Nothing is worse than making things worse. We have seen this time and again over the years. One year test winner, the next: cucumber. At the Kona Process that was the case, for example. We celebrated the masterpiece of an enduro bike, but the successor pulled the corners of our mouths down. In short: we breathed a sigh of relief when we saw that the new Propain Rage was basically still the old Rage is. We recently tested the carbon fibre beast and confirmed that the big bike hits the golden mean. The bike is fast, comfortable and has a feel-good geometry that even park freeriders and airtime junkies will be really happy with (our test impressions can be found below).
So:
Good news 1: not much has changed.
Good news 2: something has changed.
What's new about the Propain Rage?
At first glance, you'll notice that you can't see anything: the look is still the same - and that's a good thing. The Propain'ies only worked on the details. That would be:
- Propain re-laminated to improve the Frame even tougher and angrier. The carbon fibre layers are aligned in the most stressed areas to make the frame even more robust.
- Silent: Propain wants to give Noise sources to make the Rage quieter. The cable routing has been optimised and the chain and seat stays have been encased in special rubber buffers to dampen chain noise. And the Propain'ies also investigated the other creaking noises that have been criticised in our tests in the past. Very good!
- Propain also wants to Geometry have modernised the bike to make it even faster and racier. Okay. When comparing the data directly, we didn't actually notice any real changes, which we think is a good thing. Because the Geo of the predecessor was "spot on". A few examples: Reach in Large = 465 mm. Head angle = 63°. Chainstays (have always been on the long side) = 445 or optionally 460 mm for maximum smoothness. The Rage can be ridden in All-29 or Mullet set-up. We liked the version with the small rear wheel.
The Rage models
Propain offers four fixed equipment packages for the new Rage big bike, but the Rage can also be customised thanks to the Propain configurator. In addition to the only 40 bikes in World Cup livery, the Rage is available in either white (Whipping White Gloss) or black (Carbon Raw Matt).
You can find more information about the new Propain Rage on the Propain homepage.
Our last test of the predecessor (FREERIDE 3/24). The bike only differs from the new model in details. Read for yourself at: High-end downhiller: Propain Rage 3 CF - how does the test winner from 2023 perform today?
Dimitri Lehner
Editor
