No other bike category caused as many question marks on the faces of the testers as this one. Before the test, during the test and even now, on the return journey home from Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis. Are trail bikes the new enduro bikes? Can these bikes do everything best? First we discuss; in the end we argue. After more than two hours of heated debate, in which one interrupts the other, interjects, gets loud, lectures, we agree on one thing: if it says trail bike on the side, it doesn't necessarily mean trail bike inside!
For many years, we left trail bikes to our colleagues at our sister magazine BIKE. They tested the stiff bikes with treaded tyres, praised their light weight and propulsion, and criticised the lack of bottle cages and short stems. We, on the other hand, preferred to focus on the all-purpose Enduro weapon. We only occasionally focussed on exceptional trail bikes, such as the Rocky Mountain Thunderbolt BC-Edition (2016). Because some of these bikes had a playful geo. This meant you could glide over the trail on these tight bikes and shoot yourself into the air over roots like a slopestyler.
That was back then. A lot has happened in the meantime: enduro bikes have become downhill machines and have lost the aura of all-rounder bikes because they are too heavy, too bulky and too rubbery. The enduro bikes moved up to the downhillers and a gap was created.
The trail bikes, the new trail bikes, are now set to close the gap. They want to be able to do everything - trail laps, mountain tours, alpine downhills, even bike park use. And 130-140 millimetres of travel is enough for them. Ideally, they are nimble, manoeuvrable and powerful enough not to miss out on a descent. "I rode the wrong bike on my home circuit for years," wrote reader Christian Herbststreit and told us how much more fun he had on a trail bike. But what exactly is a trail bike? Not even the manufacturers seem to know. Everyone defines the bike category differently. In our last trail bike test, Pole sent us a ready-to-ride bike weighing 15.5 kilos, while Transition even sent us one weighing over 16 kilos. "A high-end trail bike should not weigh more than 13 kilos," claims bike designer Bodo Probst, who has already designed many lightweight yet powerful bikes. If you believe him, trail bikes have always been better. While the
While the average weight in our trail bike test 3/17 was 13 kilos, we are at almost 13.5 kilos in this test. And that's for models up to 7200 euros. This is largely due to the equipment. Unlike back then, manufacturers now specify their bikes with 29-inch wheels and fat enduro tyres. This naturally puts pressure on the scales; 27.5-inch models have become rare.
You can download the comparison test of six aggressive trail bikes from FREERIDE 3/2020 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
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