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All dimensions based on Large (19in) frame

• Pronghorn Racing PR6
• €1,260 (about £992)
• www.pronghornracing.dk
• Distinctive Danish design
• Fast as you like

Pronghorn Racing (named after the high-speed antelope) is a Danish company specialising in lightweight, high-performance kit. As well as wheels, seatposts, bars and stems, Pronghorn also produces two MTB frames – a carbon hardtail and the new PR6 100mm-travel FS frame.

Frame

The first thing to mention is that you don’t have to have pink decals. You do, however, have to have the shock above the top tube, which is a slightly unusual location. Shock placement is always a tricky one – the designers usually want it to be in a particular place to suit their proposed suspension layout, but often that turns out to be a place usually occupied by something else, like one of the frame tubes. Running the top tube over the top of the shock here would result in implausibly limited standover clearance. At first glance it looks like an arrangement that could result in a nasty injury, but if you do land on the top tube it’s generally near the front. The sticky-out lockout lever on the shock still didn’t look like something we wanted to land on at the end of the testing period, but on the other hand we didn’t land on it either. And as an upside, the lever’s really easy to reach should you wish to.

Having torn your attention away from the shock you can turn it to some of the many other interesting features with which the PR6 is laden. The downtube, for example, is generally round in the middle but hexagonal at the ends, tall at the front and as wide as it can be at the BB. There’s a small open-ended gusset at the junction with the hourglass-shaped headtube. To accommodate the shock the top tube is heavily curved, with another gusset underneath to support the upper linkage pivot and a “shark fin” buttress to hold the extended seat tube up. The top tube also features internal cable routing for the gear cables and bolt-on guides for the rear brake hose.

There’s more funkiness at the back end. There’s a forged and machined rocker, rectangular-section stays (with asymmetric chainstays), amazing-looking forged dropouts, clevis-style dropout pivots and mostly hidden-away bearings. Of particular note is the positioning of the chainstay pivot, which is very forward and low and will remind those with longish memories of Giant’s NRS bikes (although slightly less extreme). Many chainstay pivots these days are so close the the rear axle that they’re hardly doing anything, but Pronghorn’s deliver something quite close to a straight-up-and-down axle path. If you’re into instantaneous pivot centres, the PR6’s starts somewhere way out ahead of the front wheel and finishes up still ahead of the front axle but a bit lower down.

It’s all really rather beautifully put together. Claimed weight for the 19in frame is 2.4kg (5.3lb), which is competitive, if not startling. If you’re looking for something lighter, Pronghorn is working on a carbon fibre version that will weigh in at 1.75kg (3.85lb) including DT XR Carbon rear shock – that one will be around €2,200 (£1,700).

Components

Pronghorn sells the PR6 as a frame only, but we’ll run through the componentry on the test bike for the sake of completeness, and also because some of Pronghorn’s own gear is quite interesting. The test bike came with the kind of wish-list XC spec that you’re likely to end up with if you don’t want to take the easy path and run XTR everywhere.

Actually there was one bit of XTR in the shape of the front mech. No complaints there, it’s the best front mech there is. All the other transmission and brake parts were from the SRAM empire – Truvativ Noir cranks, SRAM X.0 mechs and gripshifts, Avid Juicy Ultimate brakes. We’ve never really got on with twisty shifters, particularly with short brake levers, but there’s no denying that the X.0 setup delivers lightning-fast shifts and doesn’t weigh very much at all.

Up front was Magura’s splendid Durin Race fork, while a DT Swiss XM180 shock dealt with the back end. The wheel package was the same Pronghorn CX-Ray setup that we tested recently and found to be rather fine, so no complaints there. Tyres were 2in Vredestein Black Panthers, a kind of semi-centre-ridge tread that we regarded with some scepticism initially but which turned out to be really rather good under the right conditions. The tyres came set up with a tubeless conversion kit which didn’t give us any problems.

With the exception of the Selle Italia SLR saddle, all of the finishing kit was Pronghorn’s own, and all carbon fibre – stem, bars and seatpost were all woven from the magic blanket. It all appears to be good stuff, although we had to swap out the 300mm seatpost for something better able to accommodate the spidery editorial limbs. The full bike came in at just over 24lb with a pair of Shimano 959 pedals on.

Ride

Most bikes present some sort of first impression when you get on them. The PR6 goes with “fast”. Although the cockpit didn’t arrive with a particularly extreme setup, it’s still quite a forward-set position. It works a treat, though, and the frame isn’t so long that you can’t readily get your weight back should you need to.

Although the Pronghorn as tested wasn’t crazy-light, it still fair flew up hills. That’s thanks to the efficient riding position, taut suspension feel and fast-rolling tyres. It’s one of those bikes that manages to make you wish for flat bars and bar ends so you can get even more power down, and they’re a fairly rare breed. Tempting though the easy-access lockout lever is, we didn’t feel the need to reach for it.

What did surprise us was the Pronghorn’s descending prowess. Yes, it’s a fast-handling bike that demands attention, but the suspension is effective enough to keep things on line at speed. And get into the singletrack and it’s an absolute joy, dodging and weaving through the trees with alacrity. The only niggle is that a couple of times we nudged the lockout lever with an errant knee when our body English developed a bit of a regional dialect, leading to surprising bumpiness over subsequent stretches of trail.

While on paper the suspension delivers a fair bit of chain growth by the end of the stroke, we didn’t find anything offensive happening on the trails beyond a hint of kick-back off drops. The overall rate curve is pretty linear and to our mind responds best to a tauter setup for racing (although it’s not massively finicky – you could let a few psi out of the shock for longer, slower rides without entirely compromising the performance).

While undoubtedly a highly-effective race bike, we’d be more than happy to take the PR6 out for a day in the hills. Drop the rear shock pressure a bit, whack on some decent-sized tyres and you’ve got an eminently capable short-travel trail bike.

Positives: Beautifully made, light, sweet handling, fast

Negatives: Quirky looks, sticky-out lockout lever

Verdict: It would be very easy to be put off by the quirky looks of this bike, but that would be a mistake, because it’s really very good indeed. As it arrived it demanded to be hammered around the race circuit, but make a couple of small setup changes and it’d be a very rewarding trail bike too. It wouldn’t be our first choice for ubertech stuff, but then that’s not what it’s designed for. If you like the sound of the PR6 but want something a bit less racy, watch this space – Pronghorn is working on a 6in travel version…

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