KINGDOM VALOUR
VALOUR: “great courage in the face of danger, especially in battle”
In downhill you need three things; courage, bravery and commitment. Being able to find that bottle to hold the line, stay off the breaks and commit to the track is what inspired us to build a bike that has your back no matter what is in front of you.
The Kingdom Valour is first and foremost the foundation of that courage. The goal was to design a bike that could take on the biggest features, instilling confidence in the rider and allow them to forget about the bike and focus on the terrain while pushing themselves to their limits.
The valour, like all of our bikes, is made from titanium. This is because we believe in using the highest quality material to build the best bikes we can, this has always been our ethos and we stick by it. Some may question and doubt the use of Ti in a downhill bike, but material science and technology has come such a long way since it was last tired we couldn’t leave it to someone else! At Kingdom we also understand the properties of titanium, it compliance, its spring like characteristics and its composition so who else better to build the downhill bike that you can depend on season after season.
The Valour is aimed at the downhill enthusiast, uplift lover, alps explorer, aspirational racer and generally sendy huckster that has an eye for detail and quality. It is suitable for anyone who wants a big rig that’s built to last and still go fast.
DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT
As the old adage goes in bike design you must determine the balance between: strength, weight, cost, and choose what is the most important.
All of our bikes are designed around a thought and an idea. Lisa wants to race the British Downhill Series, and Kyle is outgrowing his Void 130, we need a bigger bike. These two were the inspiration for the Valour and they had a list ready and waiting!
After long discussions we settled upon a design we could put our name to. For the Valour must be a strong, it must have a supple 200mm travel, with a mullet setup for the greatest compromise between agility, stability and speed. It must have a low standover and feel confidence inspiring and stable.
Starting with frames that we know best, and moving from there we decided that the 200mm travel would not match a HEX, Switch or Void aesthetic. With “It looks like a Trek” ringing in our ears each aspect of the frame has been challenged and poured over. Certain aspects of the frame have been ‘beefed up’ due to the demands of DH racing. Particular attention was paid to stiffness and rigidity in certain areas, big bearings, mud clearance, stresses and strains were all taken into consideration. Titanium ridden at high speeds can develop springy characteristics, this is one of the many benefits of the material but it needs to be controlled. Our design will increase torsional strength as well as the longitudinal stress supporting the suspension. The tubes for the frame will be thicker than the rest of the Kingdom Bike range to make it stronger and stiffer.
We make custom titanium bikes after all, this is where we can be a bit more special. We have our standard design, but geometry wise the world is your oyster, as each design is a custom we can do as you please. This was key to Lisa who was after a 435 reach bike that was tailor made for her size, Kyle will have his own geometry and size, we are all different, we all ride different terrain, why do we have such limited choice?
Lisa Conway
The starting point for the Valour was how it rides, a bike needs to feel like an extension of your body, utterly predictable. The direction was given by our Downhill Factory Team Rider, Lisa.
At heart Lisa is a bike geek, geometry is of upmost importance and like all switched on racers has experimented with different angles and set-ups and has settled on something pretty special.
Check out Lisa’s Bio on the website and her Instagram account.
Kyle Stabler
The Valour was not just designed purely around her though, we also have Kyle, our junior Downhill Factory Team Rider who goes fast and absolutely knows how to put a bike through its paces. Kyle is THE Kingdom test rider. He pushes our frames beyond what we designed them for and we get to see what they can do.
Check out Kyles Bio on the website and his Instagram account.
After the great unveiling at Steel City this September we have been swamped with questions like "Wen Valour" and shortly followed by "Take my money!!".
Let us get some solid real world testing in before we unleash the beast to the world. Once it is ready, you will know!
