A peek at what’s inside. Removing a panel at the base of the frame allows access to air pressure and rebound.

Adjusting air pressure or adjusting rebound means removing the panel at the base of the frame. Adding volume spacers means removing the entire shock. Removing the shock happens to mean removing the cranks first. All the while, the shock will remain tethered to the bike with the remote lockout cable unless you remove it, but then the cable will have to be replaced because it kinks and shreds the moment its pinch bolt is tightened. Furthermore, although there’s a sag meter on the frame, resetting the shock’s indicator o-ring and checking for bottom-out is like a game of Operation. And that’s just during setup. For as long as you own the bike, your chosen shock must feature a valve that’s accessible at its trunnion-mount end. For now, that’s limited the RockShox Deluxe, Super Deluxe or DT’s R535 only. And you’ll need the remote versions if you want to ever use a lockout without removing that base panel. You can’t use a coil, you’ll probably never have a Fox or a Push or a Cane Creek. And on top of all that, the minute you bolt a bottle and cage to this bike, those pure, beautiful lines are somehow spoiled, and it almost looks like a normal bike again.



But it’s worth it. The Bold Unplugged Volume 2 is more than just a pretty face. Really, it’s anything you want it to be. The flip chips hidden in the dropout pivot simultaneously lengthen the rear end and drop the bottom bracket in four incremental settings and, because long and low go hand in hand, it’s an elegant, useful feature. The angle-adjust headset runs on modular keyed cups, providing 1.5 degrees of adjustment that never creaked on me. Or, the non-offset option can set you right between the two. There’s also accommodation for a soon-to-be-perfected integrated KS dropper post, but I chose a more reliable traditional option.



Unlike the full-enduro Unplugged Volume 1, the Volume 2 offers a trail-worthy 150 millimeters travel out back and is optimized for 150 or 160 up front. Given the frame’s low stack height, 160 is the way to go. I experimented with each of the flip chip’s settings, but that took longer to find a preference. I like short chainstays in this travel range, and 432 millimeters is pretty short given they still fit 29x2.6-inch tires. I spent a day on flat, twisty, pedaly trails where this bike might well be expected to feel as wrong as a shopping cart in a 7-Eleven, but that high and tight setting suited it just fine. On my home trails, though, I prefer to keep it low. I assumed I’d end up in one of the middle two settings, but to my surprise, the longest and lowest (443-millimeter stay and 30-millimeter drop) seemed to suit what I feel this bike is best at, which happens to depend on the uniquely time-consuming shock setup.