He was just ahead of me and travelling at lightning speed when FREERIDE tester Julian suddenly finds himself lying in the undergrowth in the next bend, moaning to himself. "Sh*** ice slab!" The frozen snow patches on the trail are really treacherous. Unfortunately, we couldn't avoid them - during our test in January, mainland Europe was one big cold chamber. Julian's right arm is swelling visibly. The test is over for him.
Julian was particularly looking forward to the first test of the year, just like the rest of us. That's because the 180 millimetre class was on the agenda - the big freeriders. This bike category makes the start of the season easy; with their potent chassis and solid add-on parts, they give the winter-loving rider a lot of security even in difficult terrain and forgive a careless riding style. Of course, only our roughest test track in South Tyrol was an option for the robust candidates: 1000 metres of rough terrain with thick rocks, tight bends and jumps. At full throttle and without a break, you can complete a descent in 15 minutes. Within three days, each bike had to descend four times. That's a net 4000 metres in altitude and over an hour of pure downhill riding time per bike before a verdict is reached. In the evening, we felt like we'd been massaged with a jackhammer.
But in our opinion, the procedure is essential for a meaningful test result in this category. Although it ages the FREERIDE crew in fast motion, it also ages the bikes. Poorly stored wheels, weak brakes and design flaws become unpleasantly noticeable after the second descent at the latest. And although it has to be said that the bikes really are getting better and better, they are still far from perfect. Especially not for bean counters like us.
You can find the test results of these 180 freeriders in the PDF download below:
- ALUTECH WILDSAU TRAIL X
- ABANSHEE SCYTHE
- BERGAMONT BIG AIR TEAM
- COMMENCAL SUPREME 1
- CORSAIR MAELSTROM
- LAPIERRE FROGGY 718
- MOREWOOD ZUZA
- SANTA CRUZ BULLIT
- SOLID MISSION 7 PRO
- SPECIALISED DEMO 7 II
- TREK SESSION 88 FR
