The robust, suspension cross bike with knobbly tyres prefers forest and meadow tours. We tested ten of the latest generation of sports bikes.
The fitness bikes are also visually fast: filigree frames and rigid aluminium forks, narrow rims with high-pressure tyres and the radical omission of accessories suitable for everyday use such as mudguards, lights or stands keep the weights low. Between 9.65 and 10.25 kilos have to be set in motion - a pleasure to see how explosively and almost silently the training partners race forwards.
The versatile cross bikes are built for tougher conditions. With robust frames, suspension forks and wider, profiled tyres, they feel at home on all kinds of surfaces. The manufacturers offer a wide range of designs: cosy tourers come from Cobra, Wheeler and Winora. With relatively high weights, they offer a mix of parts from different group hierarchies, house brands and no-name parts, offering largely solid, but not necessarily long-term stable function.
The bikes in the test:
Fitness bikes
Bergamont Prime Speed
Fuji Absolute 1.0
Ghost Speedline 5700
Hercules Streetfit Light
Cross bikes
Cobra CC 5.0
Cube Nature
Felt QX 100
Rabeneick Sonos Elite
Wheeler Cross 6.5
Winora Nepal
