• Fusion Raid Promoline Pro
• £2,195 (custom spec available from £1,999; frame only £1,199)
• Unique suspension design
• New to the UK
• 130mm travel

Most of the MTB brands on sale in the UK are North American in origin, but there are loads of European brands that we rarely (or intermittently) see. There are various reasons for that, but high on the list is the fact that most of them make bikes that, frankly, look horrible. German brand Fusion, now being brought in by Upgrade, bucks that trend, though, putting out a range of bikes using its own unique rear suspension design that look really rather good. But how do they perform? The Raid is Fusion’s 130mm travel platform, intended for “marathon, day tours and Transalp riders” – so, long days in the saddle over rough ground. Sounds like our kind of thing…

Frame

All Fusion frames are hand-made in Germany, which immediately sets them apart from the herd. All its suspension bikes use essentially the same suspension design, too, with variations in linkage dimensions and shock length governing how much travel it yields.

At first glance the suspension looks like a regular chainstay-pivot four-bar linkage, but the shock position and stubby rocker arm should give you a clue that there’s something else going on here. The shock passes through a split seat tube and the lower end, rather than mounting to the main frame, mounts to the cranked front end of the chainstay assembly. The upshot of this is that the shock is driven from both ends. Fusion cite a number of reasons why this should be a good idea, but our favourite one is that it means that the upper linkage can be made very short and hence stiff. It should also keep any nasty side-loads that might remain away from the shock, as the shock isn’t joining the two halves of the frame together.

All the pivots run on sealed bearings, with the dropout pivot being a sturdy clevis-style construction. There’s ample mud room around the back wheel, although the shock tends to get a bit clarted up thanks to its location. There’s also a pair of gussets between the two “seat tubes” and the main swingarm pivot that manage to form a water-collecting bucket, but it only seems to collect the water you’re using to wash the bike with. The seat tube arrangement means that there’s nowhere to mount a conventional front mech, so Fusion uses a plate-mount E-type unit. No problem with that, although it does limit your choice of front mechs, if you care about such things. An interesting side-effect of the layout is that the shock is mounted slightly left of centre in the frame in order to make room for the chainrings and mech. While we’re on the subject, the shock is a Fox Float R, positioned such that the air valve is easily accessible but the rebound dial isn’t.

The main triangle is entirely conventional in appearance, being made from straight, cylindrical tubes. One thing that does look a bit odd is the seat angle – because the seat tube doesn’t join the bottom bracket it looks rather slack (and indeed the quoted angle of 68° would be very slack indeed). The effective seat angle is entirely conventional, although it’ll vary with seat height – with the seat low you’ll have a steeper effective angle than with it high. This also means that the effect on cockpit length of adjusting the seat height will be greater than usual, but over the range of people who’ll fit each size that’s unlikely to present a problem and may indeed be a benefit.

Up front a distinctly unpretentious head tube carries an integrated headset. We’re used to seeing flared/ring reinforced/hourglass-shaped/elaborately-forged head tubes, so Fusion’s straight cylinder looks rather plain. We rather like the fact that all the weight-saving cleverness goes on inside rather than outside, though. We’re not such big fans of integrated headsets – they’ve never presented any particular difficulties, but you don’t get as many headsets to choose from.

It’s all very tidily put together and finished in a sturdy red powder-coat. The Raid’s a pretty clean-looking bike and was generally well-received by those that saw it.

Components

Pay attention, because this is where things get slightly complicated. You can get a Raid in a choice of two off-the-shelf spec packages or with far too many custom options to count. The off-the-shelf packages are known as Promo Line and the custom stuff is – you guessed it – Custom Line. What we’re looking at here is the Promo Line Pro at £2,195, with the Promo Line Comp coming in at £1,795. Custom Line setups start at £1,999, or if you already own a bunch of parts you can get just the frame and a Float R shock for £1,199.

The Pro packs an eclectic selection of parts that displays no particular affiliation with any manufacturer. Almost everyone gets a look-in here. Shimano supplies the XT hubs, XT rear mech and LX front mech, while the chain, cassette and trigger shifters are from SRAM. An outboard BB Truvativ Firex crank sits in the middle and a RockShox Recon 351 U-Turn 130mm fork sits at the front. Brakes are Magura Louise FRs with 180mm front and 160mm rear rotors. The wheel package features Sun DS2 rims, DT Competition butted spokes and Schwalbe Smart Sam 2.25 tyres. Most of the other bits are from Maniac, which isn’t a brand that’s terribly (read: at all) familiar to us, but it seems like solid enough tackle. Oh, you don’t get any pedals so don’t forget to budget for some.

Ride

It’s easy to find national stereotyping disagreeable, but we can’t help noticing that the words that come to mind to describe the Raid are traditionally Teutonic virtues like “solid” and “efficient”. It’s not the most playful bike out there, but given what it’s designed to do that’s not really a drawback – playful bikes tend to be attention-seeking bikes, and after several hours in the saddle the last thing you want is a bike that you have to think about. The Raid is a neutral handler – it holds its line and doesn’t require you to work too hard. If you want to work it hard it’ll respond, but it doesn’t necessarily encourage you to chuck it about. It’s a solid platform, with little in the way of flex or wobble in evidence.

The suspension performance is undoubtedly impressive. It’s very fluid yet stable under power. We don’t get on board many wallowy full suspension bikes these days, but Fusion’s setup still responds better than most to out-of-the-saddle efforts. The big tyres inevitably hold it back a bit, although they’re quite fast-rolling if the conditions are right. The tread doesn’t really lend itself to most typical UK conditions, though – we’d be tempted to swap them out for something a bit pointier.

Despite coming from all manner of different sources, all the bits worked happily together. The current generation of RockShox forks is particularly fine and we’ve really no complaints about the performance of the Recon. The U-Turn travel adjustment lets you sharpen things up a little if you’re doing a lot of twiddly singletracking, too.

Positives: Looks good, rides great, well-made, highly effective suspension, solid spec

Negatives: Shock area a bit of a mud trap, fiddly rebound adjuster, tyres wouldn’t be our first choice

Verdict

We like the Raid a lot, and hope to see a lot more of Fusion in the UK – the bikes certainly deserve it. The design isn’t the most mud-friendly (although it’s no worse than plenty of others) and on this particular model the spec is decent but not outstanding for the money. But it’s the ride that counts, and the Raid is a trustworthy ally for those long days. It’s a bit different from the herd, too. We like.

Performance: 4/5
Value: 4/5
Overall: 4.5