Mountain Bike Rider - October 2023

WALES NEVER FAILS Prime time trails in the Valleys HOTTEST NEW BIKES FOR 2024 OCTOBER 2023 l mbr.co.uk TESTED: 12 OFTHE BEST GLOVES THRILLING NATURAL DESCENTS SKILLS ADVICE CHARLIE HATTON ‘I never thought it would bea winning run’ 29 of next year’s most exciting models! What tofollow & what toignore

BIKES IN THIS ISSUE Canyon Neuron:ON CF 8 52 Canyon Spectral:ON CFR 84 Canyon Stoic 2 48 Canyon Torque:ON CF 9 64 Forbidden Druid GX AXS FX 80 Giant Stance E+ 1 44 Haibike Lyke CF 11 60 Mondraker Neat RR 40 Norco Fluid FS A1 82 Pivot Firebird Pro 85 Pivot Shuttle AM Pro (SRAM XO) 36 Scott Genius ST 900 Tuned 85 Specialized Epic Hardtail Comp 56 Trek Slash 18 Vitus E-Mythique LT VRX 32 BIKES & GEAR 29 NEW FOR 2024 Mountain bike tech moves forward at a prodigious pace, over the course of 42 pages we bring you everything you need to know about new bikes and gear for 2024, with first rides on the Vitus E-Mythique LT VRX, Pivot HOW TO 74 SKILLS: BEST ADVICE PART 2 What do our friends, other riders and YouTubers really mean when they tell us to “push into the turn,” or “drop the outside foot”? Dirt School shows us how to unscramble the advice, sort the good from the bad, how to dish out help and how to understand your own riding better too. REGULARS 10 BIG PICTURES 14 THE BUZZ: RHONDDA VALLEYS, SOUTH WALES We go big mountain scalping in South Wales, with the help of Wye Valley and its latest uplifted adventure ride, the Rhondda Raid 106 COLUMN: GUY KESTEVEN Get the jump on the baddest new bikes for 2024 New bikes and gear special starts on p29 South Wales mtb nirvana in the Valleys on p14 OCTOBER 2023 mbr 7 ISSUE 294 OCTOBER 2023 Shuttle AM Pro (SRAM XO), Mondraker Neat RR, Canyon Stoic 2, Canyon Neuron:ON CF 8, Specialized Epic Hardtail Comp, Haibike Lyke CF 11, Canyon Torque:ON CF 9, the new Bosch Performance SX motor, and loads more 80 LONGTERMERS Introducing the Forbidden Druid GX AXS FX and the Norco Fluid FS A1, plus updates on the Canyon Spectral:ON CFR, Pivot Firebird and Scott Genius ST 86 PRODUCT Five Ten Trailcross XT shoe, Endura MT500 Lite pant, Pro Bikegear Tharsis 3Five Stem, Pro Bikegear MSN 1.3 Enduro saddle, Topeak Shuttle pressure gauge and loads more tested 94 TESTED: GLOVES We test a bunch of tough yet comfortable mountain bike gloves and find a worthy winner NEW BIKES FOR 2024

E D I T O R ’ S L E T T E R MEET THE TEAM Decades of riding and writing about bikes goes into every issue, this is who we are... DANNY MILNER EDITOR Been hooked on mtbs since the late ’80s, and testing them for three decades. Dream ride? Lush Oregon singletrack. BEN SMITH MBRART EDITOR Puts the pieces ofthe puzzle together and makes itlook pretty. Ben loves seeking outthe techiesttrails around his home in the Wye Valley. GUY KESTEVEN CONTRIBUTOR Has probably tested more bikes and products than anyone in the world. Wears through a keyboard every week. mbr.co.uk facebook.com/MBRmagazine twitter.com/mbrmagazine youtube.com/user/MBRmagazine instagram.com/mbrmagazine H ands up who watched the World Championships in Scotland last month. I only followed the racing via the livestream, rather than pushing against the tape among the midges and drizzle. But even on screen the atmosphere and drama seemed to leap out of the pixels. With an impressive haul of medals for the Brits, and coverage across more categories and events than we’ve been used to in the past, it feels like mountain biking is really heading in the right direction as a sport. In the mag this month we’ve got a round-up of new bikes for 2024. We’ve been doing them for a few years now, but I can’t remember one that’s as jam-packed with fresh metal as this one. In total we’ve squeezed 28 new models into this issue, and of those, 10 are first rides. So much for the bike industry being in the doldrums! What are the trends for next year? Gearboxes and alternative drivetrains seem to be taking off again, with several designs for both analogue bikes and e-bikes being revealed in prototype form or hitting the market as production items. Diet e-bikes are no longer a niche product now, and most brands will have a lightweight option by next year, if they don’t already. Does that mean the end of the analogue bike? Not if brands like Trek, Devinci, and Deviate have anything to do with it, as they all reveal rad looking high-pivot trail/enduro bikes. Finally, with so much attention on XC racing thanks to superstars like Tom Pidcock and Mathieu van der Poel, everyone seems to want to release a new race bike. With the Olympics in Paris next year, we can only expect that trend to continue. Editor, mbr Rude health From a terrific mtb Worlds in Scotland to exciting trends for 2024 – mtb is buzzing SUBSCRIBE TO MBR FROMONLY £25.99 Turn to page 72 for details ON THE COVER Testing the latest Mondraker Neat in the Pyrenees Photo: Javier Garcia Juan JAMIE DARLOW FRONT SECTIONEDITOR JD’s been withmbr since 2008. Gave up a career as a financial journalist to muck about on bikes. Now penniless but happy. ALAN MULDOON BIKE TEST EDITOR Started atmbr in 2001. Gets to the bottom of every bike he slings a leg over, even if it’s not on test. Don't let him ride your bike. Tom Pidcock's mtb Worlds rides in Scotland drew big crowds and viewing figures FREE DEITY GRIPS WORTH £22.99! 8 mbr OCTOBER 2023

10 mbr OCTOBER 2023 B I G P I C T U R E

OCTOBER 2023 mbr 11 Big picture La Grave isn’t your average Alpine bike park, with a ride to the top of the gondola dropping you off next to the Girose Glacier at a not inconsiderable height of 3,200m. There are just two runs from the top station, and they descend over wild terrain, with barely rideable, sketchy rock slabs and technical features to challenge even the best riders in the world. Catching the last lift of the day, we had the mountain to ourselves and revelled in the loose and dusty conditions, hurtling our way back down to the valley floor. James Vincent

12 mbr OCTOBER 2023 B I G P I C T U R E

OCTOBER 2023 mbr 13 Big picture Under 5km from the start, we had already bagged an 830m summit. It was one of ‘those’ rides: typetwo fun. Climb quick, lose it faster. Going across is overrated anyway, right?! Mountain biking is about pushing limits, your body and personal boundaries. You’ve got to take yourself to the limit to find snippets of glory. This extends to all aspects and participants in the sport, from weekend warriors squeezing in ‘one more lap’ before dusk to extreme athletes trying to squeeze ‘one more spin’ on a slopestyle course. Whatever your goal, only you can make it happen. Tristan Tinn

STA RT YO U R R IDE H E R E Edited by Jamie Darlow G E A R R IDE S FA ST & F IT I N S P I R AT I O N GET STA RTED 14 mbr OCTOBER 2023

OCTOBER 2023 mbr 15 OV ER M ATT ER Big mountain descents without the gruelling climbs, we head out around Rhondda for an uplifting adventure “The right line is death,” Will Warren calmly tells us. “The left line is just… horrible,” he adds. “Take your pick.” Not the words you’d usually expect from a guide halfway up a mountain, but he’s not wrong. As the riders in front of me creep into a chute ahead, I’m not exactly filled with confidence, and there’s an alarming amount of squeal echoing towards me, from both brakes and riders. Up until now the trail’s been on the nervous side of technical, boulders the size of softballs roll and boil under our wheels, greased with a liberal dash of mud. The gradient’s been steep but not ridiculous, and it’s given us 500m of trail to settle in and get a feel for the grip. Of which there is nowt. “In the summer it’s lovely on this trail,” Gareth Sheppard tells me with a giggle and shake of the head. He’s another of our guides for the day. “There’s tons of grip and you can get up onto the high lines.” It’s mid-August today, so I’m not exactly sure when summer will start in this high and hidden fold of Wales, but everyone expects it to arrive any day now, just as soon as the drizzle lets up. We’ve come on Wye MTB’s latest adventure ride, a bigmountain epic called the Rhondda Raid, taking in multiple hills in some of the best riding country in the UK. It seemed like a great idea at the time, swapping the groomed, high speed tracks of the trail centre and the man-made and purpose-built lines in my local woods for something more natural and wild. I’ve gotten pretty soft in recent years, never summiting a proper mountain and barely poking my head above 500m in altitude, and of course usually with an e-bike underneath me. The Raid would be a jolt to the system, reminding me of the good old days Wye MTB: singletrack sherpas/tour guides deluxe Escapism is closer than you might think...

I N T RO D U C T I O N 16 mbr OCTOBER 2023 when friends would trudge round hills soaked to the bone, but grinning from ear to ear. I’m not grinning now, and my soggy knees are wobbling a little, I’m not ashamed to admit. I creep in, release the front brake and hope. It’s fine, I load the bike over the cascade of rocky drops and miraculously find grip, stay bike side of the bars, and sweep round the right hander at the end with a landslide of rocks chasing me down. And Jesus it feels good! Now it all makes sense, I’m so glad to be here. “That is a proper mountain,” I say to Dan when we break for a stream crossing and a celebratory fist bump. “You just wait,” he replies. T H R I L L S F O R Y E A R S Wye MTB has been thrilling us for the past five years with its adventure days, shuttling a group of friends via Land Rover to the top of the best descents around. First came the Wye Valley off-piste around the Forest of Dean, before adding more trips around the Black Mountains, Brecon, and now one skirting the Rhondda Valley. Gareth Wye MTB continue to unlock top-flight riding for the masses

OCTOBER 2023 mbr 17 has promised us at least eight different descents off the tops of the mountains, 45km mostly downhill and a ridiculous 1,550m vertical. If we get a wriggle on. The first drop is off Bwlch Mountain and we roll through the last few treecovered corners into Pentre for our second uplift of the day, load the bikes and rummage around for bananas and Tunnocks. It’s the next mountain where things get really spicy though, Gareth says, with a skinny trail and a big drop to the left that you absolutely mustn’t crash on. I want to know more about this exposure of course, particularly as I’m scared of heights, but like a history teacher with logorrhoea he’s filling us in on the industrial heritage of the valleys, pointing out the vast washing machine-like hoppers used to clean coal and the slag heaps turned campsites. It is really interesting, particularly because Gareth’s grandfather worked in the last mine to close here, in 1985. Miraculously, snapper Andy Lloyd has a picture from the showers from the last day of mining, and Gareth’s really keen to see it, he’s routed to this area and the coal seams run through him too. History lesson finished, or at least gone for lunch, we’re onto the second descent, and true to form there is a decent amount of exposure. We’re skirting round the side of a cirque, hollowed out in the last ice age by the slow drag of millions of tons of ice and rock creeping down the mountain. It’s a breathtaking view for sure, beautiful and otherworldly but also frightening and dramatic. Sights like this should in all right demand payment in days of travel or perhaps hours of hike-a-bike, but we’re barely an hour from Cardiff and I feel pretty honoured to see this. I also feel pretty daft not to have known years ago that cwm is the Welsh word for cirque, putting famous mountain bike honeypots like Cwmcarn and Cwm Rhaeadr in their place. C H U T E O U T The way off the mountain finishes in a wide, rutted and grassy chute that’s not to be taken lightly. In the days of coal, trucks were winched up this escarpment to return ladden with the black gold, and there are still the remains of the buildings and machinery at the top that once did the heavy lifting. Today we’re letting gravity pull us down, and it’s easily the sketchiest part of the ride so far. The ruts and loose rock are keen to snatch the front wheel, and it’s the kind of descent where slowing down is not an option, you can only go faster. The ride’s not all about big natural stuff though, on the list of possible descents to hit on the Rhondda Raid is Mountain Ash, host to a round of the Dragon Downhill series back in the day. It’s firmly in the enduro category today, and Gareth and Dan will take you there if you like, something I twig half way round. If you’re enjoying the natural bridleways you can stick with that. If you want something more groomed they’ll gladly show you the way. Our last run finishes in the Dare Valley Gravity Bike Park, a kids-and-new rider-friendly spot we visited back when it opened in 2021. Council owned and operated, it’s not quite the perfectly groomed pump track of two years back, but it’s still ridiculously good fun and an easy fast finish to the day. Days like this are good for the soul. They let you catch a glimpse of something bigger than yourself, and the ancient rocks and old industry firmly put you in your place in history as a pebble on a mountain. The riding is spectacular too; raw, unpredictable and fun. Yes, uplifting to the tops of these mountains is definitely cheating, but there’s no way you could tap into this much riding without it. And besides, the devil plays the best tunes. IT ’ S BRE AT H TA KI NG FOR SU RE – BE AU TI F U L BU T A L SO FRIGH TE N I NG A N D DR A M ATIC Rock gardens get the Welsh treatment in Rhondda Tight and rocky ribbons carve a furrow through the hinterlands A bucolic ampitheatre plays host to a rider v trail joust

G E A R 18 mbr OCTOBER 2023 H Y PE PI VO T Trek’s new Slash has a high-pivot and mullet wheels, making it as hip as loose-leg trousers, but there’s more going on than just style Trek has been on-it these last few years, turning over old bikes and releasing updated models faster than you can say “enduro race-ready”. The previous generation Slash only came out in 2021, while the space inbetween has been filled by a reworked Fuel EX, the brand-new lightweight Fuel EXe e-bike and an updated fullpower Rail. Trek is going places, and it’s not hanging around. The new Slash is a big jump from the old bike, with the most obvious change being a high-pivot and idler: Something GT and Cannondale have also employed with the Force and Jekyll, and smaller brands like Forbidden and Norco have pioneered. Is Trek just chasing the zeitgeist, or are there real advantages to be gained, seconds won, and glaring holes filled from the old bike? The benefits of running such a system are pretty well-known now. Trek is better able to control the antisquat – meaning the bike’s ability to resist compression under acceleration from pedalling or cornering. Indeed, it claims more than 100% anti-squat throughout the travel of the bike – very much in contrast with the old bike that lost almost all its antisquat as it dived through the travel. There’s also a rearward axle path from the new high-pivot design, without the associated chain growth and pedal kick-back problems, and the claim is that suspension like this is better at eating square-edged hits, like big rocks or roots. The more complicated chainline will inevitably lead to more drag and weight, but Trek has worked hard at the former to minimise the impact with a huge 19t upper idler. That could well prove more efficient in terms of power transfer and less prone than other idler designs to becoming graunchy when stuffed full of grit and mud. The lower idler, nearly as big at an estimated 15t, is there to ensure the chainring has enough teeth engaged to pull the chain when you turn the cranks over. Trek says there are other benefits too, like reduced chain growth, smoother performance when pedalling and no tugging on the derailleur cage. Trek has moved away from 29in wheels front and rear to a trendy mullet combo, which does have some advantages in terms of wheel weight, strength and rear clearance, while the size small is 27.5in front and rear. Long live the diddy wheels. There’s also an option to go full 29er and gain more speed, with a bolt-on lower shock bracket sold separately, although the snazzy new rear mudguard will have to come off. Trek has ditched its longstanding Mino Link geo adjust chip in part because of that bracket, which raises or lowers the bike’s BB height. There’s no need for the Mino Link either because there are angle-adjust headset cups as optional extras, to change the head angle by 1°. R A DIC A L R I P P E R S That size small bike is a cool addition and one that can’t have been cheap with additional frames and parts. The little bike will take a 170mm dropper post, still fits a water bottle, and might be ideal for radical rippers who think today’s bikes are too safe. The rest of us are well-served with better geometry on the new bike, which is half a degree slacker than the old Slash at the head tube, at 63.5°. Not much different, but with the Fuel EX moving to 64.5°, Trek clearly felt the need to put some distance between them. Travel is up too, by 10mm, to 170mm, bringing the bike into line with the best big-travel enduro bikes. Trek has done well to make riders feel at home across all its bikes too, with the Fuel EX, Slash and Top Fuel all sharing very close reach measurements: 450mm in size medium, or thereabouts, and 488mm on the size large Slash. It’s also added size-specific chainstay lengths so the bike can remain balanced fore and aft as you size up or down, and the seat tube angle is now a pedal-friendly 77°. The bike will now take a 200mm dropper even in size medium, meaning a taller rider could opt for the smaller bike and still be in a good pedalling position. Finally, Trek’s improved the internal storage area with a bigger door, easier catch and hidden cables, while the rest of the frame gets a new chainstay guard, two dual-density and replaceable down tube guards, and an additional layer of carbon protection underneath the paintwork. Working a high-pivot idler into the new Slash is an interesting decision from Trek, particularly as the old bike was so darned good and descended so competently – it was an mbrtest winner, no less. Perhaps the intention was to improve pedalling efficiency, help the bike ride higher in its travel, or merely keep up with the latest trends. We won’t know until we ride it, all we can say for now is that there are good and bad high-pivot bikes, but with the Slash’s pedigree we’re betting it’s the former.

OCTOBER 2023 mbr 19 S L A S H BY N U M B E R S 19tooth upper idler 170 mm travel, up 10mm 100 % anti-squat through the travel 488 mm chainstay, in size large 200 mm dropper on size medium 29inch front wheel, 27.5in rear Large-diameter idler reduces drag Two idler pulleys increase wrap around the chainring

20 mbr OCTOBER 2023 HO T ST U F F M O ST WA N T ED G E A R F I V E T E N KE ST R E L B OA £ 200 WHAT WE’RE EXCITED ABOUTTHISMONTH The name might be familiar but the Kestrel BOA is all new from Five Ten. It’s aimed squarely at the down-country set, meaning it’s firmly tilted towards XC in terms of stiffness but also shields your feet inside a reinforced toebox for downhill protection. Up top you’ll find a couple of Velcro straps, but also a dial BOA Fit System to make adjustments on the fly as easy as possible (and to try and mitigate the hefty price). The synthetic upper is made from 50% recycled materials and there’s a seamless overlay to minimise hotspots inside and add comfort and durability. The best bit is underneath, though. The Kestrel BOA is of course clipless, but it’s still got Five Ten’s famous Stealth Marathon rubber going on, the idea being it’ll stop you skidding off the pedal if you fail to clip in. The wundermaterial also pops up on the lugs, which are all over the sole, half a dozen up front, at the rear and two big sections to the left and right. We’re looking at a clipless shoe with all the bite of a football boot. adidas.co.uk

OCTOBER 2023 mbr 21 I N T H E VA N New from Bluegrass, the Vanguard comes in a basic version with inmoulded plastic shell and EPS liner, or this Vanguard Core option that adds the latest Mips C2 slip-plane layer. Both get the five-star Virginia tech rating, Fidlock buckle, breakaway visor, and tot up a low sub-800g weight. £290, met-helmets.com S PAC Y W R A P Peaty’s Hold Fast Trail Tool Wrap is a waterproof, zippered sleeve with welded seams for your tools or essentials. Wrap it to your frame with the Velcro strap, and there’s space on the outside for a pump and tube too. Three colours, long strap to fit round oversized tubes, reflective detailing. £34.99, peatys.co.uk T R A I L S M A RTS Patagonia’s Capilene Cool Trail Bike Henley is a technical shirt with apres-ride styling. It also uses third-party HeiQ’s Pure Odor Control, a process that adds silver to the yarn to prevent odour and limit washing. Three colours, six sizes, 80% recycled polyester. £60, eu.patagonia.com BOA adjustment dial for fine-tuning fit on the fly Stealth Marathon rubber features heavily on the sole

22 mbr OCTOBER 2023 G E A R FA N C Y DR E S S Downhill racer Bernard Kerr runs a World Cup team, makes lifestyle vlogs and now has his own line of clothing called BK Sport. The idea is to bring together limited-edition runs and retro styling, like this Sweatshirt, with 90s fonts and heavyweight cotton material. Bernard says look out for new merch each month. £60, bksport.co.uk S H O RT O RDE R Five Ten’s Brand of the Brave short is made from 90% recycled polyester, with 10% elastane to give it freedom with a four-way stretch. The dobby weave gives it texture, retention works via poppers and a drawcord, front and side zip pockets, mid to long length, women’s and men’s options. £65, adidas.co.uk B O T T O M L I N E The Proxim W850 143 Nack saddle is for downhill or enduro. A no-expense-spared option, it uses a carbon-fibre base, and oversized elliptical rails (7x9.3mm) made from carbon, kevlar and aluminium filaments. Cover has a pressure-release channel, extra grip at the rear, and a small size (245x143mm). £202.99, chickencycles.co.uk ROA M T O R I O Wahoo has a V2 model of its Elemnt Roam computer. The new version gets improved navigation accuracy with dual-band GPS; smarter-looking 64-colour display; bigger 32GB memory for maps, routes, workouts or rides; improved connections to other apps. The V1 is a bargain now too, at £180. £349.99, uk.wahoofitness.com W H E E L R E B U I LD The new Roval Traverse SL II is Specialized’s lightest ever trail wheelset. At 1,645g, the front and rear-specific wheels are tuned for compliance and are 15-25% stronger than the old Traverse. Comes with new ThreadBed valve that fits directly into the rim, and **it Happens two-year crash replacement policy. £2,000, specialized.com KRY P T O N L IG H T Mondraker’s component brand OnOff has a new line called Krypton. There are three stems – a DH model starting at 10mm, and two trail or enduro stems at 30 or 40mm, in both clamp sizes and CNC-machined from 6061-T6 aluminium. The Krypton bar is 800mm wide and uses unidirectional carbon-fibre. £150, onoffcomponents.com

OCTOBER 2023 mbr 23 N U KE PRO O F B L ACKL I N E R IDEW E A R £ 90 ( PA N TS ) , £ 4 5 ( J E R S EYS ) Nukeproof’s premium clothing range is called the Blackline collection, it’s made with technical fabrics, is cut for mountain bikes and it’s here in Most Wanted because the jerseys, pants and shorts come in a riot of colours. More importantly, construction is now Bluesign approved too, which means it’s met strict environmental and safety standards. That means the whole supply chain is required operate with minimal impact on the environment, use less water, release fewer emissions and treat employees decently. Top of the pile is the Blackline Trailpant, it’s made from four-way stretch fabric and features laser-cut ventilation holes, a DWR coating to keep the showers off, YKK zips, D-loops for your keys and a slim fit with room for your kneepads. The Blackline jersey uses a lighter, warp-knit back panel to better wick sweat and improve airflow around your body. Nukeproof has worked in a UV protective coating, and an antibacterial finish, so you’ll neither burn nor stink. Nukeproof.com

R IDE S 24 mbr OCTOBER 2023 F K ive of our best descents of all time. The ups might drag, but the payback’s worth it I L L E R DE SC E N TS B OW DE RDA L E , H OWG I L L F E L L S 3 7. 7 km ( 2 3 . 5 mi l e s ) Bowderdale is amazing because it’s almost completely empty, being on the wrong side of the tracks and fenced off from the Lakes by the M6. Better yet, once you reach the top of the Calf, you get almost 10km of non-stop singletrack contouring down the valley. It’s mostly tight, sometimes fast and the views are good enough to be distracting. It’s pretty mellow and flat, so you have to pump and pedal to make it work, but when it does it’s a zinger. GPS download bit.ly/Bowderdale H AWC O M B E H E A D, E X M O O R 3 7. 2 km ( 2 3 .1 mi l e s ) The Hawcombe Head bridleway is a masterclass in flowy singletrack, and although there are some other cracking descents on this big loop, it’s definitely the head chef. You’ll start on open heathland, but the skinny singletrack, occasional tree, and ravine to your right-hand side will keep your speed in check. Not for long, though. The further you go, the faster it gets, purple heather flashing by before following the river back down to the road. Top tip: wear gloves as the gorse comes at you from both sides. GPS download bit.ly/HawcombeHead ST ICKS PA S S , H E LV E L LY N 19.67 km (1 2 .1 mi l e s ) We love this ride. Helvellyn is a big, brutal mountain that challenges your strength and skill, but it’s also beautiful and features the best mountain descent in England: Sticks Pass. To get there you’ll need to hike-a-bike and grind up 1,000 metres and descend techie and exposed trails, but that makes it all the better. Sticks starts smooth and fast, but don’t go nuts because there’s a blind right-hander early on that’s spat off many a rider. After that, look up, pump and enjoy the rocky, jumbly flow. GPS download bit.ly/SticksPass

OCTOBER 2023 mbr 25 AC H NA S H E L L AC H , T O R R ID O N 3 4 . 8 km ( 2 1.6 mi l e s ) The Achnashellach descent is easily one of the best natural descents in the UK, but it’s as remote as it comes and you’ll have to battle round the famous Torridon lollipop loop to reach it. Worth it though. You’ll marvel at the grip on the huge rock slabs that are aching to be ridden, pump natural berms and giggle as you thread the singletrack chicanes. This is a big day out too: you’ll climb over 1,150m in 35km, so pack plenty of food. And layers, because the weather up there is capricious. GPS download bit.ly/Achnashellach C U T GAT E , P E A K DI ST R IC T 4 6.1 km ( 2 8 .6 mi l e s ) If there was a singletrack rule book for nature to follow, Cut Gate would be it. Few other singletrack trails flow like this one, with corners seemingly placed perfectly to keep your speed and thrill your heart. Sure, it’s techie in places, but you’ll never need to put a foot down now the Bog of Doom on Midhope and Howden moors has been fixed. This loop is a monster, with over 1,800m climbing, but if you still want more there are some cheeky options at its furthest point. GPS download bit.ly/CutGateRide Feel the flow on Cut Gate, but be prepared to climb

C H A R L I E H AT T O N : “ I N E V E R T H OU G H T I T WOU LD B E A WO R LD C H A M P S -W I N N I N G RU N ” mbr Congratulations Charlie! It’s nearly a week after winning the Worlds at Fort William, has it sunk in yet? Charlie Hatton Yes, it’s definitely changed things a lot for me. It’s been a crazy, crazy few days. I finally got back yesterday, but it’s been amazing and I’m trying to let it soak in still, I guess. mbr World champion is a long way from the Forest of Dean (when we first met you as a kid, sessioning the jumps on the GBU trail). CH Yeah, I must have been six, seven, eight, something like that! I grew up in the Forest of Dean, riding with my brothers after school and the friends that lived in that village, and my uncle and cousins rode too. It was quite a big mountain bike family. I also used to play other sports, I played rugby, cricket, football… but then at the weekends it was getting a bit hectic. So I’d be playing football on the Saturday, then I’d ride my bike and then I played rugby on the Sunday and it was getting a bit too much. I was like, right, I need to make a choice here and I love mountain biking. mbr So glad you made that choice. Were you amazing on the bike straight away, did you win your first race? CH No, definitely not, there were a few other guys I was racing against that would regularly beat me. I remember going into my first ever National race as a juvenile, I got second, which I thought was mint! But the guy who beat me did it by 16 seconds. I remember saying to my dad on the way home, I’m never going to beat that kid. mbr There’s a lot of pressure to do well as a junior, but I guess you’ve proved that you don’t need to win at every level to make it to the top? CH I think it varies massively in different people. I went down the generic path – from a really young age I raced as soon as I could, made my way up through the ranks and then now I guess I’m here. Whereas my team-mate Andy [Kolb], he didn’t start riding bikes till he was 16 or 17, instead he was skiing and doing winter sports, then he started really focusing on the Fresh from winning gold at the Worlds, Charlie Hatton tells us about growing up in the Forest of Dean, racing alongside Andreas Kolb, and why he’s on a liquid diet I N S P I R AT I O N 26 mbr OCTOBER 2023 mountain biking. He was there at the World Cups as a privateer. mbr Did having Andy win the World Cup at Leogang help you and the team at Fort William? CH Yeah, 100%. Our team is awesome. The vibe and the atmosphere in our pits is great and quite different. We all meet up and go out for food, and we’re good friends outside of racing, which is brilliant. You travel around the world with some of your best friends and in that environment that’s where you can do well. Everyone really wants to be there and the Leogang win elevated everyone’s performance. Me and Andy, we get on really well, I’ll go and stay at his house for a couple of weeks and we’ll just ride and train together. You don’t often see two team-mates fully try lines against each other, but we do. It’s quite funny, but at night Andy and I will be sitting in our beds together – sounds a bit weird but it’s not! – and have the footage from the GoPros on our laptops and we’ll run them together and just really dissect the track. It pushes us both on. The best thing is though, at the end of the day, if I beat him or he beats me, we’re both absolutely stoked for each other. mbr So when he won at Leogang, did that make you think you could too? CH Last year Andy was on the podium a lot and I was just outside it. But I almost knew it was coming because I knew the equipment was there, and on the day I can ride as fast as Andy, so it was trusting the process really. I knew it was coming soon, I just had to keep cracking on. mbr What takes you from top-20 to the top step? CH That’s a tough question to answer. Last weekend when I was doing my run, I never would have thought that it would be a World Champs-winning run. But it obviously was. I was carrying great speed everywhere and perfectly online. And I was just really clean. On that track, as soon as you make a slight mistake, there are such long straights that you just lose all your time. But what changes from top 20 to top 10 to world champion? I don’t know! There’s so many little things that add up, and so many variables. mbr How were you before the race? Quietly confident or scared to death? CH Not exactly nervous, but I just really struggle to eat. I can’t eat anything. But I’ve got some good ideas for that from people, drinking smoothies and putting oats in there. But then as soon as I start to warm up, I’m thinking, this is go time now, and the nerves subside as soon as I sit in the start gate. I’m warmed up. I’m ready. I’ve done everything. I can enjoy it and do what I love doing. Golden boy Hatton gets a raise from his Atherton Continental team

OCTOBER 2023 mbr 27 mbr Will being world champion make that easier or harder, do you think? CH I’m not sure! To look down and see the rainbow stripes I’ll think, well... I can do it again. But I’m probably particularly bad at not believing in myself, I try not to set myself goals. I don’t want to not reach them because it feels like failure. So maybe I need to change my mindset slightly to think more like – I’m gonna go into this thing and I’m gonna win it. mbr Any tips for young riders out there who want to be world champions one day? CH It depends where you are in the sport, but I’d say having a skills base is much more important than any cardio. Taking a skills coaching session or sessioning different sections to try and get more confidence on the bike, rather than the fitness side of it.

FOR 2024 From jaw-dropping CNC-machined frames to radical drivetrains, minimalist e-bikes to max-velocity race bikes, there’s a stack of wild new bikes to look forward to in the coming months OCTOBER 2023 mbr 29

30 mbr OCTOBER 2023 PROPAIN EKANO 2 AL £4,994 German brand Propain now has a UK base in the south-east of England, and that makes life simpler for anyone tempted by its generous specs and keen pricing. Its latest model is the Ekano 2 AL e-bike, boasting Shimano motors, mullet wheels, and enough travel to take on pretty much anything. There’s 170mm rear travel and up to 190mm at the front, making it an ideal companion for off-piste enduro days or laps at the bike park. This entry-level Ekano uses the heavier EP6 motor, but move up to the next model in the range and you get the brand-new EP801 with its boosted 600W peak power figure. propain-bikes.com Divide and conquer – that’s the strategy with the new Cannondale Habit, where long travel, short travel, alloy and carbon frames all come together under the same broad umbrella. But the best bit about this updated trail bike is that prices start at just £2,100 for the Habit 4 alloy, even making it competitive with directsales models. This Habit 3 demands an £850 premium, but shares the same SmartForm C1 alloy frame, with 130mm travel, as the rest of the range. Want more oomph? Then the Habit LT uses the same frame but gets a burlier 150mm fork and longer stroke shock to boost rear travel to 140mm. Proportional Response suspension and geometry aims to keep the ride experience the same whatever your height and weight, and Cannondale has tried to ensure the bikes are as user-friendly as possible in the workshop, by speccing standard headsets, threaded bottom brackets and UDH mech hangers. After all, junkies never want to go cold turkey. cannondale.com NEW BIKES FOR 2024 PINARELLO DOGMA XC £TBC Road bike brands have traditionally shied away from building mountain bikes, and when they have, the results have generally been a bit ‘ew’. But the resurgence in XC racing, helped by megastars such as Mathieu van der Poel and Tom Pidcock, has opened the floodgates to a wave of new roadie XC race bikes. Cervélo launched the ZHT-5 and the ZFS-5 recently, and hot on its heels is Pinarello, with the Dogma XC hardtail and full-suspension models. Despite not being available to the public yet, they have already secured World Cup and World Championship wins under Ineos Grenadiers riders Pidcock and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot. Both Dogmas use asymmetric frames, designed to offer the ultimate power transfer under load. But this full-sus version is the less quirky looking option, and gets dropper post compatibility and either 90mm or 100mm of rear wheel travel depending on the stroke of the shock fitted. pinarello.com CANNONDALE HABIT 3 £2,950

OCTOBER 2023 mbr 31 ORANGE SWITCH 6 LE £5,700 Building on its status as one of the first brands to offer a production trail bike with MX wheels, Orange presents the new Switch 6. UK-made – like all Orange full-suspension frames – the Switch 6 appropriately gets just over six inches of rear wheel travel (160mm) along with improvements to suspension kinematics that include a more progressive leverage curve and a bearing eyelet on the shock to increase sensitivity. At the base of the folded sheet aluminium down tube is a new SAFE pocket for stashing essentials, and there’s now room inside the front triangle for a larger water bottle. orangebikes.com Want radical? Well look no further than the Nicolai Nucleon 16, with an innovative Supre Drive that tucks the mech behind the dropout to keep it out of harm’s way. But that’s not all – this is a high pivot idler design, which should make it as plush as they come on rough alpine descents. Nicolai is no stranger to alternative drivetrains, having built several gearbox models over the years, so the new Supre Drive design is an evolution of that approach. But compared to a traditional gearbox, Supre Drive claims to reduce friction, offer excellent shifting under load and a wide 510% gear range from the 12-speed cassette. It’s certainly madcap, with a chain tensioner (the small pulley near the chainring) that’s actually sprung and damped by its own shock hidden within the down tube, and a ‘derailleur’ that utilises a single pulley wheel. Other features of note are the low standover height, five frame sizes and MX wheel compatibility. In a market of increasingly homogenous designs, the Nucleon 16 is a tempest of fresh air. geometronbikes.co.uk / nicolai-bicycles.com NICOLAI NUCLEON 16 €7,499 DEVINCI CHAINSAW $3,899 Built to pay homage to DH legend Stevie Smith, a portion of Chainsaw sales goes to the Canadian racer’s legacy foundation. As you’d expect, it’s a bike built to slice through tree-lined DH runs and drop the tallest of features, with a high-pivot idler configuration and 170mm or 180mm of rear travel. Run it as a full 29er or with mixed wheels. Dual-crown forks for DH or single-crown for enduro. Coil for ultimate grip or air for easy tuning and weight saving. Log (pun intended) on to the Devinci website for the full scoop. devinci.com

NEED TO KNOW O Affordable full power e-bike with 170/160mm travel O Alloy frame designed around custom Bafang M510 motor O Removable 630Wh Bafang battery and colour display O MX wheels, so 29in front, 27.5in rear, both with 2.5in tyres O Five power modes: Eco, Eco Plus, Trail, Boost and Race O Prices start at £3,299.99 for the E-Mythique LT VR Is the E-Mythique’s wallet-friendly price tag matched by trail-friendly performance? With e-bike prices fast approaching £15k, it really seems like the sky’s the limit in terms of pricing. And while those superbikes are super-cool, Vitus has taken a very different approach with the new E-Mythique LT. Instead of head-in-theclouds thinking, the design team at Vitus has set its sights on a more down to earth and infinitely more difficult task: produce the best-performing e-bike at a sensible price. And by sensible, we’re talking £3,299 for the entry-level E-Mythique LT VR or £4,399.99 for the range-topping VRX featured here. But before we dive into how Vitus achieved such competitive pricing, let’s step back and take a look at the bike itself. First up, the E-Mythique LT is an MX design, with a 29in wheel up front and 27.5in on the rear, both rolling on 2.5in tyres. As the name suggests, it’s also long travel, boasting a 170mm-travel RockShox Yari fork and 160mm of rear travel – we measured it just shy of that at 156mm. The alloy frame comes in four sizes, S to XL, and with reach numbers spanning 434mm to 504mm, Vitus has all but the genetic outliers covered. NEW BIKES FOR 2024 Now, I know what you are thinking, the E-Mythique LT looks a lot like its sibling, the E-Sommet. Look closely, however, and there are subtle differences in the frame construction. The E-Mythique LT uses a very different down tube and motor cradle, and the rocker link is a three-piece welded design, which helps save on construction costs without sacrificing performance. The biggest difference then, is that the E-Mythique LT gets a custom Bafang M510 motor instead of Shimano’s EP8. The Bafang unit boasts 95Nm torque, and with a peak power output of 550W, on paper it’s right up there with its rivals. The colour display is very similar to Shimano’s and it even has an assistance level bar to show you how hard the motor is working. What makes it custom is that the Vitus has five power modes: Eco, Eco Plus, Trail, Boost and Race. You toggle between modes with the neat handlebar control unit, which also houses the power switch. Turn the bike on and it goes straight to Eco mode, so you don’t need to scroll through the modes just to get going. There’s also a walk mode that is pretty hard to keep up with, so it Custom Bafang motor with five power modes VITUS E-MYTHIQUE LT VRX £ 4 , 3 9 9.9 9 • 2 9/ 2 7. 5 i n • v it u s b i ke s . c o m

OCTOBER 2023 mbr 33 THE BAFANG UNIT BOASTS 95NM TORQUE AND A PEAK POWER OUTPUT OF 550W

34 mbr OCTOBER 2023 N EW B I K E S helps push the bike while simultaneously pulling you up the hill. The motor is paired with a 630Wh removable Bafang battery, and all three models in the range get the same battery and motor. The only compromise is that you use a key to release the battery, but that’s something Vitus is working on with Bafang to eliminate. HOW IT RIDES To see how the Bafang battery stacks up against a Shimano unit of the same capacity, I range tested the E-Mythique LT VRX against the E-Sommet from our E-Bike of the Year test. With the same tyres on both bikes, in the same conditions, and with both bikes in Boost mode, the range was marginally better on the Shimano bike, a 50m increase in elevation. That’s not the whole story, though, as my heart-rate monitor indicated that it was less effort on the Bafang bike. So clearly there are differences between the modes. While riding the exact same loops back to back, I also noticed that the Bafang motor benefits from a lower rpm The E-Mythique LT VRX: incredible performance at a credible price

at the cranks, but to get the most out of the Shimano EP8, it prefers a higher cadence. Also, when the climbs get really steep, the Shimano motor delivers more power and is faster to summit. And those aren’t the only differences. The Bafang motor has way more overrun than Shimano EP8. So much so that it feels a bit like the Bosch CX Race motor. This is great for getting the bike up and over steps on awkward climbs, or for putting in half cranks to boost your speed with minimal effort. Which could explain why the range wasn’t as good as EP8 and my overall effort was lower, because every time I stopped pedalling on the E-Mythique LT, it injected a sizable squirt of power into the drivetrain, and that’s gotta add up over the course of a ride. But e-bikes aren’t just about power, torque and range, they also need to deliver on ride quality. And that’s where the E-Mythique LT VRX really stacks up. This bike absolutely rips. I had the opportunity to ride it on the trails in Northern Ireland where it was developed, and it has clearly been designed for demanding terrain. On OCTOBER 2023 mbr 35 the steep, rocky trails of the Mourne Mountains the E-Mythique LT was in its element, even if I felt out of mine on more than one occasion. The RockShox Super Deluxe Select R shock absorbs hits big and small with impressive ease, while the 35mm chassis on the Yari fork isn’t so stiff as to generate too much deflection in the steering. Sure, bigger, heavier riders may want a beefier fork, but it’s no coincidence that the two best bikes in our E-Bike for the Year test both came with smaller-diameter fork legs. On the unfamiliar trails of the Mourne Mountains, I was on the brakes more than I would have liked to have been. And while the SRAM DB8s have a very light, smooth lever action, after a day of smashing out runs in big terrain I could feel the fatigue starting to build in my hands. So even though the brakes were 100% consistent, my hands were anything but. And it wasn’t arm pump. I just craved more powerful brakes so I didn’t have to pull them as hard. And for some perspective here, these are the exact same brakes that were on the £8k Mondraker Crafty Carbon R that was in our E-Bike of the Year test. Back in Surrey, I never gave the brakes a second thought. Instead I was impressed by how agile the E-Mythique LT was, given its 25.22kg (55.6lb) weight. And while I’d have preferred slightly taller shoulder knobs on the Vee Tires, just to dig in better on loamy trails, the rubber compound is soft and forgiving, and Vitus has sensibly fitted tough casings, even if they do the bike no favours on the scales. It should be clear that designing an e-bike to hit such a competitive price point was always going to mean that compromises needed to be struck somewhere along the line. But Vitus has done an amazing job with the E-Mythique LT VRX. With dialled geometry, killer suspension and a build kit that has no obvious shortcomings, the E-Mythique LT VRX raises the e-bike bar while managing to decouple elevated performance from elevated prices. Sure, the Bafang M510 motor is relatively unknown, but with Vitus stocking and supplying all of the spare parts, if anything does go wrong you shouldn’t be left high and dry. Alan Muldoon SPECIFICATION Frame 6061 T6 aluminium, 160mm travel (156mm measured) Shock RockShox Super Deluxe Select R, 205x65mm Fork RockShox Yari RC, 42mm offset, 170mm travel Motor Bafang M510, 95Nm, 550W peak power Battery Bafang 630Wh,removable Display Bafang M510, with remote switch Wheels Vitus 110/148mm hubs, WTB KOM Trail i30 rims, Vee Tire Co Attack HPL 29/27.5x2.5in tyres Drivetrain Bafang 165mm chainset, SRAM GX r-mech and NX shifter, SRAM NX 11-50t cassette Brakes SRAM DB8, 200mm Components Nukeproof Neutron V2 780mm bar, Nukeproof Neutron 45mm stem, Brand-X Ascend 170mm post, Nukeproof Neutron saddle Sizes S, M, L, XL Weight 25.22kg (55.6lb) GEOMETRY Size ridden L Rider height 5ft11in Head angle 63.3° Seat angle 72.9° Effective SA 77.3° BB height 340mm Chainstay 444mm Front centre 834mm Wheelbase 1,278mm Down tube 753mm Seattube 440mm Top tube 615mm Reach 475mm HIGHS Sublime suspension and killer geometry make for a standout ride. Clear display, decent power and range, generous overrun. LOWS Spoke-mounted speed sensor. Key needed for battery removal. Motor rattle similar to Bosch and Shimano. 1 ST IMP R ES S ION   Three-piece welded rocker link saves cost without skimping on stiffness Simple handlebar remote toggles between five power modes Easy-to-read display flags all the vital stats

36 mbr OCTOBER 2023 NEED TO KNOW O Full carbon 29er e-bike with Bosch Performance CX motor O 148mm rear travel, 160mm (optimised) fork travel O 750Wh integrated batteries on Pro and Team models O Optional framemounted 250Wh range extender O Claimed weight 21.7kg (Team model) O All models use SRAM T-Type Transmissions O Frame-mounted Pivot/Topeak Tool Dock option Will the relaunched 29er Shuttle AM take things higher or fail to take off on the trails? F inale Ligure, Italy, the outdoor region famed for its 1,000km trail network, all within riding distance of the picturesque coastal town. The ideal place to launch an uplift-dodging e-bike? Pivot certainly thinks so, as it reimagines the Shuttle AM. So what’s new? This time the Shuttle AM comes in the form of a Bosch-powered 29er and sits neatly between the heavy-hitting Shuttle LT and the lighter, trail-oriented Shuttle SL. It pairs a 160mm-travel fork to 148mm rear travel, which uses a reworked DWLink suspension design. In fact it’s the final Pivot bike to receive the updated vertical shock layout that’s now a signature feature across the range. It also blends some traits from Pivot’s analogue bikes. The geometry is pretty close to the Firebird, but with travel numbers and the poppier nature of the Switchblade, the Shuttle AM retains a more dynamic ride characteristic. And the vertical shock layout isn’t just about continuity in Pivot’s design language. It also creates more space within the front triangle for a full-size water bottle, or the aftermarket 250Wh PowerMore range extender. Which takes the total battery capacity of the Shuttle AM Pro and Team to a whopping 1kWh. In the UK, the Shuttle AM will be offered in Pro and Team builds and both get the 750Wh battery. The Team bikes also get Bosch’s Race spec motor with its lighter casing and Race mode with extended overrun. Both models get the new wireless MiniRemote. This does NEW BIKES FOR 2024 away with a screen of any kind, with your selected mode being indicated by a change in LED colour on the control unit that’s integrated into the top tube. And while it’s definitely a step in the right direction, it pales in comparison to the Mastermind TCU display that Specialized has on its latest e-bikes. Also, for some riders, the integrated battery will be a deal breaker. Mondraker uses a similar approach to great success on the Crafty Carbon to keep the weight in check, but you’ll need power where you store the bike just to keep the LEDs on. The size range on the Shuttle AM runs from S to XL, with reach numbers that stretch from 435mm to 500mm respectively. Regardless of the frame size, the chainstay lengths remain consistent at 444mm, so not crazy short. The frame has a flip-chip and the head angle sits at a stable 64.5° in the high position, where dropping it to the low setting knocks the head angle back to 64.1° and lowers the BB height by 5mm to 345mm. The frame also has a 200mm direct mount for the rear rotor, so there’s now the option to go up to 220mm IT PAIRS A 160MM-TRAVEL FORK TO 148MM REAR TRAVEL Bosch Performance CX motor delivers 85Nm of torque and 600W peak power PIVOT SHUTTLE AM PRO (SRAM XO) £ 1 2 ,70 0 • 2 9 i n • s a d d l e b a c k . c o .u k

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38 mbr OCTOBER 2023 N EW B I K E S if extra stopping power is needed. And I was happy to see that Pivot has finally ditched the Galfer rotors, as the stock Shimano discs are way better at dissipating heat, and offer more consistent braking performance as a result. A move that’s also been implemented on the Shuttle LT. HOW IT RIDES And now for the important part. It was obvious even after the first couple of trails that the Shuttle AM is very similar to its analogue stablemates, at least in the way it holds pace even when off the pedals. The DW-Link suspension platform provides a strong base to allow riders to be able to pump and work IT’S EASY TO CARVE SMOOTH ARCS ACROSS THE LANDSCAPE Power modes are only visible via the top tube control unit... ... since wireless MiniRemote replaces bar-mounted display DW-Link suspension design delivers 148mm travel via a Fox Factory Float X shock

the bike through flowing terrain easily, without coming up short when the going gets rough, confidently eating larger hits and keeping its posture. When it comes to initiating a turn, e-bikes can often feel cumbersome. That is not the case here. The Shuttle AM has the impressive ability to completely mask its weight and wheel size. As such, it’s eager to change direction in a way you’d expect from a bike with a smaller rear wheel. Bike Test ed Muldoon had a similar experience on the Shuttle LT, so obviously it’s a trait that’s baked into the carbon DNA of these bikes. With its relatively slack 64.1° head angle (low setting) the steering is predictable, but gently pushing with your heels while making a light adjustment to the handlebar can have the bike dancing through the turns. And even with the high degree of lateral stiffness that’s inherent with twin-link designs like the DW-Link suspension, the Shuttle AM doesn’t kick back or skip over flatter turns. Instead, it’s easy to carve smooth arcs across the landscape, wherever you aim to draw them. The top-quality rubber really helps you OCTOBER 2023 mbr 39 leave your mark on the landscape too. With a Minion DHF up front paired to a DHR II on the rear, both in EXO+ casings, traction is good, even if hard chargers will be happy to suck up the weight penalty of a DoubleDown-casing tyre on the rear for increased puncture protection. Armour that will also help protect the DT Swiss rims fitted to the Pro build. I was impressed by how well this tyre combination reliably provided great traction while still being able to fend off the Finale rocks without qualm. Testament to how well the suspension works. Yes, there were times when I winced, fearing the worst, but my day on the Shuttle AM remained puncture free. And anyone familiar with the Ligurian region will understand that’s quite an achievement. It’s not lost on me that the weight penalty of heavier-casing tyres is the main reason for Pivot’s choice, the top-end Team build complete with Newman Carbon wheels weighing in at an impressive 21.7kg in size Medium. Being an e-bike, the added weight of the battery and motor are easily masked by the extra power they provide while climbing. However, the Shuttle AM ascends with an air of confidence I haven’t felt for some time, even by e-bike standards. It finds traction on loose gravel, square-edge rocks and roots, where other bikes would probably spin out. And the seat tube angle isn’t crazy steep, at 76.4° (in the low setting), so it places you in a neutral position for turning the pedals, leaving the rear suspension to find traction and propel you forward without any kicking or screaming. As such it’s a great point- -and-shoot climber even over jagged, technical terrain. Pivot has traditionally flown the blue Shimano flag, but with the switch to Bosch motors, all models in the Shuttle AM range use SRAM’s latest directmount AXS drivetrains, taking full benefit of their improved shifting under load. The SRAM X0 kit mounted to the Pro build moved with a firm reassuring clunk both up or down the massive 10-52t cassette. It remained faultless all day and alongside the Bluetooth mode selector from Bosch, the cockpit area is freed of another cable, providing a very tidy appearance. When the trails start to head in a more gravity-fed direction, the Shuttle AM strides with confidence into terrain that its travel numbers might raise an eyebrow at, but it consistently comes out on top. The revised DW-Link is a marvel, and gives the rider plenty of confidence to raise speeds without fear of being beaten into hamstringburning submission. The suspension feels smooth throughout the stroke of the Float X shock and it’s a bike I can see performing equally well both in bike parks and on longer, exploratory days out in the saddle. It embodies the true spirit of all-mountain riding. My only disappointment then was that with over 45km of singletrack beneath the wheels, I never felt like I had reached the limitations of the Shuttle AM, so it’s a bike I’d love to spend more time on. Christopher Sutcliffe SPECIFICATION Frame Ultralight Hollow Core carbon, 148mm travel Shock Fox Factory Float X Fork Fox Factory 36, GRIP2, 44mm offset, 160mm travel Motor Bosch Performance Line CX, 85Nm Battery Bosch PowerTube 750Wh Display Bosch MiniRemote with System Controller WheelsDT Swiss 110/157mm hubs, DT Swiss EB1535 rims, Maxxis Minion DHF/DHR II 29x2.5/2.4in tyres Drivetrain Praxis Alloy eCranks 34t chainset, SRAM X0 AXS T-Type r-mech and 12sp shifter, SRAM 1295 10-52t cassette Brakes Shimano XT M8120 four-piston, 200/200mm Components Phoenix Race Low Rise Carbon 800mm bar, Phoenix Team Enduro/Trail 50mm stem, Fox Transfer Factory Series 200mm post, Phoenix WTB Volt Pro saddle Sizes S, M, L XL Weight 21.7kg (47.84lb) Max system weight 149kg GEOMETRY LOW SETTING Size ridden XL Rider height 6ft 4in Head angle 64.1° Effective SA 76.4° BB height 345mm Chainstay 444mm Front centre 851mm Wheelbase 1,295mm Seattube 470mm Top tube 671mm Reach 496mm HIGHS Sleek design with sublime handling and suspension. Makes you question why anyone would want an MX set-up. LOWS There’s no ignoring the price. Depending on where and how you ride, it probably needs a DoubleDown-casing rear tyre. Standard rattle from the Bosch motor when coasting. 1 ST IMP R ES S ION   The Shuttle AM Pro is a blast to ride on any terrain

40 mbr OCTOBER 2023 NEW BIKES FOR 2024

OCTOBER 2023 mbr 41 NEED TO KNOW O Full-carbon frame and TQ system adds up to a sub-18kg e-bike O New Zero suspension layout with 150mm rear travel O Removable 360Wh battery and optional 160Wh range extender O Four frame sizes and three models starting at £6,799 A-sub 18kg e-bike is a tidy prospect but can the Neat RR clean up when chaos reigns? While the bike industry currently seems to be battling strong headwinds, no one seems to have told Mondraker. Against a backdrop of demand suppressed by rapidly rising prices, and a market flooded with excess units, the Spanish brand enjoyed growth of 50% last year. To thank for this enviable success are rising sales of its e-bikes, and chiefly the Crafty trail/enduro model. That 160/150mm-travel category seems to be the sweet spot for the brand at the moment, and where demand is strongest. To bolster this segment, dip its toes into a growing sub-category, and hopefully attract a new audience, Mondraker has launched this brand new lightweight e-mtb. It’s called the Neat, and it’s basically a Foxy with a motor. What it’s not is Mondraker’s first sub-20kg e-bike. Back in 2019 it built a Crafty Carbon with full-fat Bosch system that weighed considerably less than anything with a similar engine and fuel tank. Although not as light as rivals from Scott and Rotwild, the new Neat saves 2kg over the old flyweight Crafty, as well as bringing a ride experience that claims to be much closer to an analogue bike in terms of noise, handling, and drag. Even a casual glance is enough to tell you that the Neat gets a reconfigured Zero twin-link suspension layout. The shock is still actuated by a rocker link, but it now reclines at an acute angle and is anchored at the swingarm rather than the lower link. What this does is allow Mondraker to lower the rocker link assembly without interfering with the motor, which gives the opportunity to increase standover clearance. In a similar vein, the top tube has been radically slimmed, and the wafer-thin profile gives more room inside the front triangle for two bottles. Alongside rejigging the suspension layout, Mondraker has gone for a shorter-length shock with less stroke. As such it can use a higher leverage rate, which helps overcome friction within the shock. It’s also one of the reasons why the Neat gets a piggyback reservoir Fox Float X shock, rather than a lighter inline model, to better manage heat. Mondraker says that weight was not the number one goal with the Neat, but that’s not to say it wasn’t towards the top of the white board. The naked full carbon frame is claimed to weigh 2.3kg in size Medium, which is only 100g more than the Foxy Carbon. Add on the motor (1.85kg), battery (1.8kg), and shock (0.5kg) and you’re at 6.7kg for the chassis. Fully built bikes, according to Mondraker’s figures, will be between 17.9kg and 18.9kg depending on the spec level. Considering all models come with 200mm rotors, four-piston brakes, piggyback shocks and reinforced casing tyres, that’s extremely competitive. Currently, the lightest mid-power model that’s been on our scales is the Specialized S-Works Levo SL, at 17.65kg, but that has a smaller-capacity battery. TQ’s power pack is a 360Wh unit and it’s housed in the fully enclosed down tube. This keeps the weight down and frame strength high, but in an upgrade to that original lightweight Crafty, you can actually remove the battery. There’s a twist-lock on the sump guard – remove that and then loosen two bolts and the battery slides out. One of TQ’s greatest assets is its compact size. Thanks to the concentric ‘harmonic ring’ design, it takes up so little space in the frame that it is almost imperceptible to the casual passerby. Coupled with the exceptionally quiet function, it’s arguably the stealthiest system on the market. ONE OF TQ’S GREATEST ASSETS IS ITS SIZE Zero twin-link suspension delivers 150mm of travel via Fox Float X Factory shock MONDRAKER NEAT RR £ 8 ,4 9 9 • 2 9 i n • m o n d r a ke r. c o m

42 mbr OCTOBER 2023 N EW B I K E S THE MORE I RODE THE NEAT, THE MORE I GOT INTO IT Top tube display shows battery life and power mode 360Wh battery slides out from the bottom of the down tube High BB limits cornering stability and there’s no flip-chip to lower it

Three levels of assistance are offered and accessed via the remote unit on the bars, while the top tube display lets you see which mode you’re in, as well as giving a rundown on the battery remaining. At its most generous, the TQ dishes out 300W of additional power, while the torque tops out at 50Nm, so it feels strongest on gradual gradients at higher cadences. Like its rivals, the TQ system is fully customisable by connecting to the app via Bluetooth. As with all lightweight e-bike systems, range is the key metric for most prospective consumers. “How much riding can I do in a single charge?” is what everyone wants to know. Of course, it’s not that simple, as there are so many variables, but on the Neat launch I managed 944m of climbing and 27km using a mix of all three power modes, ending the day with 9% battery remaining. In short, it’s safe to say that the 160Wh TQ range extender will be an essential purchase for most Neat owners. HOW IT RIDES A lack of test bikes meant I didn’t get my first choice of frame sizes (a Large). But with a 470mm reach, the Medium Neat RR actually never felt cramped. For reference, the smallest frame gets a 450mm reach, the Large sits at 495mm, and the XL grows to 515mm. Mondraker has kept the seat tube lengths short, too – only 420mm on the Medium – which leaves lots of room for a longer dropper post and acres of standover clearance. If we run a finger across the geometry chart, there are a couple of other figures that stand out. One is the BB height, which, in typical Mondraker style, is higher than average at 348mm. Of its main rivals, the new 150mm-travel Specialized Levo SL has a 344mm BB height, but the 140mm-travel Trek Fuel EXe is significantly lower at 332mm (both measured in the low position). Mondraker’s decision pays dividends if you live somewhere chunky, as the OCTOBER 2023 mbr 43 reduced chance of pedal strikes will be a big benefit. But on smoother terrain, it could definitely be lower in order to gain cornering stability. The other interesting metric is chainstay length. Although the brand has dabbled with adjustable chainstay lengths in the past, it keeps things simple on the Neat with a constant, and fairly neutral 450mm rear centre measurement throughout the size range. In making that choice it has had to balance sufficient length to give good climbing traction against the snappy, lively handling of a short back end. Then there’s the need to keep a good weight balance across the four frame sizes, given that front centre measurements change by 65mm from Small to XL. One problem with the revised Zero suspension design on the Neat is that setting sag is tricky. There’s no easy way to get a tape measure in the shock tunnel, so I had to get roughly into the 30% ballpark and then fine-tune the shock pressure on the ride. Not ideal, and some kind of supplied tool would be welcome. As such, I went from 180psi in the shock and 80psi in the fork to 185psi and 75psi respectively by the end of the day. This gave a harmonious response and great balance, particularly with the compression dial in the mid setting to add a bit of pedalling support when climbing. On those ascents it’s easy to keep the cranks spinning thanks to that high BB, which which ensures the motor stays in the sweet spot. Even with a tiny 30mm stem, the steep 76.5° effective seat angle and relatively long chainstays help keep the front wheel on the deck and the rear wheel biting into the dirt. As with most lightweight e-bikes, it also feels natural to get out of the saddle, whether to force over those cranks or for a change of position. The only fly in the ointment is that I clipped my heels on the seatstays on several occasions. Friction in the TQ system is minimal, so Eco mode is entirely usable on the climbs without eating into biological reserves. The same can be said for undulating singletrack, where the Neat changes pace with minimal effort and rapidly responds to accelerations. That same reactivity applies to changes of direction, too. Little effort is required to flick the Neat through tight chicanes and jackknife hairpins, but when the trail opens out into sweeping, bike park berms it just hunkers down and finds a steadfast groove. Mondraker has done a great job with the suspension, giving the Neat a light touch over small bumps but plenty of progression on big jumps. And on really chunky rock sections it never seemed to get hung up or wedged. Better still, with a single 0.4 spacer in the shock, you can adapt the spring curve as you see fit by removing it altogether for a more linear response, or packing it out for more progression. Fast, fun, and silent, the more I rode the Neat, the more I got into it. And therein lies the only real rub with this bike: the range. While the TQ system is a great package in terms of weight, noise, and power, to prevent going home for an early bath, most riders are going to have to invest in a second battery or a range extender. Not the end of the world, but certainly something to factor in when pricing up options. Danny Milner SPECIFICATION Frame Stealth Air Carbon, 150mm travel Shock Fox Float X Factory (185x55mm) Fork Fox 36 Factory GRIP2, 160mm travel (44mm offset) Motor TQ HPR-50, 300W/50Nm Battery TQ HPR-50 360Wh Control unit TQ HPR Display Wheels Mavic E-Deemax SL wheels, Maxxis Minion DHF/ Minion DHR II Max Terra Exo/Exo+ 29x2.4in tyres Drivetrain E*thirteen E*Spec Plus crank, 34t, 165mm, SRAM GX Eagle AXS T-Type 12-speed shifter and r-mech Brakes SRAM Level Bronze Stealth, fourpiston, 200/200mm Components Onoff Krypton 30mm, Onoff Krypton Carbon bars 800mm, Fox Transfer Factory dropper post 150mm, Fizik Terra Aidon Slim X5 saddle Weight18.3kg (40.3lb) Max system weight 150kg Sizes S, M, L, XL GEOMETRY Size ridden M Rider height 5ft10in Head angle 64.5° Seat angle 72.6° Effective SA 76.5° BB height 348mm Chainstay 450mm Front centre 805mm Wheelbase 1,255mm Down tube 745mm Seattube 420mm Top tube 615mm Reach 470mm HIGHS Looks good. Rides better. Tuneable suspension and motor. LOWS Lack of range unless you stick to low power modes. Needs a flip-chip with low BB option. Heel clearance. Difficult to set up sag. 1 ST IMP R ES S ION   Mondraker Neat RR: rapid, responsive and satisfyingly silent

44 mbr OCTOBER 2023 NEED TO KNOW O Entry-level e-bike platform with 125mm travel and 29in wheels O SyncDrive Sport motor has 75Nm torque and is paired with a 625Wh battery O RockShox 35 Silver fork pumps out 140mm travel O FlexPoint suspension design reduces complexity and cost O Colour LCD controller and display is clear and easy to use O Stance E+ 2 available for £3,499 Giant’s entry-level e-bike cuts travel to 125mm but does it still give great bang for your buck? T he Stance E+ 1 is a shorter-travel 29er e-bike that strips back some of Giant’s proprietary suspension tech to deliver a ride that is both smooth and affordable. It still boasts a full power Yamaha-made SyncDrive Sport motor with 75Nm torque which is combined with a 625Wh removable battery to ensure that you’re not being shortchanged on either power or range. The removable battery pops out of the underside of the down tube in the same way as Giant’s high-end e-bikes, so you only need a T25 tool for removal. You do need to tighten the T25 battery latch securely though when reinstalling the battery, otherwise it rattles inside the frame. Also, if you want to ride further in the higher-power modes, the Stance E+ 1 is compatible with Giant’s 250Wh EnergyPak Plus range extender. So what’s missing then? The biggest difference between the Stance E frame and Giant’s other e-bike platforms is that it uses a single-pivot FlexPoint suspension design. Rather than getting Giant’s signature twin-link Maestro suspension, the Stance E+ 1 has aluminium flex stays with fewer pivots, bearings and links that bring appreciable cost savings when it comes to manufacturing the frame. For the Stance E platform, Giant employs its top-end ALUXX SL aluminium so there is potential weight saving when combined with the FlexPoint suspension design. Any weight reduction is masked by the more affordable mix of components though – the top-end Stance E+ 1 weighing a hefty 26.44kg (58.26lb) without pedals. And it’s worth noting that the bike comes fitted with the lightest-casing Maxxis EXO tyres, so if you plan on riding the Stance E+ 1 on serious mountain bike trails, you are going to want more robust tyres from the off, which will instantly nudge the weight of the bike up to over 27kg. NEW BIKES FOR 2024 HOW IT RIDES Off the scales and on the trails, the Stance E+ 1 masks its mass pretty well. And while it only has 125mm of rear travel, the suspension is very effective once you get it set up correctly. Which isn’t as straightforward as it should be. Neither the Suntour shock or RockShox 35 fork have sag O-rings fitted as standard, so to take some of the guesswork out of the initial suspension set-up, I slapped a zip-tie on both. Even then, I was quite a way off on the initial shock pressure; a harsh metallic bottom-out on the very first drop, a stark warning that 30% sag was simply too much for the shock to handle. Increasing the pressure in the air can and reducing the sag to 25% instantly fixed the knock though. Nonetheless, I was still left wondering why Giant couldn’t spec a small rubber bump stop in the shock. Perhaps that’s just a step too far when you’re trying to build a capable e-bike for under £4k. With the sag dialled, my focus quickly shifted to the rebound damping, or the distinct lack thereof. The Suntour Raidon shock basically has bullet-fast rebound until you get to the final three or four clicks of adjustment. So the usable range is really narrow. I found a setting Suntour Raidon R shock delivers 125mm travel via single-pivot FlexPoint suspension GIANT STANCE E+ 1 £ 3 ,9 9 9 • 2 9 i n • g i a n t- b i c y c l e s . c o m

OCTOBER 2023 mbr 45 THE SUSPENSION IS VERY EFFECTIVE ONCE YOU GET IT SET UP CORRECTLY

46 mbr OCTOBER 2023 N EW B I K E S Easy-to-read RideControl Dash display has adjustable brightness Headset-routed cables are tidy but user-unfriendly 625Wh down tube battery is removable with a T25 tool

I was happy with though, and given that the bike only has 125mm travel, the rear end still offers really good traction with a much bigger appetite for rougher terrain than the numbers suggest. In fact, the rear suspension felt well balanced with the 140mm-travel RockShox 35 fork, at least until I started charging hard, then the action of the fork would start to feel erratic and out of sync with the rear end. Basically the RockShox 35 Silver fork is slow to return when deep in the travel, then it rapidly speeds up as the fork reaches full extension. And no amount of dial twiddling could eliminate that. One thing the Stance E+ has in common with the high-end Giant Trance E that I rode in our E-Bike of the Year test is that it is a full 29er. And even with its dramatically different suspension layout, the Stance E+ 1 still sports really long chainstays – 467mm to be precise. And while the longer rear stays should provide a really balanced ride for anyone on the XL bike, there’s an obvious forward weight bias on the three smaller frame sizes. As such, it’s pretty hard to pop the front end up over a fallen tree, or to manual through a ditch, even for an experienced rider. On the flip side, the long stays enable you to run the handlebar really high for a more commanding riding position OCTOBER 2023 mbr 47 and the front end remains securely planted even on the steepest climbs. It makes the front tyre really easy to load on flatter turns too. Ultimately though, Giant needs shorter back ends on the smaller frame sizes to offer smaller riders a more balanced and dynamic ride. And if that means designing the bikes around a 27.5in rear wheel or adding some sort of dropout flip-chip, then I’m all for it. The compact RideControl Dash display is crystal clear and easy to read, and while it’s painfully slow to navigate between the different screens for cadence, range, speed etc, toggling between the power modes is easy and fast. I also like that there’s a button on the display for adjusting the brightness of the screen, so you don’t need your blue-light blocking glasses for evening rides. Get on the gas, and Giant’s SynDrive motor offers a really smooth power curve, and at lower revs – around 70pm – it’s pretty quiet. Start revving at 90rpm and above and the motor starts to whine. Still, it’s not so loud as to be off-putting and it’s common to a lot of systems. The motor also has the usual rattle when coasting, which is accompanied by a loud disconcerting clunk when you first start pedalling again. I can only assume this is the freewheel in the motor engaging. Still, once you’re motoring along it’s not an issue. There’s no clunkiness to the drivetrain and shifting is fast and smooth as the 10-speed chain glides effortlessly across the Shimano LinkGlide cassette. Paired with a 36t chainring, the compact 11-43t cassette gives the Stance E+1 a gear range that is more tailored to trucking along at a good click than winching your way up steep techy climbs. Even if the longer chainstays really lend themselves to the latter. The harder-compound Maxxis tyres also keep the tempo high while boosting the range from the 625Wh battery. But there could be so much more to the Stance E+ 1 than simply racking up the miles. It’s a remarkably capable bike, and the only number that’s off in terms of geometry is the chainstay length. With a shorter back end and tougher tyres Giant could really expand this bike’s horizon. But until that happens, if you’re looking for a new e-bike that doesn’t cost more than your car, then the Vitus E-Mythique LT VRX has more travel, a better spec and is actually lighter than the Giant, and it only costs £400 more. Alan Muldoon SPECIFICATION FrameALUXX SL aluminium, 125mm travel(127mm measured) Shock SR Suntour Raidon R, 190x45mm Fork RockShox 35 Silver, 140mm travel MotorGiant SyncDrive Sport 75Nm Battery EnergyPak Smart 625Wh Display Ride Control Dash WheelsGiant eTracker 110/148mm hubs, Giant AM 29 alloy rims, Maxxis Minion DHF/ Dissector 29x2.5/ 2.4in tyres Drivetrain FSA Comet 36t, 165mm chainset, Shimano Deore r-mech and 10sp shifter, Shimano LinkGlide 11-43t cassette Brakes Tektro HD M750 Orion fourpiston, 203/203mm ComponentsGiant Connect TR 780mm bar, Giant Contact 50mm stem, Giant Contact Switch 170mm post, Giant Sport saddle Sizes S, M, L, XL Weight 26.44kg (58.26lb) GEOMETRY Size ridden L Rider height 5ft11in Head angle 64.8° Seat angle 73.9° Effective SA 76.1° BB height 331mm Chainstay 467mm Front centre 805mm Wheelbase 1,272mm Down tube 746mm Seattube 450mm Top tube 625mm Reach 470mm HIGHS Plush rear suspension response and seamless power delivery. Clear, compact, easy-to-use display/controller. Generous frame sizing and good standover. Smooth shifting with Shimano LinkGlide 10-speed drivetrain. LOWS Thin-casing Maxxis tyres. Clunky motor engagement. Long chainstays give the bike a more forward weight bias. Cables routed through the headset are a pain to work with. 1 ST IMP R ES S ION   GIANT’S MOTOR OFFERS A REALLY SMOOTH POWER CURVE Stance E +1: size-specific chainstays could make a good bike great

48 mbr OCTOBER 2023 NEED TO KNOW O Aggro alloy hardtail with size specific wheels: XXS, XS, S (27.5in)/ M, L, XL (29in) O Entry-level bike of three, all with 140mm travel forks O New Shimano CUES U6000 drivetrain on latest model O Soft compound Schwalbe tyres for maximum control O Boost dropouts front and rear increase wheel strength It’s a little late to the HOTY party, but can Canyon turn up the fun? I f you’ve been following our Hardtail of the Year test, you’re probably wondering why the Stoic 2 wasn’t in the mix. And the answer is simple. It didn’t arrive on time to make the cut. Now that it’s here though, and with the Hardtail of the Year test still front of mind, I wanted to see how the Canyon would have stacked up in the sub £1k category of that test. At first glance, the alloy frame on this 29er hardtail has a more modern profile than either the Voodoo Bizango Pro or the Vitus Sentier 29. Digging into the numbers confirms that; the low slung top tube combined with a slack 64.1° head angle and generous 475mm reach on the size L make the Stoic longer, slacker and lower than both of those bikes. Best of all, the Stoic comes in six unique frame sizes to guarantee a perfect fit. Canyon even mixes wheel sizes across the size range: XXS, XS and S get 27.5in wheels, M, L and XL roll on full 29in. I feel that Canyon has missed a trick by not offering a MX option though. Still, with all of the standover clearance it’s really easy to up size if you want a longer, more stable bike. Not that you’ll need to do so, because the Stoic is roughly one full size longer in the cockpit than the Voodoo, Vitus and On-One, so if anything, you’re more likely to go the other way. On the scales, the Stoic 2 is comparable in weight with the Calibre Line T3-27 and the OnOne Scandal. But it’s worth noting that both of those bike sport dropper posts. It has a similar tyre spec to the Vitus, which does not have a dropper post, and weighed in at 13.9kg, so the Stoic 2 is marginally heavier at 14.68kg. Some of that additional weight is in the steel upper tubes of the 140mm travel Suntour XCR 34 29 Air fork. The suspension fork has a smooth composed action, and feels less erratic than some of the entry-level RockShox forks we’ve tested. Which means you can ride harder and with more confidence as it helps limit the bigger swings in dynamic geometry you get on most hardtails with longer travel forks. How long the fork will say that way is anyone’s guess, and getting it serviced, or sourcing spare parts, isn’t going to be NEW BIKES FOR 2024 CANYON STOIC 2 £ 8 9 9 • 2 9 i n • c a ny o n . c o m Acres of clearance for those claggy British winters

OCTOBER 2023 mbr 49 as straightforward as with a RockShox unit, as most shops won’t be interested in taking it on in case they open up a can of worms. Especially when the bike was bought directly from Canyon. In terms of drivetrain, Canyon has gone with the light action Shimano Deore 10 speed, with a recent switch to the new 10-speed Shimano Cues U600 on the latest model. It’s been smart with the gearing too. The smaller 30t chainring ensures that you can still keep the pedals turning on the climbs even with the closer ratio 11-42t cassette. HOW IT RIDES In a word: Silent. There’s no cable rattle to accompany you on every ride, but the cable routing still needs attention as the cables rub on the fork crown. And while that seems innocuous, unaddressed, the cables will wear a deep, unsightly groove into the aluminium over time. So you’ll either want to shorten the cables from the off, or put some clear protective tape where they touch the fork crown. The blissfully silent ride is mostly due SPECIFICATION Frame 6061-T6 aluminium Fork SR Suntour XCR 34 29 Air, 140mm travel Wheels Shimano MT400 hubs, Alex DP30 rims, Schwalbe Magic Mary/Hans Dampf 29x2.35in tyres Drivetrain ProWheel Charm 30t, 175mm, Shimano Cues U600 r-mech and 10-speed shifter, Shimano 11-42t cassette Brakes Shimano MT200, 203/180mm Components Canyon 780mm bar, Canyon 40mm stem, Canyon alloy post, Canyon Velo saddle Sizes XXS, XS, S(27.5in), M, L, XL(29in) Weight14.68kg (32.36lb) Contact canyon.com GEOMETRY Size tested L Rider height 5ft11in Head angle 64.1° Seat angle 73.3° Effective SA 74.8° (@740mm) BB height 311mm Chainstay 428mm Front centre 810mm Wheelbase 1,238mm Down tube 755mm Top tube 645mm Reach 475mm HIGHS Great geometry and comprehensive sizing. Excellent tyres and brakes. Dropper post ready. LOWS No quick-release seat collar. No lock-on grips. No pedals. 1 ST IMP R ES S ION   to the excellent chainstay protection, but there’s also a nice damped feel to the soft compound Schwalbe tyres, without introducing too much drag. The Schwalbe tyres come with the reinforced Super Trail casing for increased puncture resistance, so you can run them a little softer than normal to improve both traction and comfort. It’s still no match for the Calibre Line T3- 27 with its 2.6in plus size tyres when it comes to traction and control though. And while on the subject of control, the Shimano MT200 hydraulic disc brakes are excellent, especially with the extra stopping power afforded by the bigger 203/180mm rotors. The Canyon Stoic 2 frame is ripe for a dropper post upgrade, but the bike doesn’t come with a quick-release seat collar, so you will need a multi-tool on hand for constantly adjusting the saddle height to match the terrain. Now, given that Canyon Stoic 2 is cheaper than all of the bikes in the sub £1K category of our Hardtail of the Year test, you could just buy a 30.9mm diameter £100 dropper post and be done with it. The bike doesn’t come with pedals either, not even the cheap plastic variety, so you’ll need to factor that into the headline price too. And while the specification may not be quite as good value as the Voodoo Bizango Pro or the Vitus Sentier 29, Canyon offers a more modern frame platform on which to upgrade, so it’s still right up there in the mix with the best of them. All it needs now is a 27.5in rear wheel with a 2.6in tyre and we’d probably have a new winner for our Hardtail of the Year test. Maybe next year? I sure hope so. Alan Muldoon A SILENT RIDE IS MOSTLY DUE TO THE CHAINSTAY PROTECTION Cable routing let down by fork crown rub Boost dropouts create solid wheel strength In the pink: the Stoic is an unassumming beast of a budget hardtail

50 mbr OCTOBER 2023 It’s been 10 years since Pole launched its stretched limo Evolink. To celebrate this milestone it has refined its range to consist of six customisable models, all about as striking as you’d expect from the Finnish brand. Alongside motor-assisted options, the Vikkelä mixes the travel and attitude of a downhill bike with the climbing position and go-anywhere versatility of an enduro bike – Pole calls it ‘downduro’, ‘cos mtb really needs another sub-category. Like one of those stir-fry restaurants where you choose your ingredients, the Vikkelä can be anything you want it to be. Select 29in wheels front and rear, or go MX. Run a dual-crown fork up front for ultimate swagger, and match it with 190mm of rear travel. Or go for a singlecrown and 168mm of rear travel. You still get the distinctive CNC aluminium frame, radical elevated chainstays, and blinging anodised finish. Head turner doesn’t do it justice. polebicycles.com POLE VIKKELÄ €4,490 NEW BIKES FOR 2024 NORCO FLUID VLT £TBC One of the hottest motors for 2024 is Bosch’s lightweight Performance SX unit. Bringing near full-fat levels of power in a 4kg package should usher in a whole gamut of new sub-20kg e-bikes. One of the first brands to show off its new diet package is Norco, with the Fluid VLT trail bike. There are three models, C1, C2, and C3 where the C1 uses a full carbon frame and the C2 and C3 use a carbon front triangle with alloy stays. It’s a mixed wheel size platform and travel is 130mm or 140mm depending on the spec. In terms of assistance, the SX unit claims to produce 600W of peak power and 55Nm of torque, all powered by a 400Wh internal battery with optional 250Wh range extender. Availability on the Fluid VLT is scheduled to be Spring 2024. zyrofisher.co.uk / norco.com COMMENCAL META SX V5 T-TYPE £5,899.02 Continuing Commencal’s long lineage of desirable trail bikes is this, the fifth iteration of the Meta. It’s still made from alloy, just like the original(even if Commencal did briefly flirt with carbon), but the new bike uses the Virtual Contact System (VCS) – employing short, counter-rotating links rather than a single-pivot design – and delivers a generous 165mm of travel. With a low standover height, short, steep seat tubes, two chainstay lengths depending on the frame size, and mixed wheels, the new Meta SX looks seriously shredable – if that’s a word. While the range starts at under £3.5k, this T-Type version seems impressive for the money given the Fox Factory suspension and new SRAM GX AXS transmission. commencal.com