VITUS MYTHIQUE 29 VRS
£1,449.99 Bargain-priced trail bike that certainly looks the part
As part of the Chain Reaction Cycles/Wiggle empire, Vitus are known for excellent value for money. Their new Mythique is a 140mm trail bike, available with 650b or 29in (tested) wheels. It offers new-school geometry and sensible, reliable parts, for a great price.
The frame
The aluminium frame uses a four-bar design with a chainstay pivot that allows more precise suspension tuning options. It’s got the latest Boost rear axle spacing and is 1x-specific, coming with a 12-speed SRAM Eagle drivetrain that boosts its climbing prowess. With its kinked top and seat tubes, the curvy, hydroformed chassis follows the same lines as Vitus’s pricier bikes, but with the shock attached to the down tube, rather than piercing the seat tube. The chainstays are marginally longer than on the competition, at 445mm, and the frame is also a little taller off the floor, both in terms of the bottom bracket position and the seat tower height.
The kit
You get a sorted, 12-speed SRAM SX Eagle drivetrain with a 50-tooth biggest cassette sprocket for easier winching up the steepest hills. The Schwalbe rubber is way higher-spec than you’d expect for this little cash – a superb Magic Mary on the front (in the ‘right’ ADDIX Soft compound too, making a big difference to grip and security) and a fast-rolling Hans Dampf at the rear. A Brand-X Ascend 150mm dropper post – a model that’s proven reliable in the past – is another welcome addition to the sweet parts list.
X-Fusion handle the suspension. The Sweep fork has a reduced offset to stabilise steering at speed and a 110mm axle for increased stiffness and resistance to twisting. While it offers low-speed compression and rebound adjustment, and works OK, it isn’t as supple as the RockShox forks here. The 02 Pro RL shock worked fine on other bikes here, but unfortunately for Vitus, the one on the Mythique had died by the end of our first day riding. Its replacement survived our testing unscathed.
The ride
Vitus’s new rig pedals very effectively without much bobbing or loss of energy, whether you’re stomping the pedals while standing or grinding up the steepest climbs seated. The rider position is good, both in the saddle and out of it. Combined with decent angles, this makes the bike fast and efficient under power.
Off the gas, it feels solid and stable at speed when pointed down rough, rock-strewn bridleways or beaten
up trails. The four-bar suspension works calmly and effectively, dulling bigger hits. But in terms of pop and playfulness, the Mythique isn’t quite as chuckable and doesn’t have the same natural steering balance as the Triple B or Hawk Hill. A significant cause of this is the saddle getting in the way of your thighs when riding dynamically. It’s annoying that something so simple as not being able to insert the dropper fully into the kinked seat tube to get the seat low enough (for our testers, at least) can kill your buzz.
The new frame is also slightly too high at the BB, so your feet feel further from the floor and a bit disconnected from the trail, compared to on the Calibre. Increasing the shock sag to around 35 per cent helps to an extent and improves tracking. It doesn’t give you a too-soft rear end or bottomout harshly either, but does make pedalling feel slightly less efficient.
OFF THE GAS, IT FEELS SOLID AND STABLE AT SPEED WHEN POINTED DOWN ROUGH, ROCK STREWN BRIDLEWAYS OR BEATEN UP TRAILS
The Mythique doesn’t feel as solid as the Triple B either, which may be due to the longer fork stanchions and bigger wheels absorbing some energy when trying to load the bike in corners or force directional changes.
All this is nit-picking, because the Mythique is a solid package that rides like many dearer bikes. The kit’s great overall, with details like top-spec tyres that you can really push. (It was doing just that, on some proper DH tracks, that killed the shock.) But, with a slightly better steering and suspension feel, the Calibre just has the edge in the fun stakes.