Seasoned enduro racer Joe Barnes has moved frame brands, but will remain on a British bike for his Hazzard Racing team.

The Scottish rider has transitioned from Orange to Hope, and will be campaigning the Barnoldswick brand’s new high-pivot enduro prototype bike.

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Hope’s vision of the ultimate enduro bike

Revealed late last year, the HB916 is a significant evolution of Hope’s enduro bike offering. It differs radically from the HB160.

Rear-suspension placement moves from under the top tube to a vertical shock mount, anchored above the bottom bracket. For a rider such as Joe, who can aggressively rail corners, the lower centre of gravity due to the HB916’s shock orientation, will be of great value.

Although Hope has not confirmed all the geometry specifications for its HB916, the bike has a 64-degree head angle. Joe will also use the HB916’s custom Hope headset, which can slacken that head angle by another full degree.

Öhlins front and rear

The HB916 is equipped with a high-pivot idler on the driveside chainstay to reduce chain tension limitations on the rear-suspension kinematics. And yes, that’s not a mistake – the idler is mounted on the chainstay, not the seatstay – like many other high-pivot bikes.

A distinguishing feature of Hope’s HB916 is a much higher chainstay attachment point to the seat tube, compared to most of its rivals.

Joe and his Hazzard Racing teammate, Ferg, will unquestionably be in a position to give Hope very constructive feedback on the HB916’s evolution.

Hazzard Racing will be resent at a series of this season’s UK enduro races, with HB916s running the latest Öhlins forks and coil shocks.