Mount Tamalpais, sometime in the seventies: a couple of hippies race down the forest roads on their so-called "clunker bikes". They went uphill in pick-ups. But there wasn't always a volunteer willing to squeeze behind the wheel of the van. So the boys around Gary Fisher and Sean Kelly had no choice but to crank up the mountain themselves. And so the bike pioneers not only invented mountain biking. They also created the enduro concept - cranking uphill yourself just to ride down. The difference between then and now are the bikes. Today, most shops stock models with 150 millimetres of suspension travel. Thanks to their sophisticated kinematics, they can be ridden uphill without any problems. The weights are also kept within limits. At just over 14 kilos, they undercut the historic "clunkers" by almost ten kilos. The new enduro bikes therefore appear to be the epitome of the mountain bike.
To find out exactly that, we invited bikes from nine manufacturers to the test. The prices should be around 2500 euros.
You can find these models in the PDF download:
Bergamont Evolve Enduro, Canyon Nerve ESX8, Cube Fritzz, Gary Fisher Fat Possum LX, Ghost ERT 7500, Giant Reign 2, Hai Ride, Specialized Enduro Elite, Steppenwolf Tycoon FR
