The new Bionicon Edison Evo enduro bike has arrived: part downhill bike, short-travel trail bike, and all new for 2015. With travel adjustment from 180-120mm the bike can toggle between downhill geometry and XC trail angles at the flick of a switch.

We’ve grown used to seeing the arrival of new travel-adjust bikes over the past few years, from Canyon’s brilliant ShapeShifter technology, on the Canyon Strive CF 9.0, to the feather-light Scott Genius and Cannondale’s futuristic Jekyll 27.5 Carbon Team bike.

But Bionicon’s lightbulb moment was to realise it could push the travel boundaries further than ever, offering an astonishing 80mm difference between climb and descend modes on its forks. Here’s Bionicon marketing man Roger Seal talking us through the new bike…

It’s not just the travel that changes on the Edison — the whole attitude of the bike flips when you press the bar-mounted lever. Dropping the travel from the fork dramatically steepens the head angle with the aim of making climbing easier. The new Edison has also been redeveloped to take 650b wheels for 2015, although you can still get the bike in a 26in version.

So how does it work? A system of hoses allows air to circulate between the forks and the shock, at the touch of a button — the rider then weights the front to compress the fork.

The bike you see here is a pre-production test model, but the one you’ll be able to buy comes with SRAM X9 or XO1 drivetrain, 160 or 180mm travel (via a rocker arm change to alter the shock rate) and either 26in or 650b (via a change in the seatstay). It’s also available with either Bionicon’s own fork or X Fusion’s Metric. It’s €2,950, which works out at around £2,200 from bionicon.com.

Bionicon Edison Evo, with Bionicon’s own fork and an unbadged Magura TS RC shock

The details

• Head angle changes by 5° from 65-70°
• Redesigned to take 650b wheels, or available in 26in
• Fork travel switches from 180-120mm via a bar-mounted lever and hoses
• Colours: red / grey / neon and now ‘raw’ EVO. The raw frames are sanded and given a matt clear coat for protection
• Bionicon Edison EVO is also available without the travel adjust system, with RockShox Pike and Monarch fork and shock
• A new X-Fusion rear shock will be available for the EVO from April, and X-Fusion’s Metric HLR fork is already an option