NS Bikes Snabb Plus is another rad looking 29er

Benjamin Haworth

One to watch in 2017

Introducing the NS Snabb Plus – a long and low slung 29er trail bike that can also run 27.5 Plus wheels.

Need to know

  • 130mm rear travel, 140mm fork
  • 29 inch wheels or 27.5+ (up 3.0″ tyres)
  • Boost spacing
  • 67° head angle, 74.3° seat angle, 463mm reach (Large)
  • UK pricing yet to be confirmed but currently listed as starting from €2,899

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Unlike some other new rad 29ers, NS Bikes have settled on a fairly conservative amount of rear suspension travel (130mm). According to NS Bikes “anything close to 160mm is just too much”. Seems no one told Specialized and Trek this.

NS Bikes always sport geometry that’s on the contemporary, aggressive and progressive side of things. The new Snabb Plus is no different. It’s long and its low.

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It’s not however shockingly slack up front. The 67° head angle is actually pretty par for the course but it’s a good number that makes sense for a bike that’s designed to live as a trail bike that requires a degree of pumping and pushing-on when riding.

It’s the sort of bike that fits a gap left by Mondraker, now that Mondraker aren’t really doing trail bike 29ers.

The back end has seen a bit of tweaking compared to previous Snabbs. There’s a one-piece rocker arm that should be stiffer. The rear shock attaches via a trunnion mount (#nonemore2017).

The subsequent ride feel is claimed to be stiffer, smoother and more linear. “More linear” is something of a eyebrow-raiser in these days of OTT claims of variable and rising rate spring curves and all that sort of thing.

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According to NS Bikes “there is a fair amount of anti-squat built into the horst-link design – this is especially important for use with 1X drivetrains“. Having said that, the main pivot is placed just below the chainline so we’re not sure how they work that one out.

Despite these quirks of marketing speak, there will be loads of folk who can’t wait to get hold of one of these bikes for a test ride.

Spec-wise, both builds are fairly impressive…

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NS Bikes Snabb Plus 1

  • AL6061-T6 aluminium, internal cable guide routing option, MAX bearings in all pivots
  • RockShox Pike RC fork
  • RockShox Deluxe Debonair RT3 rear shock
  • SRAM Guide R disc brakes
  • Sram GX 1×11 drivetrain
  • RockShox Reverb Stealth 150mm
  • 13.1kg (28.9lb)
  • €3,999

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NS Bikes Snabb Plus 2

  • AL6061-T6 aluminium, internal cable guide routing option, MAX bearings in all pivots
  • Manitou Machete fork
  • RockShox Deluxe Debonair RL rear shock
  • Sram Level disc brakes
  • Sram NX 1×11 drivetrain
  • KS E-TENi Stealth dropper post 125mm
  • 13.6kg (30lb)
  • €2,899

Video description

NS Bikes: “We gave the bike out to the biggest bloke in NS Bikes Family – Michał “Kollbi” Kollbek, who, unlike us here in NS HQ, lives in sunny California. When Kollbi was racing DH in Poland his nickname was “King Kong”. Well, by the photos you can say that he was called that way for a reason! Actually, Michał was the person who was pushing us to make a 29-er, while we were still a bit sceptical about the idea. We simply had to check his feelings on the final effect of our implementation of his idea.”