New ARC8 EXTRA 2.0 AIR GX/Factory 2024 first ride review – enduro bike with revolutionary rear suspension?

With the EXTRA 2.0, the ARC8 team unveils the second iteration of their enduro bike. The Swiss manufacturer relies on an unconventional rear suspension design, which replaces a rotating link with linear rails, and generates either 160 or 165 mm of travel. We tested the Swiss enduro bruiser to find out how the Dual Pivot Suspension system fares on the trail.

ARC8 aficionados won’t be surprised by the look of their new enduro bruiser, the EXTRA 2.0, and nor will they be amazed by the unusual rear suspension system, ARC8’s proprietary Dual Pivot Suspension design. The Swiss manufacturer already introduced this back in 2022 with the EVOLVE FS XC, which generated 100 mm of travel at the rear. In the same year, ARC8 also launched a trail bike called the ESSENTIAL, which relied on the same rear suspension concept to deliver 130 mm of travel. Now ARC8’s development team have taken it one step further, relying on the same system with the new iteration of their potent enduro bike, the EXTRA 2.0, which rolls on 29” wheels and generates 160 mm of travel front and rear. For the frame, the Swiss engineers went down the full carbon route to strike an optimal balance between weight, efficiency and durability. Tipping the scales at just 2,025 g without shock (manufacturer’s specifications), the frame is extraordinarily light for a bike in this travel category, and yet it’s fully approved for rowdy bike park sessions. As a result, our test bike weighs just 13.76 kg, retailing at € 7,699. Judging by the numbers, the ARC8 should tick like a Swiss precision watch, but how does it perform on the trail?

The 2024 ARC8 EXTRA 2.0 AIR GX/Factory in detail

With the new 2024 EXTRA 2.0 AIR, ARC8’s design team has moved away from the chunky, square design language which has come to characterise modern enduro and trail bikes, choosing instead an elegant, delicate frame silhouette. Particularly striking are the thin seat stays, which aim to improve the bike’s rear-end compliance – but more on this in the next section. Nevertheless, ARC8 claim that the EXTRA 2.0 is capable of tackling the toughest of trails and gave it unrestricted bike park approval.

A generously sized, soft rubber protector covers the top of the drive side chainstay, ensuring a quiet ride and thus allowing you to focus on the trail ahead, while an extended down tube guard shields the frame from stray rocks. We would have welcomed an additional shuttle guard to protect the frame when you throw the bike on the back of a pickup truck.

With the cable routing of the EXTRA 2.0, the Swiss design team took a step backwards, replacing the finicky internal headset routing system of its predecessor with a conventional routing concept – great news for home mechanics! As a result, the cables disappear into the frame through standard cable ports, with two ports on each side of the head tube. This allows you to run your brakes both rear/right and moto style, depending on your preferences. The rear brake line runs internally throughout the frame and only reappears shortly before the calliper. That said, on our test bike, the cables weren’t clamped sufficiently, resulting in a rather annoying rattling noise on the trail.

The ARC8 also features a storage compartment in the down tube, allowing you to carry all your trail essentials directly on the bike when embarking on epic backcountry expeditions. With the production bike, the cover of the storage compartment comes standard with a bottle cage mount – unfortunately, this wasn’t the case with our pre-production test bike, which only had a 3D-printed cover.

The Dual Pivot rear suspension of the 2024 ARC8 EXTRA 2.0

With the new EXTRA 2.0, ARC8 waved goodbye to the popular Horst link rear suspension design they used on the previous iteration of the EXTRA, relying on their proprietary Dual Pivot system instead. This combines a single pivot layout and flex stays, which essentially replaces the pivot point in the chainstays.

The ARC8’s most innovative feature is the shock slider, which replaces a conventional linkage and relies on two Norglide bushings. According to ARC8, this concept reduces lateral forces on the shock, and allows for more accurate suspension fine-tuning. ARC8 want to explore the limits of the slider system, and even used it on a DH test bike – with great success!

Despite the unusual, innovative design, the system is incredibly easy to service, which makes it appealing to enthusiastic home mechanics. With just one rotating pivot point, the bearings are quick and easy to change, and the slider also requires little maintenance. According to ARC8, their XC team has been using the slider system with the EVOLVE FS for 2 years without any problems. Nevertheless, the slider has now been provided with additional grease nipples, allowing for better lubrication, and to displace dust and dirt, thus ensuring longer service life.

The spec of our 2024 ARC8 EXTRA 2.0 AIR GX/Factory

For this review, we tested the € 7,699 ARC8 EXTRA 2.0 AIR GX/Factory model in size L, which, as the name suggests, comes equipped with FOX’s top-tier Factory suspension. This consists of a 36 Factory fork with finely adjustable GRIP2 damper, and a matching FLOAT X Factory air shock, both of which offer countless adjustment options and deliver a top performance on the trail. The suspension is complemented by a FOX Transfer dropper post, which features the same fancy Kashima coating as the fork and shock. The dropper offers a whopping 200 mm of travel, and can be inserted all the way into the frame, ensuring plenty of freedom on the bike – awesome!

Shimano XT four-piston brakes provide powerful and reliable deceleration and are paired with 203 mm rotors, which suit the bike’s character and intended use. Shifting is taken care of by a wireless, electronic SRAM GX Eagle Transmission drivetrain, which might not be the bling flagship model, but is incredibly robust and ensures excellent shifting performance, even under load.

For the cockpit, ARC8 rely on an in-house, carbon BASLERSTAB one-piece stem/handlebar unit consisting of 800 mm bars and a virtual 50 mm stem with 9 degrees of backsweep. For the wheels, ARC8 rely on a robust DT Swiss EX 1700 SPLINE alloy wheelset and MAXXIS tires, combining a Minion DHF in the paper-thin EXO casing at the front and a DISSECTOR in the slightly tougher EXO+ casing at the rear, both in the harder MaxxTerra rubber compound. Heavy and aggressive riders who want to push the EXTRA to its limits should upgrade the tires – sticking with MAXXIS, the rear would benefit from the Doubledown casing, while the EXO+ with the softer MaxxGrip compound would be good up front. Rowdy riders might want to consider the Doubledown casing for both tires.

Tuning tip: tougher tires with more robust casing

Weitere Ausstattungsvarianten des ARC8 EXTRA 2.0 2024

The new ARC8 EXTRA 2.0 is available in three colours, Rubino Red, Sage Green and Silver Mist. If you prefer building your own bike, the Swiss manufacturer also offers a frameset with four different shock options. If your favourite shock isn’t included in the list, you can also get the frame without a shock. Our test bike is the mid-range spec variant, and retails at € 7,699. The entry level model costs € 6,499 and comes equipped with FOX Performance suspension and a complete Shimano SLX groupset. The flagship model retails for € 8,999 and features the same top-tier FOX Factory suspension as our test bike, but comes equipped with high-end Shimano XTR components and a DT Swiss carbon wheelset.

ARC8 also want to meet the demands of enduro racers and park rats, making it possible to increase the rear travel to 165 mm using a longer-stroke shock. However, this alteration calls for a longer 170 mm fork too, which ensures a slacker and thus more gravity-oriented geometry. ARC8 only offer the beefier enduro version in two spec variants, both of which come standard with a coil shock. The cheapest enduro model retails at € 5,999 and comes equipped with Shimano SLX components and Marzocchi suspension. The flagship coil model costs € 7,499 and features Shimano XT components and FOX Factory suspension, consisting of a 38 FLOAT Factory fork and matching FLOAT DHX2 Factory shock.

The geometry of the 2024 ARC8 EXTRA 2.0 AIR GX/Factory

The ARC8 EXTRA 2.0 is available in three sizes, S, M and L. Our test bike in size L has a super long 506 mm reach, which corresponds to a size XL with most other manufacturers. Therefore, we recommend downsizing if you’re on the fence between two sizes – reach intervals between sizes are pretty big! Stack height is pretty generous too, measuring 659 mm in frame size XL. The seat tube, on the other hand, is pleasantly short across the board, yet deep enough to accommodate long-travel dropper posts across all sizes, thus ensuring plenty of freedom of movement – we like that!

Size (Low)	S	M	L
Top tube	574 mm	606 mm	640 mm
Seat tube	380 mm	400 mm	440 mm
Head tube	100 mm	115 mm	135 mm
Head angle	63.5°	63.5°	63.5°
Seat angle	78.5°	78.5°	78.5°
Chainstay	442 mm	445 mm	448 mm
BB Drop	42 mm	42 mm	42 mm
Wheelbase	1,233 mm	1,273 mm	1,314 mm
Reach	446 mm	476 mm	506 mm
Stack	627 mm	641 mm	659 mm

The 2024 ARC8 EXTRA 2.0 AIR GX/Factory on the trail

With its long reach, the ARC8 EXTRA 2.0 AIR places you in a slightly stretched, sporty pedalling position, which is slightly front-heavy, despite the high stack. Nonetheless, this position is still comfortable enough to embark on long backcountry expeditions.

When the gradient steepens up, the heavy front end remains firmly planted on the ground, preventing the front wheel from lifting even on steeper climbs and always ensuring good traction up front. The firm rear suspension complements the sporty ride feeling and saves you from having to activate the climb switch on long, monotonous climbs. At the same time, the rear suspension is pleasantly active, with only minimal bob, striking an excellent balance between efficiency and comfort while still providing enough traction for technical ascents.

When gravity takes over, you’re well integrated with the bike, with the high handlebars preventing unpleasant OTB moments in steeper sections. The long reach and front-heavy riding position keep sufficient pressure on the front wheel, meaning that you don’t have to actively weight the front wheel through corners. On narrow trails with tight hairpins, the long wheelbase shows its dark side, making it hard for inexperienced riders to swing the rear wheel around the corner. Nevertheless, the low system weight and firm suspension ensure an agile character, allowing you to spontaneously change your line. In fast trail sections, the ARC8 feels reassuringly stable, mainly due to the long wheelbase. However, the EXTRA 2.0 AIR doesn’t handle unexpected side impacts too well, which is down to the low system weight and, above all, the light wheelset – and the firm suspension doesn’t help much either. The latter provides tons of feedback from the ground, more than some beginners would feel comfortable with. However, if you pick your lines carefully, the ARC8 rewards you with plenty of speed, no matter how rough the trail is. In a nutshell, the EXTRA 2.0 AIR both demands and rewards an active riding style, making it easy to pop off small ledges and generate lots of speed by pumping through rollers and berms.

Who should take a closer look at the new 2024 ARC8 EXTRA 2.0 AIR GX/Factory?

The new ARC8 EXTRA 2.0 AIR is a great choice if you’re looking for a unique Swiss bike with strong all-round qualities. With its excellent climbing qualities and comfortable riding position, it’s suitable for epic backcountry expeditions with plenty of altitude gain and even technical climbs. On demanding trails, however, it can quickly push inexperienced riders outside their comfort zone, requiring an experienced hand to fully unlock its potential. In the right hands, it can be a real trail ripper and can even handle the odd bike park session.

Our conclusions about the 2024 ARC8 EXTRA 2.0 AIR GX/Factory

With the EXTRA 2.0, ARC8 developed one of the lightest trail/enduro frames currently available on the market. The spec of our trail variant strikes an excellent price/performance ratio, except for the tires which don’t do justice to the bike’s character and intended use. In experienced hands, the ARC8 is an authentic trail bullet, provided you’re focused on the trail ahead and pick your lines carefully. At the same time, it’s a very capable all-rounder, combining excellent touring qualities and great trail performance.

For more info, please visit ARC8

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Words: Sebastian Dirscherl Photos: Peter Walker