What we would have given for a bike like that," sighs freeride inventor Richie Schley, referring to the enduro bikes from 2020. And the Canadian adds: "These bikes are safer, faster and more off-road capable than the fat freeriders we used to dare to do the hair-raising stunts for our action films years ago."
The professional biker is referring to the flat geometries, low centre of gravity, wide cockpits and, above all, the forgiving suspension of modern enduro bikes. In other words: Enduros have never been as good as they are now and never as fast - downhill! Our test bikes showed very different characters: While Cube and Bulls still define the enduro category in a classic way, namely as bikes for every area of use, YT, Propain and Giant are targeting the downhill, in other words: they are particularly robust and smooth-running and therefore unfortunately also heavy. You need to be aware of this, because the weight limits the range of use. Although the downhill qualities are very important to us - we weighted the downhill with 70 per cent and the touring ability with only 30 per cent - some of the overall weights are simply too high. The heaviest bike in the test field (YT) weighs a whopping 15.6 kilos without pedals. This makes every uphill a torture, even undulating trails become a pain, because the bike has to be accelerated again and again. You need to know this when looking for the right enduro bike.
In short: When making a purchase decision, the buyer must ask themselves what they primarily want to do with the bike. If they often want to ride their bike around the house and rarely go to the bike park, Cube or Bulls are the right choice. On shuttle tours and bike park missions, on the other hand, the downhill specialists YT, Propain or Giant are the most fun.
All the bikes have one thing in common - they all roll on large 29-inch wheels. This ensures a smooth ride and excellent rollover behaviour. Whether the frame material is carbon (Canyon, YT, Cube, Bulls) or aluminium (Propain, Giant) makes no real difference in this price range and is therefore more a matter of taste.
We tested these enduro bikes:
- Bulls Wild Creed
- Canyon Strive CF 70
- Cube Stereo 150 C:62 CL
- Giant Reign 29 1
- Propain Tyee AL 29
- YT Capra Comp 29
You can download the comparison test of the six enduro bikes between 3000 and 4000 euros from FREERIDE 4/2020 as a PDF below the article. The test costs 1.99 euros.
Why not free of charge? Because quality journalism has a price. In return, we guarantee independence and objectivity. This applies in particular to the tests in FREERIDE. We don't pay for them, but the opposite is the case: we charge for them, namely tens of thousands of euros every year.
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Laurin Lehner
Editor
