Somehow it is fascinating to observe how the bike classes shoot themselves in the foot through consistent further development. Let's take the enduro class. The current golden calf of the bike industry. Until recently, the Enduro was actually a very versatile bike. The Specialized Enduro S-Works was one of the first 160-millimetre bikes to weigh less than 12 kilos with a dropper post and full touring equipment. Awesome. You could ride long tours on it, do lightning-fast after-work laps and even make the bike park unsafe from time to time. But you couldn't win races with it. But because racing is the holy grail at the moment, at least for enduro bikes, the bike category has been increasingly trimmed for racing. And yet very few of us race them. Nevertheless, enduro bikes are getting longer and longer in the reach. Steering angles are getting slacker and slacker. The wheel size is increasing because it rolls faster over roots, regardless of whether it's heavier or more sluggish. And tyres are getting bigger, because flats are a thing of the past in races. Supergravity. Super tyres. Today, race-ready enduro bikes can weigh as much as 14 kilos and ride quite kneaded on normal trails.
Sure, you can reduce the suspension travel with three levers at the same time, adjust the geometry and probably correct the tyre pressure in the near future. But quickly whipping round the house? Race your mates on the climbs? Use every root as a launch pad? Having fun and maximising your traction on trails that don't point 45 degrees downwards? Nope, give it a rest! Too exhausting with these things. The enduro concept as an excuse: The quote from freeride legend Richie Schley, stolen from a German MTB web platform, fits the bill: "Enduros are the new freeriders!" Hmm.
So what are the new enduro bikes? We don't know and don't want to know. But we do know what's really fun on the home circuit: trail bikes! These are not to be confused with the classic all-mountain bike, even if the suspension travel is similar (120 to 150 millimetres). AM bikes often have 29-inch tyres (yuck!), usually quite long stems and rather cross-country-heavy equipment (aargh!). They are optimised to test the limits of your own lactate tolerance, but not the limits of the trail. By our definition, good trail bikes are firm and dynamic in acceleration (like an all-mountain bike), but more stable. With a shorter cockpit and fun-oriented equipment: chain guides, wider handlebars, thicker tyres.
You can find these trail bikes in the test:
- Alutech ICB 2.0
- Devinci Troy SX
- Ghost Slamr X LC 10
- Popain Twoface 3.1
- Rocky Mountain Thunderbolt 790 BC
- Specialised Stumpjumper FSR Expert
Check. You have to look for bikes like this, because not every manufacturer offers such a hybrid of all-mountain and enduro. The ICB 2.0 shows that the general public is interested in the concept, with the MTB-News internet platform calling on the community to vote for the second time. The first swarm intelligence bike two years ago was - logically - an enduro bike. This time, the vote was in favour of a trail bike concept. The majority were in favour of less suspension travel and a maintenance-free frame concept without adjustment bells and whistles. Alutech is now launching this democracy trail bike in series production. We were at least as excited about its performance as that of the Rocky Mountain Thunderbolt BC-Edition: the same lightweight carbon frame as the large manufacturer's All Mountain, but more travel at the front, thicker tyres, more stable parts and the Point 9 adjustment concept for the characteristic curve and geo look pretty ideal on paper.
Specialized was the second industry giant to send a bike into the test field. If Specialized had delivered the Enduro SX custom trail bike from chief tester Chris Schleker, the Americans would hardly have been able to take the test victory. But this frame will no longer be available in 2016. In its place came the new Stumpjumper. Until last year, the more fun version of the all-mountain classic was simply called Evo due to its slacker angles and longer suspension travel. For 2016, the Evo geometry is standard, making the Stumpjumper the new bike for everything. But is it a new-school trail bike in our eyes?
The TwoFace from Propain also had to face this question. Explicitly advertised on the website as a trail bike for more fun on rough trails, it was the only bike in the test with two chainrings at the front and a somewhat dizzy RockShox Revelation fork. This was in stark contrast to the rather slack 66 mm head angle and the rear end, which, as experience has shown, is easy to swallow, from the proven gravity experts at Propain. The concept of the major German manufacturer Ghost is interesting: candidate number five, the Slamr X, is one of three build options of one and the same frame. From all-mountain to enduro, it should fit everything. The X version is dubbed an aggressive trail bike and achieves its slacker angles thanks to the longer 150 millimetre spike at the front. Is that enough?
For once, we were spoilt for choice with the last participant in the test round. Devinci actually has two 140cc trail bikes in its 2016 programme. We wanted the carbon Troy, but unfortunately only got the significantly heavier aluminium model. Bummer. What surprised us in general is that not one manufacturer in this category sticks to 26 inches. It would make perfect sense here. In hilly, flat terrain, bikes have to be constantly accelerated. That's where 650B and 29-inch bikes lose out. The handling of the small wheels is undisputedly the most agile. And of course they are also lighter. The argument that this is what the bike industry wants and that the customer actually wants something else falls short. After all, the Alutech ICB 2.0 was developed by the customer. And the majority of them obviously wanted the larger wheels. Too bad, because the custom reference bike Specialized Enduro SX (see left) showed us time and again in comparison just how lively 26-inch wheels can be. Only one of the bikes in this test came close to its dynamic handling.
Of course, the bikes were mainly tested on our home circuit, the Isar trails. Here you can experience almost 350 metres of altitude on 25 kilometres of the finest forest-root biking. The climbs are rarely longer than 200 metres and only climb 50 to 60 metres in altitude. Over the years, various jumps, kickers, edges and root ramps (we really have no idea where they come from!) have formed along the entire length to the left and right of the riverbank, inviting you to enjoy short-distance flights. Otherwise, it's all about pedalling to keep up the momentum. Such conditions can be found almost everywhere where there are hardly any mountains but lots of hills - in other words, in large parts of Germany away from the Alps. We are reluctant to ride such routes privately on enduro bikes. With trail bikes, you are in your ideal element. Every model has been beaten around the circuit once. Because we know every puddle here by first name and Chris Schleker has ridden the route around 2356 times with different variations of the concept (see box below), that was enough for a meaningful result.
But we didn't leave out bike parks either. The aim was not to destroy the test bikes for the hell of it, but rather to confront the new developments in many of the parks with appropriate vehicles. The latest generation of flow trails (Fiss Ladis, Sölden, etc.), which have been dug into the mountain at a cost of millions of euros, are ideal for this bike category. Enduros often get bogged down in the push zones and cost power when doubling. In addition, the far back riding position requires maximum physical effort, otherwise there is a lack of pressure on the front wheel in berms. Modern trail bikes don't have these problems. Here, we noticed almost as much as on the Isar how big the differences are between a good trail bike and a good enduro bike: without a stopwatch in their heads, the stress of competition and optimising their downhill performance, trail bikes have secretly developed into the better fun machines. However, they offer less reserves and require a high level of riding skill for stunts and jumps.
