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EMPIRE CYCLES

When they started the Empire Cycles AP-1 project, Chris Williams and Craig Robertson didn’t even try to find a way to mount the derailleur on their frame: no need for it when you just need a chain guide. “If you don’t have a place for the derailleur to clamp, how can you turn this bike into a freeride rig?”, some mindful friend must have asked them.
But, as Chris put it, “My aim was to build the best downhill bike on the market”. A DH project in itself, not just a derivation of a more commercial, versatile bike to sell in bigger numbers. A DH frame different from anything else, which won’t to play second fiddle for any of the current market leaders. Differently from the others, a huge marketing plan is not on the company's plans, though. Chris is extremely clear, albeit scarcely diplomatic, concerning this point: “I want to cut the bullshit”.

The Empire AP-1 is stunning to look at. Gunmetal, it seems the cycling correlative of the Alien monster, a frameset just sprung out of one of Giger’s works. A skeleton with organic lines, overlapping muscles and bones. You can stare at it in admiration for hours, but at a certain point you’ll end up wondering: “Now, where are the welds?” Good point: there aren’t any. Yes, the mindful friend must have been astonished, too: “What do you mean no welds? How are you gonna keep the tubes together?” No tubes: Chris and Craig have a long MX experience, and they know the amount of stress a frame must endure when in care of a good rider. For DH applications it is the same. In short: weldings are just weak spots, and they must be eliminated. How? Sand casting.

The melted aluminium is injected into sand moulds to cast a monolithic jointless block. This process gives the builder optimum control over the amount of metal to put in each area – and by area we mean a tenth of millimeter. All the parts of the bike, both internal and external, can be managed with the maximum precision. When it is not possible to model the frame, CNC machines will take care of the situation. Now, if this is not starting from a blank sheet of paper, what else is it?

Three custom made moulds form the AP-1’s parts: the front end, the swingarm and the seat tower. After the casting process, a refinement machining phase finishes the parts requiring thinner sections (half the weight is shaved off the rear end after the machining process, for example). In the pivots, needle bearings instead of cartridge units because of their capacity to resist up to five times superior loads while retaining incredible smoothness.

For sure, this monster is heavy: with its 40 pounds for the full bike tested by DIRT Magazine, the Empire AP-1 won’t win any “lightest downhiller on the market” award. But this machine is not about climbing Alpine switchbacks: it’s about descending them. As Chris points out, a VPP design is very light in the front end area, but it has quite a heavy rear end, with its rocker links, which also double the number of pivots and bushings. The Empire AP-1’s front end, instead, is rock-like stable, and it matches a very light high-pivot swingarm. The chain guide installed on the frame avoids pedal feedback and allows the bike to ride as if it had a low-pivot, active design. The light unsprung mass lets the AP-1 accelarate fast, while the monolithic front triangle gives it stability in spades.

All this engineering data makes sense, but, as Slingshot has taught us, bikes that shouldn’t work eventually perform admirably well. The opposite could be true.

No worries! The Empire AP-1 has got rave reviews from the most demanding British magazines. As the DIRT tester puts it, “The bike manuals, and the rear can be picked up on a dime”, “the swingarm is simply in a different league to what else is on offer”, “a straightforward, uncomplicated ride”.

Pride of Good ol’ Britain, Empire bikes are strictly made in the UK. But what about he components? Is it enough just to look for the best on the market? Obviously, it isn’t. Hope Technology, careful to what’s moving in the DH jungle, has just teamed up with Empire to offer an exclusive custom AP-1 kit. A brakeset and a pair of wheels, beautifully machined and anodized in black and red, deliver the standard of performance a bike of this level needs. Because this frame deserves a special treatment! The guys at Hope could’t have put it better when they said “We are delighted to have formed an alliance with Empire Cycles […] it is great to work closely with, and supply a brand that has a similar outlook to ours”. Said by them, it’s definitely a compliment!

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