Contoso handlebars,
was able to isolate some of the good
and bad characteristics of each bike, to a greater extent.
- [Mike] One last thing,
you made a note about the SDG seat post,
which worked okay, but it didn't go deep enough
into the frame, did it?
- [Henry] Yeah, you prefer,
I don't know if necessarily the collar
to bottom length of the SDG seat post
being exceptionally long,
which I kind of doubt,
it felt like the frame could do with a slightly,
slightly worn, certain depth.
- Okay.
- It's not the end of the world.
I think it will probably be fine for most riders,
but it might just be a small grievance
of some others.
- Okay.
All right, onto models and pricing.
We Are One is a relatively small company.
- Yeah.
- They're making the frame just down the road
in Kamloops and accordingly,
they're offering just two different specs.
Ours, well we're slumming right now, 8,900 bucks.
What do you think Henry?
- That's a lot of money for a bike,
I mean also, there's something else that is cool.
I believe Matt, you were telling me,
that every part is sourced
within how many mile radius of here?
- [Matthew] 500 mile.
- [Henry] 500 miles.
- [Mike] That's, that's neat.
- Is this, you know, 50% better than the Transition?
The Transition being six grand.
- Yeah, so that's,
- No.
- That's a fair thing to say, for sure,
but I think there were a lot of 8, 9, $10,000 bikes
that are made overseas somewhere.
And there's nothing wrong with that for sure,
but with this bike, you're getting something different.
The story behind the bike is pretty amazing.
- [Henry] No, you're absolutely right.
I'm not saying that this bike isn't worth $18,000,
I'm saying it wouldn't be worth $18,000 to me.
- That's fair.
- I think it's a lot of money.
- Yeah, definitely.
You know how much Tim Horton's that would buy?
That's like at least two weeks worth of Tim Horton's.
Okay. It's time for pros and cons, and the big pro for me,
look at this thing, it is gorgeous.
This is the kind of bike that you're done riding it,
you lean it against a wall and walk away,
and I turn around and look at it,
just for a couple of minutes and be like, mm.
- It is, by the back of your hand, good looking.
- Right.
- Is a very good looking bike,
and that's important if you're spending,
we know it is a lot of money,
but I kind of think they've done it right, in some ways.
Yes, it is expensive, but it is gorgeous.
It's got boutique parts on it,
it's not that they're just throwing anything on it,
it's got like,
- It has a story behind it.
- It has a story behind it, I think that's really cool.
There were other things I like about this bike, too.
- Yeah.
- You know, it shows that you don't need
huge amounts of travel to have a great performing bike,
and I think it also probably highlights how,
sometimes large amounts of travel, papers over the cracks
of a slightly inferior suspension system.
- Right.
Would you also say that a pro might be that it is
relatively versatile for being at a,
you know, Enduro-ish bike?
- I think, it is.
I mean, I think it, basically,
this is like a really good, kind of shining example,
of what the mid travel 29 could be.
- Yeah.
- It climbs, it descends, it does it all.
For like that kind of quiver killer,
which is a kind of phrase
that sort of dropped out nowadays,
but it genuinely holds a, holds a light to that.
- Yeah, okay.
Okay, so that's the good stuff that we liked,
it's time to talk about
maybe some things that could be improved.
Matt, the bringer of bad news.
- Ooh, yeah, we want to be really critical.
We could point out, maybe,
the low front end and handlebar combo.
We talked about it quite a bit,
but it is something you could change.
So, kind of a con for now.
The other one would be,
also on the fence with pros and cons,
there's no geometry adjustment.
- That's a good thing in my books.
- Well, I mean,
if you want a longer chain stay on the smaller sizes,
there's only one option.
It does grow for the larger two sizes.
The other would be the price again.
Yeah, the barrier to entry here.
Of course, carbon only, but
- Made just down the road.
- Yeah, it's amazing,
it's, it's pretty incredible,
but it's yeah, a lot of money.
So that's going to hold some people back on this one.
- Okay, I think that's, that's fair.
All right. We're going to wrap this up with who
the We Are One Arrival best suits,
and the terrain that it best suits.
So let's start with the rider.
Henry, what type of rider would this bike, do well for it?
- [Henry] I think this is like a trail bike on steroids,
- [Mike] Yeah.
- [Henry] It's got some contact with the Enduro stages,
They've got that eager US youngster,
that's killing it at the moment.
It's obviously a really capable bike,
but I think somebody that basically,
probably is never going to ride a chairlift.
No, probably that someone's very happy pedaling everywhere,
and wants something that is going to basically, yes,
have the security to get done the gnarly stuff,
but also not completely dull out
the slightly less rough stuff.
- So Matt, what type of terrain
Best suits the We Are One Arrival?
Where would you like to ride this bike,
if you were going riding right now?
- Man, I would really like to ride this bike in Suquamish,
where you have a lot of ups and downs,
big days on the pedals,
but it's still going to handle all those hard G outs.
It's going to be nice and fun through the corners,
lots of jumps.
Yeah, it's a stiff, but still forgiving bike.
- All right. That is it for, We Are One's brand new Arrival.
Make sure you guys subscribe to the channel.
So you don't miss any more videos,
including the Huck to flat, the impossible climb,
and all sorts of other stuff,
and we're going to see you in the next video.