Kruntsch! Behind the landing, the cranks make notches in the trail. The tyre gets wedged in the saddle. It rattles and scrapes like an old D-train entering the station. After 10 metres of grinding track, the test day for the Propain Tyee AM is over. The visual inspection reveals: Total damage to the carbon frame. The conclusion of the test so far: one of the coolest trail bikes in the test! Huh?
Back to the beginning. Like every year, we in the FREERIDE editorial team fight over which test fields make it into the magazine at the start of the season. If it were up to the boss of all bosses, Dimitri Lehner, we would only push double bridge monsters off bike park edges. "Big bikes or die!" is his battle cry at the meetings. Test boss (well, kind of boss, right?) Chris Schleker, on the other hand, has been annoying us for years with his ascetic act of pushing as little suspension travel as possible through the bumpiest terrain. "Popp or die!" is therefore his ambiguous counter-argument. What he means is the bounciness of tight suspension travel paired with handling somewhere between enduro and dirt bike. It's been called an "aggressive trail bike" for a year or two now, and since downhill isn't everyone's cup of tea, enduro is out again and all-mountain is totally BIKE, everyone's been pushing this new breed through the village. Us too, of course - until the doctor comes. Or the frame breaks. And here we are again in the middle of the test. Kruntsch!
You can find the test results of these trail bikes in the download area below:
- Canyon Spectral CF 8. EX
- Giant Trance Advanced I
- Kona Process 134 DL
- Last Clay Trail
- Propain Tyee AM Carbon Trail
Admittedly, the drop in Sölden was only really compatible with the basic idea of trail biking from Schlekernator's point of view: At full depth, there are just under 5 metres between the drop and the landing. This is also rather rocky and far away. You can only make it all the way down with a lot of speed, the aforementioned pop and switching off your brain. 140 millimetres of travel can therefore definitely reach the limit. But that's exactly the point: A bike that tempts you to tackle really nasty freeride stunts despite its all-mountain travel and fast handling is doing a lot of things right. You can ride down a trail on any bike. But HOW is the question! With shaved calves, an ill-fitting bird's nest on your head and rather cautious as soon as it gets a bit steeper? Buy an all-mountain bike! With a full face, knee pads and hydration pack, puffing uphill like a kettle and otherwise as sluggish as a sack of flour? Hey, full enduro, mate! Trail biking means: leave the throttle on, straight ahead, up and down! And if there's a root in the way, don't fearfully ride around it or sluggishly swallow it up, just pull away! The five bikes in the test are made for just that. Theoretically. Some manufacturers simply bolt a slightly longer fork into the bike, shorten the stem and say: "Here you go: aggressive trail bike!" It can work, but it doesn't have to. The Canyon Spectral CF EX pimped in this way tends more towards all-mountain with only slightly increased fun potential. A stark contrast: Load with the ideal trail bike of modern design: Popp like a bouncer, balanced handling, very direct and yet smooth and easy to swallow. Aggressive? No idea. Awesome? Definitely! Propain, Kona and Giant each have their own unique character. Propain with an ingenious handling mix and even smoother than Last. The heavy Kona with its own mix of firm rear end and low geo and Giant with razor-sharp performance for more advanced trail riders.
ConclusionThese trail bikes are - by FREERIDE standards - vehicles for individualists with a clear tendency to play with the ground. No sitting out on root carpets, letting the stroke work and only taking off on huge ramps. Instead, it's all about chipping and hopping around like downhillers, enduro riders and all-mountain bikers can't or don't want to do. Different. Freer. Better.
