Cheap downhill bikes on test: Plenty of safety, suspension travel and fun

Update: This article was first published on 08.10.2025. We have now updated it again.

Double bridge bikes are at the bottom of the food chain. Like great white sharks, king tigers and sea eagles. We have set our sights on three of these trail predators and tell you which of these wild fellows suits you best.

Have you ever ridden a big bike?

No? That's what we thought. Only very few BIKE readers have had the pleasure of riding a real downhiller - i.e. a bike with a double bridge fork and massive suspension travel, because that's what the term big bike means. Everything is big here: Suspension travel, chassis, speed.

We don't know the exact figures, but the proportion of big bike riders among BIKE readers is guaranteed to be in the low single-digit percentage range. We even had to proselytise the youngster among the BIKE testers, Max Fuchs (24). But his bike euphoria knows no bounds. We, the dudes from FREERIDE with experience of suspension travel, demanded: "Come on Max, your first time is due!" Last year the time had come: big biking with Max in Leogang. After the session, his eyes sparkled: he was in love with big bike shredding.

Strong performance

In love - anything else would have surprised us, because no other bike class combines so many superhero attributes: Full throttle, full on, full control, full comfort - no other bike offers so much downhill performance. And no other bike boosts self-confidence as much as a big bike. This is mainly due to the massive double bridge fork. The protruding fork tubes give the bikes a motocross look and the rider a "what the hell are you going to do" feeling. This creates the feeling of having fallen into a magic potion - like the fat Gaul with the striped trousers. The Romans can then attack in legions. Or in our case: the bike park stunts.

Disadvantage area of application

With so much emotion and performance, you inevitably ask yourself: Why don't we all ride big bikes then? And that brings us to the downside of this bike class, or rather its extremely wide range of applications. That's the crux of the matter. You can ride incredibly well downhill on a big bike, but you can only ride downhill. This relegates these suspension travel wonders to the bike park, because that's the only way up.

In the last few years, big bikes have also faced stiff competition: enduro bikes have built up more and more muscle. Spurred on by racing, the former all-rounders hypertrophied into mini downhillers and e-MTBs with their low centres of gravity, full suspension and fat tyres also came close to the organic big bikes. As a result, only a few manufacturers can afford the luxury of having such bikes in their portfolio, and when they do, it is usually for image reasons. The sales figures alone rarely justify the development effort. "Developing big bikes is a bottom-line business," one manufacturer told us, "with a maximum of 400 bikes sold per year, you'll never recoup the high production costs."

Why our test selection?

Because we want to show you the cheapest way to get into big bike riding. Because firstly, a big bike is usually a second or even third bike, so the budget is often already too exhausted for the top model to be worth €6,000 or more. And secondly, the bikes we tested offer excellent value for money.

So we asked the German mail-order companies Canyon, Propain and YT Industries to give us their tightest model. Canyon sent its recently introduced Sender with new high-pivot kinematics into the race, Propain the freerider Spindrift with double bridge fork instead of its DH flagship Rage and YT the bestseller Tues, albeit in the carbon version Core 2. The aluminium Core 1 in 27.5 inches would have been the absolute price breaker for 3299 euros.

Test in the Leogang bike park

Terrain steps, root fields, step downs, drops, stone fields, braking grooves, wall rides - we fed the three Versender big bikes with everything we could find in the Leogang bike park. Yummy, yummy. The greedy two-wheeled carnivores devoured the heavy fare with skin and hair. We even threw the legendary "Black Snake" World Cup descent at the test bikes.

The big bikes in the evaluation

To Robert Lemke's famous question from "What am I?", we would only know one answer: it doesn't matter! Because each of the three big bikes generates a lot of riding fun in the park. The Canyon Sender is designed for speed, straight-line stability and maximum grip. If you're looking for a bike that offers maximum riding safety in the roughest terrain, this is the bike for you.

>> You want to know how the Grip-Monster Canyon Sender rides? Then click here <<

The bikes from Propain and YT, on the other hand, are designed with a less pointed range of use and are similar in character. Both generate more counter-pressure and more direct riding behaviour. This makes these speedsters more agile, lighter and more jumping orientated - but also a little less comfortable.

>> The Parkbike in the driving report: Park shredding without limits <<

YT Tues - the carbon bike with its chic frame was the testers' favourite in the practical test, but was slightly downgraded in terms of equipment. Tip for savers: There is an even cheaper model, albeit with an aluminium frame, the YT Tues Core 1 in 27.5 inches for 3299 euros. However, the bike mail order company from Forchheim is currently in financial turmoil and wants to reorganise itself. It is currently uncertain whether bikes can be ordered and, above all, delivered.

>> The testers' favourite in a practical test: YT Tues - chic all-rounder <<

With so much emotion and performance, you inevitably ask yourself: Why don't we all ride big bikes? - BIKE tester Dimitri Lehner

Conclusion from BIKE test editor Max Fuchs

Of the three direct-to-consumer bikes, only the Propain rolls into the test cellar with an aluminium chassis - clever, because this leaves more budget for high-end parts: the best suspension elements, powerful brakes, classy wheels. As a result, the cheapest bike on test scores the most equipment points. In practice, it had to admit defeat to the YT by a wafer-thin margin, but still took the overall test victory. Canyon only came third due to its excellent range of use.

The test results

The bikes tested

Canyon Sender CFR Underdog 18.52 kg /200/200 mm /29"/27.5" 4499 Euro / Carbon

Propain Spindrift 5 AL 17.39 kg /200/180 mm /29"/27.5" 4204 Euro / aluminium

YT Tues Core 2 17.38 kg / 200/200 mm / 29" / 4299 Euro / Carbon

Review of the Canyon Sender CFR Underdog

Review of the Propain Spindrift 5 AL Park

Review of the YT Tues Core 2