Intense Cycles latest all-rounder offering was unveiled at Sea Otter earlier this year, only the company hadn’t quite got round to thinking of a suitable name for it. So they set up a contributions box next to the new bike and offered a signed-by-founder-Jeff Steber frameset to the best suggestion. It’s kind of a spiritual successor to Intense’s original four-bar trail bike, the Intense Tracerlaunch, so given that the chosen name is ‘Intense Tracer VP’, we’re guessing that there were some really rubbish ideas in the box.

Never mind the name, though. There’s some interesting stuff going on here, not least of which is the choice of two travel settings – a first for VPP bikes. The difference between the two settings isn’t huge – 5.5 or 6in – but combined with the resultant shift in head angle Intense say that the Tracer VP will be happy with forks between 130 and 160mm of travel. In characteristic Intense style, it’s still on the steep side – quoted head angles are 69° in 5.5in mode with a 140mm fork, and 67.5° in 6in with a 160mm fork.

Intense has fitted a 1.5in headtube so it’s clear they’re intending this bike to take some abuse, although with a frame weight of 6.25lb pleasingly lightweight builds are certainly on the cards. The looks are distinctively Intense, and the new, stiffer, VPP linkages get grease ports to keep the bearings running smoothly.

We’re told that a frame with RP23 shock will run you around £1,200 in the UK. More at www.intensecycles.com