This year’s Philly Bike Expo coverage over here is going to be a bit different. John was supposed to attend but two freak storms hammered Santa Fe Thursday and Friday, cancelling his flights and his re-booked flights. Luckily, our friend Brad Quartuccio was on hand to document a few bikes for us. The first builder we’re featuring is Kris from 44 Bikes, who displayed his current version of the Snakedriver full-suspension 29er…

Kris Henry of 44 Bikes continues the development of his suspension design, showing up the the 2024 Philly Bike Expo with two nearly identical Snakedriver suspension bikes, one featuring a ti front triangle, the other steel, with subtly differently constructed links between them. The Snakedriver is the culmination of a few years of experimentation on personal bikes and is near ready for the real world.

The Snakedriver is built around a 140mm fork and has 120mm of rear travel thanks to Kris’ own suspension link and steel Flex Stay rear triangle that moves through the travel without a chain- or seatstay-mounted pivot. The 435mm chainstay, 25mm BB drop and 65º headtube, 76º seat tube round out the design numbers, with the rest of the front triangle down to the customer fit.

Kris is still testing some final construction details prior to production in the next year, and while these two bikes have interchangeable rear triangles, there are some other differences for the sake of testing worth point out. The bare ti bike features a 3-piece link, the painted steel bike a 2-piece, to test stiffness vs production ease. Both frames have a 3D printed lower pivot, with the steel frame having a 3D printed seatube link pivot and the titanium version having a laser cut ti plate design. Note the bashguard that attaches to the ISCG mount.

Look for the full release of the 44 Bikes Snakedriver platform in Fall 2024 or Spring 2025. www.44bikes.com