Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2023 i Mountain Bike Rider

It feels weird writing this, but after 26 years and 334 issues, this copy of mbr you’re holding in your hands will be the last. Although there are many of you loyal readers out there, the dramatic rise in print, paper, and distribution costs in the last year has made producing the physical magazine unsustainable. I’ve been here for 270 of those issues, and at the helm for 101. But like any great journey, the stats only tell a fraction of the story. It’s the experiences and the people I’ve met along the way that really stand out. And in the same way that every amazing trail is full of ups and downs, there has been plenty of hard work, and a fair bit of stress, but the good times…

Geometron is one of the most influential brands in mountain biking. Alongside Mondraker, much of the credit for today’s modern sizing and geometry must surely go to the Forest of Dean-based firm, which for a decade or more told all of us we were riding bikes too darned small. Of course it was right, and the industry and riders slowly crept closer to the geometry charts of Geometron’s now-retired G13, a bike built by Nicolai, but radically slackened and lengthened by Geometron. Job done then. Except, the longer, lower and faster philosophy was only half the theme dreamed up by Chris Porter and Geometron. That left the complementary other half, the eventual elimination of the rear derailleur, hanging in the breeze. Part two begins right here, with the brand’s latest…

Riding a new trail is possibly the most exciting part of mountain biking. Throw in the idea you could be riding something secret or relatively unknown and you’ve got a recipe for a brilliant ride. Actually finding the new stuff has always been tricky though, and it can prove really frustrating to be in a new riding spot, knowing there are great trails within touching distance… if only you could find them. Never fear, over the years we’ve developed quite an arsenal of techniques to help you do just that. So whether you’re new to the sport, or an old hand at knobbly tyres, keep reading to figure out the best ways to access the good stuff. 1 USE A MAP BEST FOR: Battery life and low-signal areas, people who…

£9,349 • 29/27.5in • canyon.com I just got back from a week up in Scotland and ticked off Glentress, Tarland and Whinlatter and the natural trails in Innerleithen, including a day at the infamous Golfie. A lot of the tracks were new to me but the Canyon Spectral:ON CFR never put a foot wrong, although I can’t say the same for myself, as I was driving home nursing a bruised shoulder after a close encounter with a tree. One of the pleasing aspects of this trip was how much run time I was getting out of the 900Wh battery. If I nursed the bike up the long hills in the Trail setting I’d easily get a full day’s riding on a single charge. Yes, the 900Wh battery is an extra…

£8,200 • 29in • saddleback.co.uk What attracted you to the Pivot Firebird? I’ve long been a fan of the brand, ever since owning and racing a Pivot Les (hardtail) way back in 2011. Despite going through a phase where their frames were a shade on the ugly side, the new crop of models have been some of the most well proportioned and beautiful bikes on the market and consistently well received. I’m also a DW-Link aficionado as I love pedalling up hills and the Firebird looked to be a great mix of long-travel fun and all-day pedalling efficiency. Did you change anything straightaway? The day after I picked up the Firebird I went straight to the Alps for two weeks, so I didn’t have time to change anything. I had…

£225 SPECIFICATION Weight: 631g (medium) • Sizes: S, M, L • Colours: Black, green, white, purple, red/black • Contact: specialized.com If the extra weight, bulk, and feeling of confinement puts you off wearing a full-face helmet, then let me introduce you to the Specialized Gambit. Just a few hundred grams heavier than most open-face shells, and with copious ventilation, you don’t have to give up that feeling of freedom to gain a useful level of additional protection. The first time I picked up the Gambit I was amazed by its low weight. At 631g, it’s around 100g lighter than the Troy Lee Designs Stage helmet, and 200g lighter than the latest Fox Proframe. Only the Dainese Linea 01 undercuts it on the scales. And it’s noticeable, as your neck muscles…

£5,200 (SALE PRICE £4,175) Hot on the heels of the Trek Fuel EXe, the new Fuel EX shares a similar silhouette, albeit without the compact TQ motor and 360Wh battery. And just like the EXe, the EX is available with an aluminium or full carbon frame, where both options sport integrated down tube storage. Unlike the Specialized Stumpjumper Evo Elite Alloy that’s also in this head-to-head test, Trek doesn’t currently offer a high-end alloy build on the EX, so we went with the Gen 6 Fuel EX 9.7 XT, which is the entry-level carbon bike. With the more expensive carbon frame, the build kit clearly isn’t as bling as on the Specialized, which we’ll get to in just a minute. First, let’s take a closer look at the frame. To…

£11,000 They teased the new Epic World Cup on the race circuit for several months, and SRAM even revealed it before the official launch, but Specialized still had a surprise up its sleeve. Rather than replacing the long-serving Brain-equipped Epic full-suspension bike, Specialized announced that the Epic WC meant the death of its top-end hardtails. And it certainly flavours a lot of the ride feel and aesthetics it delivers too. With slender seatstays aligned with the top tube, that largely swallows the unique shock, the Epic World Cup certainly looks like a hardtail. The 430mm chainstay length is exactly the same as the old S-Works Epic Hardtail too, and the BB is only 4mm higher to accommodate the 75mm frame travel. Look closer though and you’ll see the Epic WC…

It’s a common theme with bike testing that you spend much longer riding the bikes you struggle to sync with, and that’s definitely the case here. We literally spent months setting and re-setting sag levels, tweaking the compression and rebound damping on the Specialized Epic World Cup and riding it in as many different situations as possible. In the process we figured out that there are some things the Epic WC does very well. The ‘take no prisoners’ vibe is a psychological gift for flat-out short-blast attacks. The split-personality suspension works very well in firmer modes when powering from smooth surfaces to stutter-bumps (or vice versa). Fixed seatpost aside, the spec is pretty much perfect premium race gear and its clean looks were universally praised. Now for the negatives. The…

MOST WANTED SANTA CRUZ HECKLER SL FROM £6,699 If we had to guess, mid-powered e-bikes are the future of mountain biking. Every year the motors used get stronger, lighter, and smaller, while the bikes feel more real, and that is drawing in brands and riders alike. The latest convert is Santa Cruz with the new Heckler SL, a motorised Bronson in all but name, with 150mm travel, a 160mm-travel fork and the same mixed-wheel mash-up. The geometry figures are almost identical to the Bronson too, with the exception of the chainstay length, which is 5mm longer on the motorised bike. Most interesting of all though, Santa Cruz has moved on from the Shimano EP8 motor used on its full-fat Heckler (naturally, because Shimano has no lightweight unit) and instead we…

Ride with your kids and the moment will inevitably come when you’re no longer glancing over your shoulder to check they’re OK, and instead you’re struggling to hold onto their wheel. That changing of the guard may happen on a family ride. Or it may come between the tapes in the white heat of competition, in front of friends, family and hundreds of noisy spectators bearing witness to your humiliation. But that moment will come to pass for everyone with a little ripper in the family, even if you’re a former downhill world champion and your name is Steve Peat. Beyond our shared Yorkshire roots and similar vintage I’m not claiming much parity in our two riding careers to date, even if both of us started out as lanky teenagers…

Whenever riders get onto the topic of cornering fast, the idea of leaning the bike comes up. It makes sense. After all, the quicker you go the more your bike needs to lean, and once you do, the more your side knobs on the tyre can dig in and do what they were designed to do. However, the problem with trying to lean the bike more is that it can often out rank some more important parts of your cornering technique. There is a lot going on when you change direction on your mountain bike. There are different amounts of traction, support, and the conditions might even change as you progress down a trail. In short, there are lots of variables. So it’s not as simple as just leaning your…

£4,399 • 29in • zyrofisher.co.uk Pulling the Fluid FS from the box revealed a trail bike with some spec choices that were new to me. At this price point, Norco has bucked the ‘carbon frame with low-rent suspension’ trend and treated this aluminium A1 model to a Fox Float X Performance Elite shock and Fox 34 Factory fork with the well-regarded GRIP2 damper. Both are suspension components that I’ve had little experience of. There’s plenty of adjustment potential, with low and high-speed compression dials, so care is needed to get a realistic starting point and not stifle the shock or fork’s action. Now, plenty of brands have suspension base settings for their bikes, allowing owners to find a good starting point. Usually it’s a simple calculation based on rider weight…

£574.95 SPECIFICATION Weight: 305g (As sold without spring – Valt progressive spring is extra 350-475g dependent on spring rate) • Sizes: Standard mount from 190x40mm to 210x55mm, Trunnion Mount from 165x40mm to 185x55mm • Contact: extrauk.co.uk Assembled and tested in the USA, this next-generation Cane Creek Inline coil shock for XC and trail bikes is now smaller and stronger than previously. The extra strength comes from a thicker damper shaft, and the dramatic size reduction from shrinking the four-way damper valve zone to afford more frame clearance. The bulbous upper portion, where all the damper oil circulates, is now 17mm narrower and still offers independently-adjustable high and low-speed compression and rebound damping, and the brand’s proprietary Climb Switch Lock Out. A magnetically-attached Allen tool for quick on-the-fly adjustments slots in…

£81.99 SPECIFICATION Weight: 1,323g • Sizes: 27.5x2.5in, 29x2.5in (tested) • Options: DualWall casing, SmartEVO DH compound • Contact: extrauk.co.uk It’s been a rocky road for Pirelli in the mountain bike category, but after several false starts, the Italian rubber giant is finally up there with the best tyres on the market. This new Scorpion M Race model is the result of the brand busily developing new treads, casings and compounds, and the much softer rubber blend here stems from testing and development alongside Fabien Barel and Canyon’s enduro and DH race teams. My first day on the new Scorpion was a bit of a baptism of fire, riding super-steep DH tracks in Morzine. It was immediately clear though, why racers are now happy to use this Italian rubber at the…

£149.50 SPECIFICATION Weight: 249g (780mm) • Width: 800mm • Rise: 35mm • Sweep: 8° back, 5° up • Contact: oneupcomponents.com OneUp components likes to do things differently and add value to everything it makes. The Squamish-based brand is not a fan of following the herd. When it comes to handlebars, its number one goal was to improve comfort without compromising on control. Nothing new about that, of course. Countless brands claim to offer a degree of compliance and comfort from their bars. So what’s special about the OneUp Carbon E-Bar? To begin with, the E-Bar is drilled to accept control wires, with a channel underneath the grip that ensures they are kept out of sight. This is useful if you have a Shimano-equipped bike, where a wire goes from the…

We all like freedom of choice, right? Whether it’s the little things in life, like a latte instead of cappuccino, or the big things like who gets to run the country. Ultimately choice is good, as we all have different needs, desires and preferences. That extends to bike geometry too. Sure there are bikes with zero adjustment that are great. Great for the rider testing it, on a specific type of terrain, with one goal in mind. And even if that one supposedly optimum set-up proves ideal for 80% of riders, it’s far from ideal if it leaves 20% of riders craving something different. So why not build in same the degree of adjustability that most brands use when developing a bike into the final product? Well, that’s exactly what…

One thing that’s crystal clear from this test is that having adjustable geometry on a trail bike is really useful. In fact, we’d argue that it’s of most use on a trail bike, simply because trail riding means very different things to different people. Love techy, rocky climbs and need lots of pedal clearance? Stick the BB height adjustment in the high position. Live for the descents and suffer fire road climbs just to get to the fun stuff? You’ll probably want the slackest head tube insert to stretch out the front centre and slacken the head angle for maximum stability at speed. The independent head angle adjustment that the Trek Fuel Ex and Specialized Stumpjumper Evo both offer can also be used to change the weight distribution of the…

£10,800 Trek’s new Supercaliber is very much an evolution of the original ‘revolutionary’ design. As a result, it feels like a very sorted, balanced, and predictable XC bike, its eagerness for speed clear from the first pedal stroke. And it’s by design. Because apart from a significantly slacker head angle (67.5° down from 69°) the Gen 2 Supercaliber doesn’t look dramatically different to Gen 1. Trek even made a conscious decision not to alter the rest of the geometry much (reach and seat angle are slightly increased) so as not to disturb the riding position of their pro athletes. Scrape away the multiple paintwork options though (three alone on the flagship SLR 9.9 XX AXS model) and there’s a completely new set of tube profiles. The SLR frame uses a…

YOU’RE GOING TO BE ABLE TO CHOOSE WHICH BITS YOU RIDE, AND DIP IN AND OUT 1 LAGGAN WOLFTRAX, SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS To paraphrase Henry Ford: you can have any colour you want at Laggan, as long as it’s black. While the famed industrialist was talking about his latest model Ts more than a century ago, he could just as easily have been referencing Laggan Wolftrax and its famously rocky, techie, black-graded trails. Things have changed though, with a new blue-graded loop finished and ready to ride as you read these pages (well, hopefully – October half term in the school holidays is the goal). There are now also plans for a completely new red-graded descent, funded by a combination of local groups, riders and help from the Scottish government. “We…

GREENUP EDGE, LAKE DISTRICT 41.1km (25.5 miles) Natural riding in the UK has us thinking about the Lake District every time, the great passes and stunning villages are the symbolic home of the sport in the UK. Unfortunately a lot of other people think like this too, and you’d be a madman to attempt any of the famous routes at the height of summer. OS names Scafell Pike as the third-most popular route with walkers, and honestly they can have it, because there are much better options within a mile of it, like Greenup Edge. With a great percentage of skinny singletrack, you get all the thrills of big-mountain riding, but without the herds of people or overly armoured trails. GPS download bit.ly/Greenupride RANGER’S PATH, SNOWDON 20.3km (12.6 miles) Snowdon…

Get chatting with any riding buddy about a previous adventure and the subject of technique will come up. How are you getting through this section? Where did you go there? How did you get away with that? Inevitably it breaks down into tiny nuances that the rider in question is thinking about at the time, but with so much of their riding automated, perhaps the thing that they are focusing on in that exact moment isn’t the same as the thing that another rider should be focusing on. This month we’ll continue to pick apart examples of advice that are often misunderstood. We’ll look at why riders describe skills as they do, and we’ll encourage you to phrase them slightly differently so that more people can understand why any particular…

£10,999 • 29in • scott-sports.com After six months and several hundred miles on the Genius ST 900 Tuned, I thought it would be good to step back and reflect on my experience so far with the most expensive bike we’ve ever had on the mbr longtermer fleet. With the proprietary Fox Float-X Nude shock completely hidden inside the sleek carbon frame, it makes for an incredibly clean-looking bike. It also makes for lots of slightly confused questions from other riders - no, it’s NOT an e-bike. Thankfully all the adjustments for the shock are easily reached through the removable cover at the base of the down tube. Also, I found it very easy to get a good baseline set-up as the clever sag dial located on the main pivot negates…

£7,299 • MX or 29in • forbiddenbike.com I needn’t have worried about getting back on the Druid V2 after falling in love with it on a first date… As soon as we launched into a chattery root section and I felt the high-pivot ‘Trifecta’ rear end seemingly catapult me forwards through the normally speed-killing roots, the stoke reignited immediately. A couple of rides on and the original equipment confirmed that the Fox suspension and SRAM GX drivetrain deliver a really good package for all-round trail riding too. So any normal rider would be fine leaving it as is. I’m not normal, though. Not only have I got a bunch of test kit to fit for some in-depth trail time, I also wanted to set up as many tyre/wheel configurations as…

JAMIE DARLOW FRONT SECTION EDITOR Fifteen years on mbr testing gear, bikes and trails, and editing the Hot Stuff pages: JD’s product knowledge is as broad as it gets. PAUL BURWELL CONTRIBUTOR Elite-level XC racer turned trail schralper, been riding since Gary Fisher was a boy. Tested everything going, from Flexstems to auto shifting. DANNY MILNER EDITOR Been hooked on mtbs since the late ’80s, and testing them for three decades. Dream ride? Lush Oregon singletrack. MICK KIRKMAN CONTRIBUTOR Spent years racing BMX, then 4X and DH, and is still ultra-competitive, despite what he says. Has been testing bikes for two decades.…

£99.99 SPECIFICATION Weight: 272g • Widths: 145mm, 160mm • Contact: extrauk.co.uk Like most saddle manufacturers, Fizik has a massive range, including this Terra Aidon X5, which is designed for e-bikes. It’s debatable whether there’s such a thing as a specific e-bike saddle, but I’m keen to give this one a try. First thing to note is that this saddle is stubby in length, which apparently puts the e-biker "in a more planted position, making for greater stability and control when riding heavier pedal-assisted bikes." It also comes in two widths – 145mm and 160mm – to match different sit-bone measurements. Fizik says you spend more time in a seated position on an e-bike, which is true, so has included an ergonomic cut-out, to relieve pressure. There’s also a mud flap…

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£5,200 (SALE PRICE £4,399) With a sleek aluminium frame and top-tier Fox Factory suspension components, the Stumpy Evo Elite Alloy prioritises ride quality over outright weight saving. Not that it’s a heavy bike. At 15.99kg (35.25lb), with our Maxxis control tyres fitted, it’s less than 500g heavier than the full carbon Trek Fuel EX 9.7 that it’s going head-to-head with in this hyper-adjustable trail bike test. And because the Evo frame is made from good old aluminium, that doesn’t mean you have to forgo features like the internal SWAT storage in the down tube. In fact, the hatch in the down tube is only marginally smaller than on the carbon Stumpy Evo, so it’s still way bigger and more useful than most of the carbon bikes we test, the Trek…

Specialized and Trek have both debuted new short-travel suspension XC race rigs this year. And given that the Trek Supercaliber and Specialized Epic World Cup look extremely similar in design, we figured they would make the perfect XC head-to-head test. Not least because both brands are giants in the mountain bike world, both bikes weigh in at under 10kg, and both have five-figure price tags. And that’s not all they have in common. Dynamic geometry and component choice are closely matched too. They feel surprisingly different on the trail, though. So what are the details that affect the dynamic performance and which one – if either – should you pick for ultimate cross-country speed? That’s the question this test hopes to answer. Now, if you’ve not been following World Cup…