The Big Air Team is Bergamont’s their team issue bike for light DH and serious playing...
Frame: Single pivot quality all round
The back end of this frame is a single pivot arrangement giving 170mm (6.7in) travel on a RockShox Pear 3.3 Air shock. Build quality is high, although our test bike had a slightly off-centre head tube gusset on the crossbar. There are loads of machined aluminium pieces at each end of the rear triangle, carrying the chainstays around the BB and the pivot mounts. There's a teardrop gusset where the OnePointFive head tube and top tube meet, plus transfer gussets and one between the seat tube and crossbar. Despite its 17.2kg (38lb) weight, this bike won't come apart in a hurry. The down tube is flattened on one side to allow the pivot and BB area to do their jobs as well as accommodating the down tube. The thin walled tubing is there to keep the weight down. Another nice touch is the pinch bolt on the rear bolt-through axle - tighten the axle with an Allen key, then pinch it in place. The axle and disc mount assembly can be moved by around an inch and fits to some lovely machined dropouts.
Ride: Tight handling suited for the technical trails
Simply put, the Big Air Team rides like a hardtail with 170mm (6.7in) of travel. And that's a good thing. Handling is spot on, feeling very light and nimble through technical trails while taking shocks. It's a confidence-inspiring ride and opens up a lot of lines that you wouldn't normally consider - large jumps to rocky landings are no longer cause for concern. Things start to get a little shakier on high speed technical trails, but then it's not really designed for that: this bike's huge forte is its confident and stable stance, making it a pleasure for terrain parks. Jumps to manuals, big kickers, rhythm sections, ladder drops and wall rides all feel comfortable and it's dif? cult not to get carried away when you look down and see that everything is bombproof. So the question is, are you sure you're going big enough? Because the Big Air Team can take it.
Equipment: Awesome SRAM and RockShock spec
Our bike was specced as the 'Team'. It translates as a different paint job and better components. All components are from the SRAM clan, so we have RockShox Totem 2-Step forks, Avid Code disc brakes, SRAM X7 9 speed mech and cassette and Truvativ bar, stem and cranks. Red Alexa rims on Tattoo FR Pro front and Comp rear hubs finish off the package. The only problems were an issue with the freewheel not disengaging easily enough, which was later remedied by loosening the freehub body bolt, and the valve and lever position on the air shock. The Schraeder valve sticks out horizontally so it snags shorts easily, and the gate on the shock defaults to 'lock out' so we just got in the habit of checking it at the start of each run.
