Mountain bikes are becoming more and more similar. The classic rear triangle design, in which the shock is positioned in front of the seat tube, combines most of the design advantages and is therefore becoming more and more established. There are also single-pivot models with generous swingarms, VPP concepts and bikes with a DW-Link rear triangle. Extravagant, even unusual designs have become rare. Dazzling concepts, which were regularly presented by lateral thinkers in the 90s and 00s, have had to give way to the industry's drive for efficiency.
Vincent Droux surprised us all the more in 2015 with his new brand Bold. A fully with the shock inside the frame was revolutionary. The design of the Bold bikes: strikingly different. The function and handling: amazingly good. This was confirmed by our Test in BIKE 8/19. The Swiss start-up Bold didn't go through the roof, but has established itself and was bought by industry giant Scott - including its patents - in 2019. Since then, the competition has been waiting for Scott to present mountain bikes with integrated shocks.
Before the revolution in frame design possibly reaches mainstream status with Scott's market power, we wanted to know: How does the Bold, and in particular its patented rear triangle, perform in tough continuous use? To find out, our long-term tester Daniel Staub travelled to all the bike parks in the northern Alps. During the past season, the Unplugged Volume 2 had to hurtle down 50,500 metres of descents, peppered with banked turns, drops, wall rides and jumps.
You can find the endurance test of the Bold Unplugged Volume 2 from BIKE 11/2020 as a PDF in the download area below.
The test costs 0.99 euros. Why not free of charge? Because quality journalism has a price. In return, we guarantee independence and objectivity. This applies in particular to the tests in BIKE. We don't pay for them, but the opposite is the case: we charge for them - hundreds of thousands of euros every year.
