FLAT-OUT FAST ENDURO BIKES

With generous suspension travel and big wheels, these bikes are built for speed and thrills – which one gave the biggest grins?

The term ‘enduro bike’ used to mean a pumped-up trail bike. Now, it’s an entirely different breed. Designed to cope with a style of racing that’s increasingly challenging, the best enduro bikes are capable of taking DH tracks in their stride while being efficient – even pleasant – to ride up the most punishing climbs.

Hoping to gain any advantage they can between the tapes, many enduro racers are turning to 29in wheels. These help sustain speed over technical race stages, and also make covering ground easier when riding just for fun. That’s why we’ve focused this test on big-wheelers.

While bikes that are designed for racing at the top level may not be as responsive or agile as a shorter-travel trail bike, their stable handling makes them a purpose-built tool for really technical terrain, so these steeds should be a good choice for riders who relish tough descents.

We picked four aimed at keen racers and gravity thrill-seekers alike.

To find out how they performed, we first weighed and measured every detail of their design, from reach to rear wheel travel. We did this because our own measurements often differ from the numbers printed on manufacturers’ spec sheets. We then set the bikes up as consistently as possible, in terms of things such as suspension sag, tyre pressure and bar height. Over the first few rides we experimented with damping settings, and, where necessary, we swapped stems, grips and bars to get them to suit our tester better.

We then tested the bikes back-toback on several trails we know well, to bring their handling differences into focus. Finally, after fitting all the bikes with the same tyres, we rode timed runs on four different tracks to see which of our contenders could get down them the fastest.