As the race season gets underway, all sorts of 2005 gubbinses are starting to appear – racers are a valuable testing resource for manufacturers, and next year’s stuff often sneaks out under a pro rider to see how it stands up.

By way of an example, this is a prototype of Mongoose’s latest offering, the Mongoose Teocali. Just when you thought that there weren’t any more suspension designs left to invent, here’s another one. Although it’s not completely new – Mongoose is owned by Pacific, which also owns GT. And along with GT came the i-Drive patents. Those patents are fairly broad, letting different Pacific brands build individual bikes that share a highish pivot for a nice rearward axle path with a floating bottom bracket to minimise chain growth but without them all looking like each other.

Mongoose’s offering is called FreeDrive. It’ll be available in two platforms – the “all-mountain” Teocali (the one in the pics is obviously set up for dual/BSX racing but it’s pitched at the all-day, all-round rider) and the freeride Black Diamond. The Teocali offers 110-130mm of rear travel in a sub-6lb frame. It’s intended to run 120-130mm forks. The Black Diamond will be an altogether burlier device, with 150, 170 or 190mm travel options and interchangeable dropouts for conventional 135mm QR hubs or 150mm through-axle units.

For a proto, this one looks pretty together – we expect to see the full range at the shows later this year.