TESTED: Focus SAM 1 Trail Team

Focus are a German bike company offering a full range of bikes. Their market share in Europe is large with an obvious following in their native Germany. Now available in Australia the Focus SAM is their big hitting enduro bike, sporting 160mm of supple travel front and rear, long and low geometry, single chainring functionality and high speed performance.

Here at AMB we had the good fortune to score the top of the line SAM 1 model as our test bike, in a Large size. Complete with SRAM XX1 11 speed drivetrain, Avid Guide brakes, RockShox Pike forks and Monarch rear shock all rolling on Reynolds Carbon rimmed wheels, the Focus SAM 1 looked every bit the high end package. The whole package tips in at a hair over 13kg which shows that there is still life in quality made aluminium frames.

Tester: Adam Fernyhough

Riding Experience: world wide mountain bike riding experience over 25 years, ex shop guy, ex importer

Generally Rides: Santa Cruz Bronson, Orange 5, Cove Foreplay singlespeed

Height: 180cm

Weight: 82kg

Bike Test Track: Blue Mountains

Three things you liked about the bike:

1. Long and slack geometry

2. SRAM 11 speed

3. RockShox suspension

Three things you would change about the bike:

1. Underside left hand mount of the Reverb dropper post

2. Tyres with a broader performance window

3. Fit a shorter stem

The concept of the SAM is for a heavy duty Enduro racer, with its sights set firmly on the technical and steep sections of the trail or race track. It confidently brandishes a sub 66 degree head angle along with a huge 1206mm wheelbase further extenuated by the use of a relatively short 438mm chainstay. The geometry shouts out, ‘stability’ very loudly. But does the battle ship length of our Large sized bike restrict it from playful transitions on the trails or make it too cumbersome for riding singletrack? Pleasingly I’d have to say not.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Out of the box readiness is typically efficient, echoing its German heritage. Quick assembly requires little more than a good set of allen keys, that is until it’s time to trim the Rock Shox Stealth dropper post hydraulic line. Although not particularly hard, the process is a bit of a fiddle and best undertaken at your local bike shop. When fully assembled the only downside to the SAM’s set up was that the reverb ran a right hand on top actuator with no option to run it upside down on the left, this is nothing that can’t be changed through your bike shop and for me would definitely be addressed before the first outing.

As I said, our test bike was a Large. And it really is very large. The seat post measured 480mm which when combined with the steep 75 degree seat tube give a relative top tube length of 615mm and a reach measurement of 452mm, I find the reach measurement is a more realistic measurement for giving a bikes true size. For example my Santa Cruz Bronson, also listed as a large, has a 610mm relative top tube but only a 428mm reach measurement. The geometry of having a steep seat tube means that the chainstays can still be kept relatively short and still manage to swallow up the full 160mm of rear wheel movement without it fouling the seat tube at full travel.

The bike has a low-slung top tube with a stack height of 608mm which gives ample room for manoeuvring. I measured out the contact points to set the SAM up as close as I could to my trail bike to give me some quantifiable comparisons. The bottom bracket height measured out to be about 342mm, which is pretty low and promised good cornering ability.

The SAM’s rear suspension is a linkage driven single pivot, or faux bar as they are often termed. The seat stay/chainstay pivot sits in an unorthodox position above and a considerable way behind the rear drop out. This gives the seat stay a more linear drive to the swing link which in turn drives the RockShox Monarch Plus RC3 HV DebonAir rear shock’s 63mm stroke. More on that later.

What is surprising, in modern day comparisons, is that the SAM’s frame is made from good old, time proven aluminium. It’s unusual now to find such a high end, and high specification, bike that is not constructed from carbon fibre. That’s not to say that the idea of carbon fibre seems to frighten the engineers at FOCUS who have seen fit to bestow some of the finest carbon fibre components on it as are available.

The super wide, 777mm, FSA carbon flat bar keeps the choice of running a low front end a possibility. The SRAM XX1 carbon fibre cranks with 32 tooth chainring requires no chain guide. The gear range is provided by a 10-42, XX1, 11 speed cassette and XX1 rear mech. Having ridden SRAM 11 speed for over a year now I’d have to say that SRAM have totally re written the book on what an 11 speed drivetrain is capable of, this XX1 set up was no exception.

Rolling duties are taken care of by Reynolds Black Label 27.5” wheels, complete with carbon rims, set tubeless ready with Continental Trail King and Mountains King II tyres. For 2015 overall specification upgrades over the 2014 model include, RockShox Pike RCT3 Dual Position air fork (160/130mm) SRAM XX1 shifter, SRAM Guide RSC brakes, running 203mm front and 180mm rear rotors, Fizik Tundra 2 Braided rail saddle and the sublie RockShox Monarch Plus RC3 DebonAir rear shock.

The full SRAM drivetrain, brakes, fork, shock and dropper are all pieces of high end and high technology kit. The Reverb post is, in my opinion, the best of the dropper posts, with the stealth being the icing on the cake.

I set up the forks and shock at about 30% sag and mid-range damping. Anyone who has ridden a Pike will tell you how good they are and this one was no exception. The real surprise in the package was the Monarch Plus DebonAir shock. After a few miss starts in the rear shock arena RockShox have hit home with this model of the Monarch platform which really lives up to its name, and could easily come to be regarded as the king among light weight Enduro shocks.

The suppleness of the stroke is noticeable immediately, to a point where it’s impossible to tell when the shock is activated, there is no noticeable sticking at all. Quite often with rear shocks, a promising start stroke comes with disappointing end game performance, not so with the DebonAir, which ramped up perfectly and returned with seamless change.

For full parts spec – head to the Focus Australia website.

ON THE TRAIL

For my test rides I stuck with local proven trails, giving a good mix of singletrack, fire road, climbs and descents, with some good DH sections thrown in. The long front end, slack head angle and low bottom bracket provided huge confidence on the downhill sections while still not being overly prohibitive in tighter single track.

As bike technology improves, components are slowly blending from noticing how good they are, to not even noticing that they are there at all. Instead you pick up the smallest details. I found the 32 tooth ring on the 11sp drivetrain to be a bit on the small side and would have preferred a 34 tooth.

The 777mm bar, which sits closer to 790mm with the end caps didn’t feel as wide as I was expecting and never caused any issues with tight trees or the like, the standard 60mm stem would benefit from being 50mm to really let the wild side of the bike show through. The Reynolds carbon wheels showed no sign of flex and I certainly never felt like I had to hold back over technical or steep terrain for fear of failure. The Continental tyres were a bit of a disappointment, my first ride out started as a dry ride with the tyres acting fairly predictably, however with the onset of some rain I found the rubber compound to be too hard when negotiating slick rock either up or down and traction being lost.

The Guide brakes are probably the best brakes SRAM/Avid have ever made, complete with pad contact adjustment, reach control and a well-fitting lever. As good as they are I’d still say that they still don’t match the benchmark set by Shimano with their XT series brakes but I’m sure that anyone using them won’t really have any complaints.

OUR TAKE

Overall the whole package works exactly as it should and provides a very confident Enduro ride. The somewhat old fashioned suspension system is very well executed and has the advantage of running a tremendously good shock actuated in a very linear fashion. The adjustable travel fork does help in long climbs and is even handy in level fast singletrack where gravity isn’t pushing you and you can run a slightly steeper head angle which also gives an even lower bottom bracket height. The SAM is most definitely a worthy contender for anyone looking for a performance driven ride in the Enduro market or back country adventures.