The best trekking bike parts from the leading supplier, once primarily intended for tough off-road use, have found their way into sporty touring and everyday bikes in an adapted form. In the price range between 1000 and 1300 euros, the "XT bikes" are technically very close together. Eight models in the TREKKINGBIKE test.
XT components are a promise of crisp function, high reliability in poor conditions and long durability. Just like the mountain bike version, the trekking XT combines ten sprockets at the rear with three chainrings at the front.
The decisive difference to the mountain bike version is the larger chainrings at the front: the largest chainring on the more speed-orientated trekking bike has 48 teeth, whereas for off-road it is only 42 teeth. The extreme mountain gears on trekking bikes are also not quite as short as on mountain bikes: 36 for rough terrain, 34 for trekking bikes. When "26/34" is no longer enough, pushing can be smart anyway. Shimano has also decided not to extend the gear range compared to the nine-speed trekking groupsets. The "smallest" and "largest" gears remain unchanged.
The bikes in the test:
Bergamont Horizon 8.2, http://www.bergamont.de
Carver Route 200, http://www.carver.de
Cube Delhi Pro, http://www.cube.eu
Gudereit SX-90, http://www.gudereit.de
Radon Sunset 9.0, http://www.radon-bikes.de
Schauff Catalonia, http://www.schauff.de
Steppenwolf Tiago 705 S, http://www.steppenwolf-bikes.de
Stevens Esprit, http://www.stevensbikes.de
The full-length article from issue 3/2012 is available as a free PDF download.
