Welcome to The Darco, the first (adult) full squisher from Chromag! Believe us when we
say, this is as exciting for us as it must be for you.
We’ve been making bikes for a while now, and all of this knowledge and expertise has
trickled down into creating The Darco.
As you might have expected, this bike draws strongly on our steel hardtail roots. Aside
from the obvious (the steel front triangle) let’s dive into what makes this bike tick.
The Darco rolls on 29” wheels and has 150mm of travel up front paired with a stout 120mm
in the rear, a hardtailers full-suser if you will. Our geometry philosophy has carried right
over onto this bike, pairing slack head tube angles (64°) and steep seat tube angles (78°),
with ample room up front (490mm reach on M/L). Perfect for the type of terrain we have
in the Sea to Sky, steep climbs and steeper descents!
Similar bikes with this amount of rear travel are more commonly spec’d with an inline shock,
however given what we know is achievable on a hardtail, it seemed more appropriate
to spec this bike with a reservoir shock. A shock intended for more aggressive riding and
much less likely to be overwhelmed when in the thick of it.
We’ve pored over the kinematics of this bike, balancing the trade-offs into what we
believe is a truly great mountain bike. Our overall design principles were to create a
very consistent kinematic (no notable or fast changes in the leverage ratio that would
make the bike unpredictable), have reasonable progression (the bike ramps up due to
consistent change in leverage ratio), and have a supportive pedaling platform (an antisquat of approximately 110% at expected sag height).
This bike has been a labour of love for us, and a project with such scope deserves a
name near and dear to our hearts. Our dear friend and Chromag mechanic D’Arcy
Burke passed away after a courageous battle with cancer in 2020. We affectionately
referred to him as “The Dark One”, The Darco is a tip of the hat to our friend.
We’re very excited to share this new chapter of Chromag with you, we hope you enjoy
riding it as much as we have testing it.
Happy shredding!
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