TESTED: Focus SAM Carbon

Words: Lachlan Mckillop

Photos: Robert Conroy

Focus has been a brand that I have followed since it was first distributed into Australia circa 2012. When the store I was working in at the time became an early adopter, the German brand caught my attention. The brand offered an amazing spec, cutting edge designs all at a great price. At the time it was obvious they were a real contender, 4 years later and it’s safe to say that this German brand is here to stay in a big way.

When 2014 rolled around, Focus launched their enduro platform dubbed the SAM. As a younger rider who had just sold his downhill bike due to injury this bike really caught my eye. I had the opportunity to test the bike at the time, the original Sam was amazing value for money and components were backed by a truly enduro motivated bike. The downside was that this top tier bike only came in aluminium. The SAM has now done two solid seasons and it has been updated with a new line, the SAM C with carbon frames. Had Focus been able to evolve their already solid design? I was intrigued to get some time on the bike to find out.

Initial impressions with SAM

The bike arrived to me and the first thing that stood out was just the super clean lines on this bike. The frame constructions screams simplicity, with a no nonsense internal cable system, the cables at the front of the bike are neat and out of the way. The tubing is super thick, offering less material in the frame making it lightweight and the bike has a crazy low standover with the oh so sexy looking top tube. The top tube is very similar (if not the same design) to the Focus Raven, The German’s XC race machine. The colour was a stand out and something that I think made this bike stand out from the pack, but I think this is either something riders will love or hate.

The spec on this bike is solid, although not top of the line you are getting parts that offer almost the same feel as their bigger brothers just with a small weight penalty. The bike is adorned with SRAM, with X01 doing the drivetrain work, Guide R on the brakes and a Pike/Monarch set up taking control of the dampening duties. A solid build kit like this is confidence inspiring; these parts are all reliable and easy to set up (or in some riders cases, easy to get their shop to set up). There are no proprietary parts on this German build which is nice to see.

The rolling duties are taken care of DT Swiss wheels, in my eyes these are the best wheel offerings on the market, although some rims may be a little soft, they offer a lightweight wheel with some of the smoothest bearings and simplest freehubs around. Oh and did I mention they are some of the quietest wheels you will ride? Continental tires round out the rolling duties. Continental was not a brand I had looked into before to use on my own rides. On inspection the tyres looked like their knob arrangement was very nice, sharp edges, well place side knobs and central knobs that looks great for braking.

Doing the old fashioned pick up and shake test – the bike is light, especially for a 160mm travel trail beast, coming in at 13.6kg. The frame itself has obviously saved a lot of weight with the change to carbon which is great to see (lots of bikes make the change but may not really shed the weight). With bikes that are 160mm you want them as light as possible, with the rise of enduro you now have to pedal up the hill as well bomb down trails that aren’t too different to downhill courses. You don’t want to be carting around any extra weight so having a bike that you could almost do a downhill race on weighing in under 14kg is pretty rad.

On The Trail

As per usual I have a similar ride that I like to take the bikes on for the first test, it helps me to get the bike set up exactly right before starting to see their full capability. I set the suspension up initially at 30% sag on the rear and 105psi in the front. Out on my first ride it was obvious I just needed a bit more of a stiff set up as I found the rear shock was blowing through just a touch. After bumping it up to 25% sag with 115psi in the fork it was feeling a lot better on some of the more solid hits. Ultimately as a consumer you may want to play with the provided fork tokens and shock rings to get your suspension really dialled in. Your shop should be able to help with this – and if not look up a dedicated suspension servicing centre.

My first solid ride on the bike involves a good 20-25 minute climb to the top of the trail. The Sam utilises a two position Pike where you can change the front end from 120-160mm of travel. In previous years I had found these a bit of a gimmick, but to be honest it is the best decision that Focus could have made with this bike. For climbing merely lower the forks to 120mm, lock the rear shock and it transforms this 160mm enduro machine into a ride that wants to go up hill. The lower front-end moves your weight distribution to the front, helping you get lower and stay in control. This matched with the lightweight nature of the bike is really going to be make your life easier. The only downside I found on the climb was a personal thing. I found that the saddle was a little on the harder side, if you don’t normally ride in knicks then I would think again, or you may want to change to something a little softer.

Once the climbing is done, merely flick those switches and it transforms the bike back to an enduro weapon. The first thing that you are going to notice (or maybe not) is that this bike is a silent assassin. The SAM is dead quiet, the chain stays are well away from the chain itself, the internal cables eliminate any rattle and the DT Swiss wheels offer a light purring noise. When really giving a bike some curry I like to be able to hear the tires, not a clunking noise. This bike is lovely to ride because there are just no noises coming from it and this was the same throughout its whole test life.

The Sam is built around a single pivot design, one of the most basic suspension designs but in a lot of ways one of the most underrated. The linkage matched with the Monarch shock worked really well, the suspension was supple in the first stroke and took the big hits nicely too. Although I had no harsh bottoms outs I would still suggest playing with your bottomless rings from RockShox to dial in how progressive you want the bike to feel.

The geometry on this bike is in the realm of the golden numbers with a 65.8 degree head angle, 430mm chain stay and a 590mm top tube, sizing was a perfect match for me. The short rear end made the bike nimble and easy to throw around, the top tube/wheelbase created stability and the head angle allowed the Pike to chew up even more on the trails. The playful geometry is perfect for an enduro bike, on long days in the saddle, and on tracks I hadn’t ridden before the playful nature of the bike matched with its light weight (for a big bike) really allowed you to change direction really easily whilst still staying in control.

The cornering ability on the SAM was dialled, the BB sits at a nice height between too low and too high so when you are sitting in the travel or pushing into corners it really does allow the bike to grip and hold. The entire bike is made of carbon (bar the linkage), and the carbon really cut out a lot of chatter that the previous version of this bike experienced. Carbon is a lightweight material, but it also flexes offering a unique amount of compliance to a bike and this is evident in how this bike cornered.

The single pivot set up with the RockShox suspension made the bike really snappy and playful when jumping the bike, the bike was poppy which was nice for dodging some of the sniper rocks on Stromlo but the SAM still took the big hits in its stride. This is great too for jumping the bike around the trail as well, changing lines and moving around was easy when the bike was snappy to jump around. Be sure to check the pivots on the bike on a semi regular basis, I did find over the time of the test that some of the linkage bolts and pivots had come a little loose. Now this could be more due to this new bike settling in but it is a good thing to check on any bike anyway.

Unfortunately the use of a simple suspension system with a super low standover comes at the price of a bottle cage mount. On a positive note I am happy to say that Focus didn’t opt for the under the down tube mount which really grinds my gears. With this bike be prepared to invest in a good hydration backpack or a set of SWAT bibs to take around your spares, food and water.

The Continental rubber was something I had never run before, not for any other reason besides being happy on set ups that were tried and tested for years. As mentioned earlier the tyres looked great, they were on par with the standard trends of today and the compound felt nice. The tyres on the trail really lived up to the visual inspection. Although being wider they didn’t roll the quickest uphill all of this was made up in spades on the descents. The side knobs offered a lot of grip, and this was evident in all the soil conditions I rode, the sand hills of Stromlo and the Northern Beaches to the Pine Needle laden clay of Majura. Hats off to Continental they would be a new option for me next time I replace tyres on my own bike.

The drivetrain again, is just dialled. The SRAM 1X groups are all the best in their own part of the market. The now tried and tested narrow wide rings never dropped a chain, the 32 ring was great up and down the hill with the 10-42 on the rear. Shifting never skipped a beat as well. The stopping duties were executed by the slightly heavier Guide R brakes, although a little heavy and lacking adjustment these brakes are a 4-piston brake that will pull you up no matter where you are. The same calipers are run on the bikes of EWS racers to World Cup downhill racers, basically you know you are in good hands. Focus has chosen 200/180 rotor set up as well giving you the best pulling up options.

Final thoughts

Focus have delivered with this bike, it hits the enduro segment on the head, perfectly creating a bike that goes up and down the hill amazingly well. Utilising simple and clean designs they have done their homework and come through with the goods on geometry and spec to give riders a bike that works well above its price tag. If you are looking at getting into enduro racing, big-mountain adventures, you enjoy rider rougher trails or maybe you are thinking about downgrading from a bigger bike then this bike is going to make you happy, it did for me.

Focus SAM C SL

RRP: $6,999

Weight: 13.6kg

From: focus-bikes.com/au/