The best trail bikes hit the sweet spot between rowdy enduro bikes and svelte cross-country bikes, delivering a performance that’s equal parts fun and super-capable.
This has made trail bikes an incredibly popular category among the best mountain bikes in recent years. They give you a bit of everything and probably open up the widest range of trails and riding when compared to other types of mountain bikes.
The flip side is that choosing the best trail bike for you can be quite a bewildering prospect – there are simply so many options on the market.
Bikes are constantly evolving and innovative new solutions are becoming standard overnight. The bikes also change their areas of application. Simply put, modern trail bikes are undergoing a process of permanent evolution, and while their characters and downhill capabilities are moving increasingly towards the extremes, many of their fundamental key data, e.g. suspension travel and wheel size, remain largely unchanged. And you know what’s crazy about it? The climbing performance doesn’t suffer – at all! Quite the opposite. Despite being extremely capable downhill, the trail bikes in this test are brutally nimble, super-efficient, and extremely comfortable on long tours.
What are the advantages of a hardtail? Where uphill speed matters, the direct connection from crank to axle, without energy-inefficient suspension spoiling the fun, is the quickest way to get up to speed.
Riding rough-and-ready trails on a hardtail might beat you up a little more, but there’s something almost zen-like about being able to pick the smoothest line between the chunder while pumping through rollers to generate free speed.
If you don’t have the space or money for more than one bike, a hardtail makes pedaling on asphalt a lot easier than a full-suspension bike. Just put a little extra air in your tires and you’re good to go. Maybe you want to try gravel riding or going for a big cross-country burn.
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