TOM’S HOPE HB. 130 £6,585

Just in the nick of time, Tom got out to some bigger hills

I’m one of the lucky ones. In that short, non-quarantined window this summer, I made it out to the Alps with my HB.130, and then got home again without having to become a hermit for 14 days (although, of course, I took precautions to keep myself and everyone else as safe as possible). It was a fairly last-minute decision. I chucked the Hope (and a road bike) into the back of my van, jumped on a ferry and cruised down to the Alps, soaking up all the good stuff France has to offer on the way (mostly croissants and red wine!).

I was staying with my friend Sam from BikeVillage, for a week of uplifts backed up with plenty of pedalling to access some of the best natural technical trails that Les Arcs and the surrounding valleys have to offer – and I wasn’t disappointed. While I love the riding around Bristol and the South West, very little beats trails that drop hundreds or thousands of metres in one go, from high-alpine meadows, through dense loamy forests, into either flat-out valley floor blasts or mega-chunky rock gardens.

The area around Les Arcs is somewhere that, we calculated, I’ve spent over a year of my life riding, and yet Sam still managed to guide me on five completely new dayrides that I’d never ridden before. Bliss. So how did the Hope cope?

Admirably, actually. The bike proved that it’s quality rather than quantity of suspension that counts when riding technical trails. With support and composure, I rarely found the 130mm of travel at the back lacking. I’ve talked about the rear end flex before, and on these slower, tighter trails with off-camber roots and rocks this compliance helped the bike mould to the terrain that little bit more, giving traction in spades.

I did swap out the Öhlins RXF 36 fork for a RockShox Pike Ultimate I had in the garage, though. The Pike has better small-bump sensitivity and a more open compression tune. However, I’m in the process of getting the Öhlins fork retuned to get the performance I want out of it, so the swap is only temporary. Everything else worked just fine. I didn’t boil the brakes (despite plenty of prolonged braking) and the DoubleDown-casing Maxxis Minion rear tyre I fitted stayed inflated throughout, despite some dubious line choices! www.hopetech.com £869 www.zyrofisher.co.uk £64.99 and £70 www.maxxis.co.uk