REVEL RANGER 29 XT
£5,999 Can a 115mm-travel bike be a hooligan on the trails?
It definitely feels like short-travel ‘downcountry’ bikes are on the ascent in 2021, and the latest to land in the MBUK test fleet is the Revel Ranger. The US brand claim it’s as at home on an XC racetrack as it is rallying around your local trails – so it seemed only fair to give it a proper UK-style thrashing.
The frame
The carbon fibre front and rear triangles are joined by a pair of corotating links, with the shock being driven by a separate yoke. Revel say this ‘CBF’ linkage completely separates rear wheel movement from brake and pedalling forces, by controlling the position of the axle’s centre of curvature (virtual pivot point) as well as its instant centre as it moves through its travel.
Frame dimensions are on-trend for the downcountry market – the large size has a generous 473mm reach, average-length 436mm chainstays, a 67.5-degree head angle and 75.3-degree seat tube angle. The 338mm BB height is spot on, too.
The kit
A 120mm-travel RockShox SID Ultimate fork and SID Luxe Ultimate shock take care of keeping the 2.4in Onza Porcupine tyres stuck to the floor. These are mounted on Hunt TrailWide wheels, driven by a full Shimano XT groupset. The brakes are XT too. A BikeYoke REVIVE post props up a Burgtec saddle, accompanied by a matching carbon bar and alloy stem. The Revgrips grips have a small amount of twist built in, designed to reduce arm pump and fatigue.
Flat-out fast, the Ranger’s white-knuckle ride kept us grinning all day long
The ride
Pitched against a trail bike, the Ranger is a little whippet. Its 12.7kg weight, combined with fast-rolling tyres and suspension that’s on the more aggressively-damped side, means it reacts instantly to pedal inputs. At the same time, the geometry gives it lightning-fast handling from corner to corner. It’s easy to get airborne, too – if you’re happy piloting its short-travel chassis back to earth with a little finesse.
Revel’s CBF linkage gives a rocksolid feel to the back end under pedalling, provided you’ve got the shock pressure right. In order to match the fairly aggressive damping of the SID fork, we reduced rear sag to 22 per cent. We never had to reach for the small compression lever on the shock, and while we’ve ridden bikes that deliver more grip, we only occasionally found the rear wheel scrabbling for traction on loose, steep ascents.
On descents, the rear end struggled to keep pace with the fork, skipping and slapping around a little, especially under braking. Upping the sag made it easier to keep the wheel stuck down, but led to a disparity in feel between the front and back of the bike, and a little less reactivity to pedal inputs. We preferred it with our original, slightly more ‘on edge’ set-up, which helped give it an intoxicatingly fast feel.
The Revel may be short on travel, but even on steeper, rockier tracks we found its shape more than acceptable, particularly the long reach. While the handling is on the more exciting side, we never felt any nervousness, and the fork’s composed damping and stout chassis made us happy to push the Porcupine tyres to the limit. These o er reasonable rather than exceptional grip, but that’s reflected in the bike’s willingness to accelerate. TOM MARVIN www.cyclorise.com