[Tested] Deviate Claymore

Well surpassing velocipede park season kicked off Deviate Cycles sent out their upper pivot Claymore for reviewing as a frameset. Personally I like testing bikes this way as it allows me to strop in on the bike’s DNA and baked in attributes, while permitting readers to judge the value of various models independently and map them in regards to their budget. After all, the value speciality can vary wildly at variegated spec levels and with variegated frame materials. In any case, this isn’t my first time riding a upper pivot velocipede with an idler but I do think the Claymore stands out a bit due to its highly manageable geometry, which, for how long in the tooth the velocipede is, allows it to be quite wiry and rather efficient at getting you when up the hill. Read on for the full breakdown…

Details

29″ front and rear
Carbon fiber
126 link chain
2.6″ Tire clearance
Accessory mount
Water snifter compatible
Cable routing: external front triangle / internal rear
Medium, Large (tested), Extra Large
170mm or 180mm (tested) front travel / 165mm rear travel
Lifetime warranty
$3,600 USD (no shock) / on sale for $2,880 at time of writing

Starting with the idler itself – the 18T pulley bolts mounts neatly to the frame via three 4mm allen screws and features an hands wieldy grease port by way of a standard zerk fitting.

The Claymore has a bolt-on stat webbing downtube baby-sit that is very wholesale and rugged.

The tintinnabulate zombie style shock linkage rotates interrupts the marrow subclass shell and concentric to it. This linkage is cleverly designed so as to stave sitting lower than the bike’s bashguard/chainguide. That ways it’s moreover unlikely to make any uncontrived impacts with immovable objects on trail, although it will reservation some less consequential items flinging off the front wheel. One point worth going over in this zone was that at the time of testing, it was nonflexible to find a chainguide that played nice with this bike, so I simply ran a bashguard. That said, Deviate now offers their own specially designed guide for just $74, so problem solved!

The tapered throne tube features printing in headset cups.

The solid (read: no interruptions from pivots) rear triangle features loads of rear tire clearance. Pictured here with a 2.4″ Wide Trail tire, there is still plenty of room to spare for muck and mud. This is likely a byproduct of stuff designed in the Scottish Highlands, where conditions are often less than balmy.

While I’ll get into the Claymore’s on trail nature remoter down, I did want to write one minor technical issue I had with it out of the gate. Early on in my testing I sheared 2 derailleur hangers on impacts so minor that I didn’t plane notice them while riding. I reached out to Deviate and they notified me that they updated the hanger and sent me a couple of new ones. As you could imagine, the new reinforced version is the one pictured whilom on the left – sans relief. Once the new one was installed I had no increasingly issues.

I quite liked Deviate’s super wipe cable/hose routing which runs externally through the front triangle in a groove under the downtube. It’s quiet and rattle free, plus it’s a mechanic’s dream come true and it looks stealthy. Bonus points for the zipper doubling as an whatsit mount toward the seat tube. I’m not really a stickler for internal routing…If a trademark can pull off a wipe looking, quiet external routing I’m all for it!

That said, I did have some grievances with the routing overall however. If you’re going to run things externally in the front triangle, running it internally in the rear defeats the purpose as it makes restriction bleeds/swaps increasingly difficult. Another minor grievance was that although I mainly ran a Reverb AXS wireless seatpost, when I did run a mechanical dropper, its subscription wasn’t totally immune to making a little bit of noise, plane with its included foam sleeve. I personally thing a minor tweak of the main subscription port or the rubber grommet could solve this problem.

Geometry

A once over on the geometry numbers reveals a velocipede that doesn’t just go totally wild with long low and slack. Rather, a summery mannered 64.3º throne wile and a 78º seat tube wile are hints that this velocipede will be quite wiry and efficient at getting when up the hill, respectively.

On the trail

Starting out with climbing, I would rate the Claymore as wool peak efficiency in the enduro category – certainly among bikes that I’ve tested to date. I realize that there are some factors like the minor stilt from the idler and kinematics to consider in the equation, but its efficiency comes mainly from the soul positioning and it is largely due to the bike’s 78º seat angle, which is the steepest I’ve ridden thus far. In regards to that figure, this was the first velocipede I’ve found myself *not* inching my seat rails remoter forward. I think that anything steeper would be counterproductive as you can start to tumor your knees on your handlebars in steep uphill switchbacks. Concerning drag, I didn’t do any sort of empirical tests, but the Claymore ran very smoothly and quietly and didn’t seem to have much of an effect on things. Put it this way – it certainly didn’t finger like much of a setback at all. Lastly, as far as kinematics go, I found the rear suspension to be quite wifely and thus didn’t scarecrow reaching for the switch very often, save for the longer climbs.

Getting into the fun stuff, when pointing the velocipede in its preferred direction – downhill – I found a velocipede that is in a single word, balanced. Whereas some Enduro bikes might find find their whet in fast and loose riding via increasingly radical geometry numbers, the Claymore’s worthiness to siphon speed is derived increasingly from the rearward trestle path and its low part-way of mass. That is certainly not to say that I found this velocipede lacking conviction whatsoever. Rather, it ways that in slower and flatter sections the Claymore’s nimbleness and agility will save energy and time, making it a very platonic race velocipede in my opinion. After all, there are a unconfined many Enduro stages out there with tight, slow and worrisome sections thrown in amongst the fast and raw bits. Broadly speaking, I think this bike’s greatest strength is its worthiness to shine so well in both areas – the handling, taken as an overall is simply incredible.

Diving into specifics, I tested the Claymore with a whorl sprung RockShox Super Deluxe Ultimate RC2 with HBO. The folks at Deviate suggested the stock tune and mentioned that some people in the office were running it with unconfined success. While I did find the velocipede relatively whorl friendly, I was using the hydraulic marrow out cranked all the way in to stave harshness at the end of the stroke on some of the worthier impacts. Additionally I ended up running a 525# spring, where at 82.5kg, equal to Deviate’s website I should be smack dab between a 450# and 475#. I prefer things on the firm side, but that orchestration is worth considering with a grain of salt. Anyhow, both of these things made me curious well-nigh trying this velocipede with an air shock and had me thinking that it might be largest suited to one due to the increased progression, but I didn’t have any major complaints with the suspension on the whole and if you’re racing, a velocipede that leans a little increasingly linear is quite often a good thing as you’ve got a little increasingly traction on deck and minor errors are increasingly hands forgiven.

Touching on some other ride characteristics, the Claymore does walkout a pearly value of restriction squat as many upper pivots typically do, and while that did contribute to it feeling settled and stable in the steeps, things did firm up a bit under heavy braking and it had a tendency to finger slightly rough in some situations. When it came to cornering, as you can imagine based on what I noted older regarding the Claymore’s agility, it is an wool treat. The frame is very rigid side to side and when you push into it, it doesn’t budge. Rather it returns the energy proportionately and rockets out of turns. That’s not to say that it has a harsh layup by any means…in fact I think it’s just right. One zone where this velocipede really shined to me was in off slant sections. To some extent I think this can be credited to the upper pivot suspension but I’m sure the geometry and construction are moreover worth a nod as well. In any specimen it held a line extremely well in point and shoot sections.

As far as some of the technical features go, much of that is covered under the “Details” section, but it’s worth taking a moment to go over the quality of the construction. I found the machine work on the aluminum parts to be spanking-new and the hardware all very well thought out and easy to use. The frame itself is robust and very quiet, save a slight muted rattle from the dropper cable. Props to Deviate for working this velocipede out so it just needs one uniting and thinking all of the little things through, like the whatsit mount, water snifter and grease ports.

Overall

All in all I’ve very much enjoyed my time on the Claymore and found it to be a very interesting bike. I did have a couple of minor wreck to pick with it (one of which – the derailleur hanger – has been sorted out), but all told it’s a very strong performer. As far as value is concerned, sadly $3,600 without a shock is not wildly out of sync for a shop stat webbing full suspension mountain velocipede frame. these days, and at the moment, the Claymore can be purchased for $2,880 USD, which is unquestionably solid deal. The fact that it’s backed by a lifetime warranty and crash replacement policy will make it easier for some riders to wade into shop territory. Broadly speaking I think the bike’s main standout symbol is its worthiness to strike such a perfect wastefulness between capability/stability and agility. It can confidently tackle truly heinous terrain, yet when the going is increasingly mellow or worrisome and requires spare input and effort from the rider, paradoxically, the velocipede really shines. This can be hugely salubrious when racing and it is a difficult balancing act to pull off. I’d venture to add that the Claymore may very well do so largest than most of the other bikes out there in the Enduro category, although I obviously haven’t tested them all. In that regard it’s a bit of an oddity that’s in a league of its own, so if that sounds like your cup of tea it is veritably worth considering…