FACTOR Enters The MTB Market With New XC Racing Bikes
Factor, the premium performance bicycle brand, made its debut in the world of MTB with the launch of LANDO, its first-ever mountain bike range. Designed for XC, XC marathon and fast, extended off-road adventures, LANDO is an uncompromising, carbon fibre racing bike. It is available as a hardtail or with full-suspension, with specifications placing it at the premium end of the market.
The bike made its racing debut at Cape Epic – one of the most demanding multi-stage XC races in the world. Its maiden outing will see it piloted by the Amani Racing Team – a purpose-driven project and key team partner of Factor, creating opportunities for aspiring racers in East-Africa and providing them with a gateway into the international racing scene.
Whilst LANDO may be the first mountain bike produced under the Factor marque, the brand is no stranger to MTB technology, tracing its roots back to when it was a premium ODM (original design manufacturer) for other major off-road brands. LANDO’s forward-thinking design is the result of decades of MTB experience within Factor’s development team. The new bikes couple Factor’s extensive in-house expertise in carbon fiber frame design for road, gravel, and time trial bikes with a deep understanding for modern geometry and suspension kinematics in mountain bikes.
Both the full suspension and hardtail versions share a vision for lightweight, dynamic, responsive handling and pedalling efficiency. They display an engineer’s attention to detail – from a threaded bottom bracket design and internal cable routing to an all-new Black Inc finishing kit – all of which form an overall package designed from the ground up specifically for racing on XC terrain.
LANDO XC (Full Suspension)
LANDO’s full suspension model – the XC – is optimised for a 100-120mm fork with rear travel of 115mm based on a 45mm stroke shock and 100mm with a 40mm stroke shock. The frame, with single-pivot link-activated shock suspension and hardware tips the scales at 2.1kg, and is designed for fast and aggressive XC riding. The backbone of the bike’s impressive performance is its suspension kinematics – designed to balance the traction and comfort benefits of a more active ride with the firm-platform pedal efficiency required for fast XC racing.
Maintaining torsional stiffness and low overall frame weight was also a crucial consideration in the bike’s design. A vertically-oriented shock ensures forces are concentrated in the strong bottom bracket area, allowing for weight savings elsewhere. Equally, the frame’s split seat tube enables the use of a monobox chainstay connection for extra torsional stiffness and reduced weight, while its flexible seat stays provide four bar performance without the need for additional pivot points.
The use of a shared shock and lower swing arm pivot, mounted as wide as possible, ensures the simplest, lightest and strongest use of available frame material. LANDO’s one-piece molded carbon rocker complements its one-piece rear triangle, also minimising weight and maximising stiffness, while eliminating shock side loads or binding.
LANDO backs up its performance-oriented suspension kinematics, low weight and stiffness with progressive geometry. A 67-degree head angle and a virtual seat angle of 75.5 degrees remain consistent across all four bike sizes and complement the bike’s long top tube and short stem setup for aggressive XC riding.
LANDO HT (Hardtail)
The LANDO HT is specced with a 110mm fork, and is also available with a Black Inc fully rigid fork for further setup flexibility. The hardtail frame draws from design cues seen on Factor’s successful road and gravel products. The frame’s tube shaping, for example, shares several attributes with Factor’s OSTRO VAM. Equally, the bike benefits from dropped seat stays with a ‘kinked’ design, promoting vertical compliance.
Sharing attributes with its road cousins, however, doesn’t mean Factor has neglected the demands of XC riding. The LANDO HT’s top tube is wide and flat, allowing for flex under the very high loads experienced when landing a jump to flat, or a severe frontal impact. The bike’s CeramicSpeed T47-88.5 bottom bracket, also seen on the full suspension model, is one of the first to be specced on a production hardtail bike. The use of boost 1x spacing and the 88.5 standard enables a wider and stronger downtube, and an excellent tire clearance of 2.4”.
Black Inc Components
Factor’s sister component brand Black Inc completes the build for both bikes, offering wheels and finishing kit specifically designed for XC riding. The Black Inc one-piece barstem specced on the bike as standard offers a bar width of 760mm with an 8 degree backsweep, and a stem length of 60-90mm with an effective -10 degree stem angle.
Black Inc’s TWENTY SEVEN wheels provide a forward-thinking inner rim width of 27mm as well as a 27mm rim depth, with a class-leading weight of just 1459g per pair. Custom CeramicSpeed bearings, sapim straight pull CX-Ray and CX-Sprint spokes and a tremendously strong Ni-Cr axle ensure the 29” wheels are able to meet the demands of modern XC riding.
Riders can also choose to equip a fully rigid Black Inc. fork to the LANDO HT. The fork’s axle to crown spacing of 50.5cm slackens the bike’s head tube angle and weighs in at 720g.
Lando XC Specifications
– 100/120mm front travel / 100-115mm rear travel
– DT Swiss FT232 One fork / DT Swiss R232 One shock
– 2.1kg frame, including shock weight & hardware
– Internal cable routing, 1x only, 2.4” tire clearance
– SRAM XX1 groupset with 32/34T chainring and 10/52 cassette
– CeramicSpeed headset and T47 bottom bracket
– Black Inc 27 Wheels
– Black Inc Barstem
– Black Inc 31.6mm Seatpost
– Tires: Goodyear Peak, 29×2.25
– Saddle: Selle Italia SLR Boost Superflow X-Cross TI 145mm
Lando HT Specifications
– 110mm front travel
– DT Swiss FT232 One fork
– 850g frame
– Internal cable routing, 1x only, 2.4” tire clearance
– SRAM XX1 groupset with 32/34T chainring and 10/52 cassette
– CeramicSpeed headset and T47 bottom bracket
– Black Inc 27 Wheels
– Black Inc Barstem
– Black Inc 31.6mm Seatpost
– Tires: Goodyear Peak, 29×2.25
– Saddle: Selle Italia SLR Boost Superflow X-Cross TI 145mm
Factor Founder and CEO Rob Gitelis said: “We have increasingly seen our road bike customers explore new cycling disciplines, be it in gravel or mountain biking. With this convergence taking place across our sport, we felt that this is the right moment for Factor to take the next logical step and expand into MTB. LANDO is a manifestation of Factor’s engineering prowess in the form of a mountain bike; we can’t wait to finally see Factor bikes beyond the road, out on the single track.”
The LANDO XC and HT are available now from $9,199 USD / €8,399 EUR / £6,999 GBP and $7,099 USD / €6499 EUR / £5399 GBP respectively.
For more information about LANDO, visit http://www.factorbikes.com.
