From the meagrely equipped carbon file to the solid aluminium racer with fireworks of equipment, you are confronted with a broad spectrum in the 2000 euro class. However, with Focus and Transalp, only two manufacturers in the upper middle class rely on aluminium tubing. This results in an additional weight of just under 500 grams, which has to be made up for in terms of equipment. In direct comparison with the XT-equipped marathon bikes from Bulls, Cube and Radon, this is an ambitious task. However, Focus has gone its own way with the factory version of the Black Forest. Standing out instead of uniformity, simplicity instead of lavish equipment. The Black Forest rolls onto the starting line just as the Focus product managers imagine their perfect mid-range hardtail: with a 1x11 groupset, clean cockpit and minimalist design. Hungry for racing kilometres and at the same time solid enough for everyday use.
You can find these race hardtails in the test:
- BMC Teamelite TE02 29 SLX
- Bulls Bushmaster 29
- Cube Reaction GTC SL 29 (BIKE tip: test winner)
- Focus Black Forest 29R 1.0 Factory
- Giant XTC Advanced 29er 1
- KTM Aera 29 Pro
- Radon Black Sin 8.0 (BIKE tip: test winner)
- Rose Mr Big 2
- Stevens Sonora
- Transalp Ambition Team X12 2.0 (BIKE tip: test winner)
Carbon or aluminium: eight carbon fibre frames in the test
Transalp, on the other hand, tries to compensate for the lack of carbon fibre with equipment highlights such as Hope hubs, acceleration-ready wheels and a flood of Shimano XT components. However, the masses take a different approach: the carbon frame is usually orientated towards the high-priced top models, while manufacturers prefer to use Shimano XT parts for the equipment and fill them with SLX components where this is not possible due to the price calculation. Direct mail order companies such as Rose and Radon naturally find it easier to do this than BMC, for example, as they don't have the dealer margin. However, a lavish spec alone does not make a race hardtail with which you can collect Strava KOMs like loyal hearts and hold the rear wheel of fullys on the descents.
Which bike ends up at the top?
To win big in the BIKE test, you have to score points in every category. Uphill handling, downhill qualities and the composition of the components weigh particularly heavily. But things like paint quality, warranty and bottle cage mounts are also assessed. Cube, Bulls and Stevens can keep up with the strong mail order companies in every criterion.
The detailed Points table for the test of race hardtails around 2000 euros can be found below as a free PDF download.
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