A social leak and a bit of sneaking around Australian bike sites has revealed the new Intense Sniper. Slack ‘n’ long 100mm 29er XC stunner.

>>> Intense Cycles drop prices AGAIN with full builds now from £2,699

Intense Sniper need to know

• 29in wheels
• 100mm travel at both ends
• 10.2 kg claimed weight
• 67.5° head angle
• 468mm reach on L, 490mm reach on XL
• Designed around 50-60mm stem
• 760mm width bars as standard
• No front mech, 1x only
• Specced with a dropper post
• Water bottle mounts
• Direct sales

The pic above was posted on to Intense boss Jeff Steber’s Facebook page. Along with the caption: “New Favorite toy ,something new with serious INTENSE DnA , always pushing the boundaries”.

So what do we know about this mystery machine? Not much. But enough. Enough to know that this bike seemingly takes the ‘modern XC’ Giant Anthem and Specialized Epic style bike concepts and applies a typically Intense progressive no-holds-barred attitude.

Yes, you can fit a dropper post.

Yes, it’s built around sensible stem lengths.

Whilst the Sniper is not hugely slack or long compared to most mountain bikes grabbing the headlines, it is significantly slacker and longer than other 100mm lightweight mountain bikes.

The new Intense Sniper applies trail/enduro bike geometry to short travel low-weight XC thrashing machine.

We suspect it’s going to carbon fibre main frame only. Maybe with two grades of carbon available and some alloy linkage options.

We’ll bring you more info as and when we get it. In the meantime, wow! What an exciting bike.