Yes, we all love bikes but it's not often you meet guys who eat, drink and sleep with bikes quite like Maciek Kucbora and Wojtek Koniuszewski. They may just be the two biggest bike addicts on the planet. Coming from the same town, they have been good friends and team mates for over 15 years now. Back in 2005 they were the first two Poles ever to represent their country in BMX racing World Championships. Each of them has been on podiums of national downhill, dual slalom and 4x championships multiple times. Throughout the years they have raced over 200 various bike events and visited some of the most amazing European riding spots. In the past Wojtek used to pedal a steel hardtail all the way from Poland to Spain when he had some spare time between racing and work. Both of them have at least 10 bikes in their garage, of all shapes and sizes.
Today both guys are closely connected to the bike industry. Wojtek is an owner of the bike tour and skill camp company, Maciek is the full suspension product developer at NS Bikes and is strongly involved with the pumptrack culture - he designs and builds great tracks.
When we started out with our new project, the Eccentric, we knew that we wanted these guys to be involved in its development. With their rich background in all modern riding genres and roots planted firmly in old-school MTB, they were exactly the people that we were looking for.
The concept was to make an aggressive hardtail using all the knowledge that we have acquired over the years in making steel frames, including the FMB World Tour winning Majesty. In fact, the Eccentric uses our proprietary Tange Eccentric tube set - the same that can be found in our top end dirt jump frame.
The result is an incredibly strong yet light trail bike built around 650B wheels and 142x12 rear axle standard. With 140mm fork travel and short chainstays, this bike will cover a lot of ground. This includes high mountain enduro, long distance cross country rides, and unlike full suspension bikes, it's a perfect pumptrack tool too! What surprised us is that Wojtek actually uses his Eccentric for practicing his dirt jump skills!
Both Maciek and Wojtek agree that every mountain bike rider should ride a hardtail on a regular basis, as it is not only a mind-opening experience, but a tool that will build your basic riding skills faster than anything else.
Last autumn Maciek and Wojtek took the new bikes for a spin in the mountains surrounding famous Austrian bike resort Leogang and we followed them around with a camera. Enjoy the video.
