Two centimetres make a big difference. This applies to many areas of life. Model measurements in Heidi Klum's Peeping Tom show or hand luggage, for example. With bikes, the centimetre poker refers to top tube length, tyre width or handlebar dimensions. And the perceived result: fits or doesn't fit. Even with suspension travel in the all-mountain category, two centimetres make a huge difference.
But what does all-mountain mean? For some, it might mean conquering the technical trails in the Fichtelgebirge, plus the occasional marathon. Others feel at home on the toughest Alpine trails. In practice, all-mountain bikes are the golden mean, freedom on two wheels. It doesn't get more versatile than this. No restrictions when your mates call you to bolt down the forest tracks, no dropouts when the bike club invites you to go trail-rocking on Lake Garda. You look good with wide trousers and a rucksack and also with a tight Lycra suit. The width of your tyres defines your mission - do you mount narrow, fast speedsters or 2.4-inch off-road eaters?
But back to the two-centimetre question. The Allrounder class offers two suspension travel categories. We call 120-millimetre suspensions All Mountain Sport, from 140 millimetres travel we speak of All Mountain Plus.
The crucial question is: Who needs how much travel? The bikes in our test are as varied as the opinions. Our test field consists of 15 models: Five 120 mm bikes and ten 140 mm bikes to choose from. All of them go through our standardised test programme of laboratory and practical tests.
The test results of all All Mountains can be found below as a PDF download.
