On July 27th, Rocky Mountain Underground (RMU) held a launch event for their first-ever MTB, the Nighttrain. Suspension guru Dave Weagle, who designed the Nighttrain\u2019s Orion linkage, was on hand to talk about the bike\u2019s development. Between Weagle and some of RMU\u2019s product development and marketing staff, we heard how the brand\u2019s first bike came to be.<\/p>\n
The conversation wasn\u2019t too technical, focusing partly on RMU\u2019s foray into the MTB realm, but I picked up some interesting info about the Nighttrain and what else is coming. First up, there are more bikes on the way! They specifically mentioned 140mm and 160mm travel bikes and an eMTB are already in the works.<\/p>\n The most interesting thing I heard from Weagle himself was that the Orion linkage was developed as a platform (which now looks significantly different than the Orion suspension system introduced on Esker mountain bikes<\/a>), so RMU can create multiple bike models around it. For a small company, this makes things far less expensive than developing each bike entirely on its own. Weagle told me if the Nighttrain was its own project, it may not even feature the dual idler, dual chain design! Of course this configuration works very well with the mid-pivot layout, but creating a linkage that could be adapted to several different bikes was the main priority. Weagle mentioned this linkage should jive particularly well with RMU\u2019s incoming eMTB.<\/p>\n![\"RMU](\"https:\/\/bikerumor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/RMU-Nighttrain-launch-2nd-proto.jpg\")
![\"RMU](\"https:\/\/bikerumor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/RMU-Nighttrain-DH-build.jpg\")