The Lorax is an iconic defender of wild and natural spaces. The Lorax has also been our iconic drop-bar bike in the lineup since 2016. – Esker Cycles
The next generation of Esker backcountry exploration to bear the Lorax name is a go-anywhere, steel, dropbar mountain bike can take you from your town trails to the Tour Divide and everywhere in between.
Key Features:
- NEW – Esker’s new FORK YEAH! steel fork
- NEW – 2026 Colors. Ranchera and Lunar are the paint colors for 2026. The 2026 Lorax also introduces a new option in the Esker cromo frame lineup – “Darkness” ED Black.
- NEW – Pricing and specs! Read more below.
- 29″ wheels
- Clearance up to a 2.6″ tire
- Custom Tubing – Seamless, Quadruple-Butted, Tapered, Drawn Over Mandrel, Size-Specific, ED Coated, 4130 Chromoly
- Rack Mounts, Frame Bag Mounts, and 3-Pack Mounts
- Portage Dropout – for adjustability, singlespeed and upgradeability.
- UDH Compatible
Pricing: Framesets start at $1,250. Completes start at $2,200
Fork Yeah!
It’s also new fork day! The Lorax will be sold as a frame and fork combo with our new Fork Yeah! steel rigid fork.
Key Features:
- 495mm Axle to Crown
- 1 1/2″ – 1 1/8″ Tapered Steer Tube
- 44mm Offset
- 110x15mm Boost Spacing
- 180mm Post Mount native
- Clearance for up to a 29×3.0″ Tire
- Custom Tubing – Seamless, Custom-Butted, ED Coated, 4130 Chromoly, Tapered Legs
- Low-Rider Rack Mounts, 3-Pack Mounts, and Crown Eyelet Mounts
- Available separately for $250 starting in May, currently only available with a Lorax.
The Lorax is equipped with everything you would expect from an Esker: External cable routing, a threaded bottom bracket, and 44mm head tube. The Lorax also has 22 attachment points for all of your adventure accessories. This also includes top tube, rack, and fender mounts built into the frame.
What’s New for 2026?
The Lorax has been our dirt path explorer, all the way back to the Advocate days. Its gone through lots of updates over the years, and this year is no exception. But the only thing that stays the same? The frame! We’ve gotten amazing reviews from media and customers alike, so we left the best part alone, and didnt change anything on the frame for 2026 except the color offerings. But we’ve revisited almost everything else:
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Pricing – Tariff price increases sucked. And we feel the pinch, just like everyone else out there. So we put most of our effort into finding ways to reduce the price, while keeping the experience awesome. As well – all prices listed here are now fully inclusive of all “market conditions”, and there are no longer any surcharges on our site. Through a variety of changes in spec, we have Lorax completes starting at just $2,200. How did we drop the price by almost 25% in the age of everything going up? Read on….
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Paint – We absolutely love a classy paint job, and we have two beautiful options this year in Ranchera and Lunar colorways. But paint is expensive, and actually makes up a big chunk of the cost of a frame. At the same time, we’ve been torture testing our ED Coating by riding it raw through Minnesota winters. As always, each Esker cromo frame is ED coated for corrosion protection, and now some of them are offered in bare ED finish, which we call “Darkness”. This skips the cost of paint, to keep that option lower priced. And you might start to see this as a theme on all Esker cromo frames……
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Fork Yeah! – Our new Fork Yeah! cromo fork has all the things you want – 3-pack mounts, rack mounts, and amazing ride quality. Our tester TJ even asked “what black magic” we used to make it ride better than the carbon fork he replaced. But more than anything, Fork Yeah! helps us keep the total cost of the Lorax down, while keeping the ride stoke high!
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New Specs – We’ve added Microshift! The Sword Black 1×10 group is amazing for the money and a great place to start your Lorax. We’ve also come up with our own Esker “House” wheelset, using parts from the same vendors that supply some of our current name-brand wheel offerings, but saving money because they are black with no logos. And other smart, small spec choices throughout the entire lineup are made to keep the Lorax as affordable as possible.
2026 Esker Lorax Specs:
Frame –
- Lorax Frameset – Lorax Frame / Fork Yeah! Fork
- Darkness ED Black – $1,250
- Painted Option – Ranchera or Lunar – +$150
Complete –
- Lorax Complete – starting at $2,200
- Fork Yeah! Fork
- Microshift Sword 1×10 drivetrain
- Avid BB7 brakes
- Esker “House” wheelset
- PNW Bar/Stem and Ergon saddle with alloy seatpost
- Maxxis Ikon 29×2.2 folding tires
- Lorax Complete Options
- Painted Option – Ranchera or Lunar – +$150
- Forks –
- Reba Gold 120mm – +$300
- ENVE MTN Carbon fork – +$450
- SID Ultimate 120mm – +$900
- Cockpit –
- Add PNW Loam Dropper – +$200
- Drivetrain –
- SRAM Apex 1 Eagle w/ Hydraulic brakes – +$500
- Shimano XT/GRX 12 speed – +$800
- Wheelset –
- Industry Nine 1/1 Enduro S – +$500
- Industry Nine 1/1 Enduro S Carbon – +$1000
- BERD Hawk 27 – +$1600
Learn more at the Esker Cycles Website