Drag Shift: A versatile and stable hardtail bike for all terrains

How many mistakes can a person make when on a cold winter day they have an appointment for a "meeting" with two brand new bicycles? First, to forget the second lens for the camera. Second, to choose a colder, higher, and shadier place just to avoid repeating the dry, southern trails from the previous day. And so, opening the car door in the center of the village of Kladnitsa, the cold rushed inside as quickly as the thought that I would have to rely on only one "fixed" lens for a very responsible task. But in the whole situation, there was also something very, very right – on Monday, in the middle of winter, Boris Kiryakov and I were in the mountains, not in our offices, and we were riding bikes!

We called it a workday, of course. After all, it is a purely professional obligation for the product manager of one of the most popular Bulgarian manufacturers to show and talk to a media outlet about two of the company's newest models, which are expected to achieve great market success... As they say, hopefully there will be more such commitments!

I say two, but the title mentions one... there is a reason for that too. Shift is the new universal, "battle-ready," multifunctional hardtail from Drag, and since on this workday it was intended for me, I start with it. The other in the company was Ronin – still a prototype, but already with excellent feedback from the brand's racers in the last two rounds of the Bulgarian Enduro Series for 2018. You will read about it in a separate article.

Drag Shift - concept and details

Lately, it seems we are used to bikes being narrowly specialized, every centimeter and degree having huge importance and dividing the market into all kinds of categories and segments. On the other hand, manufacturers keep convincing us that almost every bike is maximally versatile and that just by riding it, one will become a hero from some inspiring commercial clip. Where is the truth? Probably in the middle – that golden mean that everyone (both manufacturers and consumers) tries to find.

And yet, perhaps the second is more true... If we continue with the reasoning, I will emphasize first that the mountain bike itself, by nature and by default, is a very versatile means of transportation. You know, generally it can go both uphill and downhill, overcomes all kinds of terrain, and in practice it is designed with the idea to be capable of more than one thing. And in recent years, the trend in geometries is such that even XC bikes now provide confidence and control on steep and difficult terrain, let alone the AM and enduro categories, which really seem to impose no restrictions except those arising from weight. So here we come to the popular phrase All Mountain, replaced in recent years by the even trendier "trail bike." As much as it is marketing, the term All Mountain contains a very important idea – that such a bike is simply made for riding in the mountains. Not for a specific type of track, not for one or another racing discipline, not mainly for climbing or only for descending... Just for riding in the mountains and for everything one might encounter there. Well, Drag Shift was created for exactly that kind of riding!

Boris Kiryakov does not even resort to marketing terms to describe the idea behind this bike. His explanation is very simple and based on his long experience – first as an XC cyclist and racer, then as an enduro rider: "I wanted to make a bike that is pleasant to ride, where you don’t have to change anything, but just go out into the mountains and feel natural and comfortable on it under any conditions and terrain. I have seen many people who buy an unsuitable or too specialized bike and then start looking for ways to improve it, to change it, but in the end usually one change leads to another, often things become unbalanced. Shift focuses exactly on the balance between different qualities and characteristics, so you just get on and enjoy riding it everywhere in the mountains."

However, balance can have more than one face – so it is with this hardtail from Drag. If you look at the manufacturer’s website, you will see three different builds – Trail with 27.5 wheels and 2.6-inch tires, Plus with even wider 2.8 tires, and Shift 29, as the name suggests, with 29-inch wheels. This also leads to a slightly shorter fork travel on it – 130 mm, while the other two have 150 mm.

Before continuing, you might be interested to recall the official video with the first test of the bike: https://www.mtb-bg.com/index.php/gallery/video/6604-video-2018-drag-shift.

In any case, the most important thing in a mountain bike is the geometry. Boris Kiryakov shares this opinion, and this is the key to the balanced and versatile character of the Shift. Anyone who understands well enough the values in the table above can see this for themselves. Following current trends, the seat tube is short enough in each of the three sizes to allow the user to choose their bike more based on the horizontal reach and the length of the front triangle than on its height. The head angle is 65.5°, which is great for descents, and the seat tube angle is sufficiently "upright" to provide an effective position for climbing, though it should be noted that this is a hardtail – I mention this because some "soft" bikes now show numbers around 77-78° (another question is how exactly they are measured, especially with curved seat tubes), but here there is no need to compensate for suspension compression, so 74° is perfectly sufficient. The rear triangle is also in the golden mean with a length of 430 mm. It could probably be shorter, but remember that the frame is compatible with both 27.5 Plus and 29-inch wheels, and on top of that, the seat tube is straight.

All the details on the frame and builds show that the bike was created by people who not only follow what is trendy but also have enough experience to filter what is useful. Along with Boost thru-axles front and rear (absolutely necessary not only because of the Plus tires but also for compatibility with current forks), we see a threaded bottom bracket (BSA), a combination of internal cable routing (for gears and seat post) and external routing for the rear brake hose, ISCG05 mounts for a chain guide, and the possibility for direct mount front derailleur, although most ready bikes come with a single chainring upfront. The straight seat tube was a requirement from the start to be compatible with absolutely any seat post – adjustable or not – as well as bottle cage mounts. Every detail is designed with practicality in mind, offering more choice for the user and "market compatibility" for at least 2-3 years ahead, so you don’t have to think about upgrading immediately after buying the bike.

Work on this model has been ongoing since the end of 2017, with prototypes in Bulgaria being tested since June 2018. For many MTB-BG readers, it will probably be interesting to learn how such a bike comes to be, because it is a long process, involves a lot of effort, and requires considerable experience from those involved. The new Shift is not entirely designed in Bulgaria (engineering), but it is not a ready (catalog) frame either. This is the first product Boris took on after joining Drag. After clarifying the idea, the search for a suitable manufacturer began. In this case, a manufacturer was chosen with whom Drag had not worked before but who has solid experience in producing similar frames. Then the design process started – selection of tubes and special frame elements (requirements are sent from Bulgaria, the manufacturer proposes solutions), preparation of multiple versions of the drawings until the final version is reached. These are weeks of daily exchanges of emails with assignments/instructions and drawing versions. This leads to a finished project – it is based on some "standard" set of tubes (blanks), but in practice it is an individual product meeting the precisely defined requirements in the described process. After making and sending the prototypes, these requirements undergo changes again, because something that looked excellent on paper may need improvement in real life. So the serial frames, which you will soon see in stores as ready bikes, will have some final refinements compared to the prototypes/samples, including the frame you see in this article. A specific example is the rear triangle dropouts, which on the prototype are for Shimano rear derailleur with direct mount, but on serial frames will be standard mount to allow use with Sram drivetrains as well.

First impressions on the trails

I am far from making general conclusions or suggestions based on 10 km of riding, even though we chose a route with all kinds of terrain, and conditions varied from snow/mud to dry soil and rocks. But anyone who has ridden many bikes knows that if the bike is comfortable from the first sit, it is hard to find something in the next kilometers that changes that feeling.

My first impression of the size M frame is that it is both low and spacious, but I wouldn’t call it too long. The balance is really well found, and if in the first 100-200 meters I thought there was something in the weight distribution I would have to get used to because I couldn’t make a very neat "manual," the reason turned out to be quite "silly" – I hadn’t lowered the seat! :) In other words, the geometry creates confidence and a comfortable feeling even with a high seat, and as soon as I pressed the lever on the handlebar and lowered it all the way down, the "manual" thing immediately fell into place.

The bike I rode is closest to the Trail version, but some components are different, including the tires. The new Hans Damph in size 27.5x2.6 looks threatening and didn’t make me hesitate much when riding over rocks or anything else. I have been running a different version of this model on my personal AM bike for several months (expect an article on that soon), so from the start I trusted the tires. Since this is one of Schwalbe’s most aggressive tread patterns, however, I would replace the rear with something like Nobby Nic. By the way, the standard version of Shift comes exactly with Nobby Nic front and rear – tires that perfectly suit its versatile purpose.

Shift is not the lightest hardtail, but it definitely rides light, even with these aggressive tires. Still, with them it leans more towards the feel of an AM/enduro bike than an XC bike (which is probably what you can expect from the 29-inch wheel version). In any case, I am used to exactly that feeling, but the lack of rear suspension adds efficiency when pedaling, especially when you decide to stand up and push hard on a steeper climb or accelerate on a flat section of the trail.

Downhill, the bike can do a lot, and I was almost ashamed that due to little riding this winter, I wasn’t in good enough shape to ride it even more aggressively. The big volume and lower tire pressure not only provide confident rolling and excellent grip but also add a lot of comfort, which is important for a hardtail. And the geometry so well predisposes to riding on technical and steep trails that the lack of rear suspension is no excuse to avoid such terrain.

The bike is stable, but I didn’t feel it was hard to maneuver or lacking playfulness. Well, I haven’t tried it on sharp switchbacks yet, but that will happen soon, as it will probably be with me for a longer test...

If I have to make some conclusion, it will be based on the fact that Bulgaria has a long tradition of riding hardtails on all kinds of trails and terrain, from park alleys to DH tracks. Drag Shift is a bike that builds on this tradition and offers an adequate, modern solution. I dare to suggest that this will make it a quite successful model for the Bulgarian market.

https://dragbicycles.com/