The Ice Cream Truck is the bike we reach for when we don’t really know what the trail has in store. That’s been the case since we first launched it, but this newest edition turns that trail-shredding ability up to 11. While we could certainly throw out terms like “confidence-inspiring” and “traction-laden” to describe the Ice Cream Truck, those phrases are mostly bullshit, so we’re not going to do that. We’re not here to inspire you, and we didn’t laden it with anything. What we did do was design a monolith of a trail bike that doesn’t give two shits about what’s in front of it.
With clearance for a full 5” tire on 100mm rims and trail-ready geometry, Ice Cream Truck solves the problem of having to choose between a fat bike and a trail bike. Now, “trail-ready geometry” can mean different things to different people. For us, it means a long toptube, short seatstays, and a headtube angle somewhere in the neighborhood of sixty-eight to sixty-nine degrees. While the Ice Cream Truck has always had those attributes, we tweaked things a bit on this latest iteration to push its trail abilities even further. To start, we shortened the chainstays by ten millimeters and added a bend in the seat tube ala Krampus and Karate Monkey. These subtle changes keep the wheelbase short and the geometry tight and maneuverable on fast, technical terrain. For additional control on gnarly descents, we gave Ice Cream Truck the same stealth dropper post routing as our other trail bikes.
The Ice Cream Truck retains its 44mm headtube and suspension-corrected fork, so you can easily throw some front suspension on should the terrain call for it. However, if you find yourself out on the trail for a few days, the stock fork is equipped to handle any number of bikepacking setups. It has a few select braze-ons like three-pack mounts and mid-blade rack mounts. To increase crank compatibility, the Ice Cream Truck now utilizes a threaded bottom bracket. Speaking of cranks, we spec the complete option of ICT with a 1x drivetrain. In the rear, Ice Cream Truck uses the same dropout as the rest of our trail bikes which allows for the use of 197 x 15mm thru-axle hubs or 190mm QR hubs.
From rocky and rutted out sand traps, log- and root-covered ribbons of twisty singletrack, and miles of powdery snow, the Ice Cream Truck can handle it all. Hell, you could probably even hop over a grizzly if the situation arises. Probably.
