It’s like taking a short-haul flight with hand luggage where you only pack the essentials – being forced to downsize will lighten the load
Mountain biking offers us a lot of freedom. Freedom to explore. Freedom to express ourselves. We even have the freedom to choose which wheel size we want to ride. And if you’ve ever ridden without a hydration pack, you’ll appreciate the freedom this gives you to move your body unimpeded on the bike. It’s the primary reason why most riders are obsessed with having a bottle cage mount.
And while water is only second to the air we need for survival, most of us like to carry a few extra parts and tools that can salvage a ride when we step into the wild. But where to keep them? In the down tube of course. Sounds obvious, right? But when Specialized cut a hole in the down tube and launched the first SWAT Door-equipped Stumpjumper in 2016 it was a truly revolutionary idea. Prior to that, savvy riders had been strapping pumps, tubes and food to the frame in order to get the weight off their backs.
Having all that weight low down in the frame rather than high up on your back isn’t just about comfort either. It lowers the centre of gravity, which in turn makes the bike more stable. It also increases the sprung mass, so the suspension is more effective. These are the two primary reasons why e-bikes are so good, but rather than having a battery in the down tube we have all of the essentials we’d normally carry in a hydration pack.
Now, it should be obvious that you can’t stuff everything you keep in a 25l hydration pack into your down tube – it’s more like taking a shorthaul flight with hand luggage where you only pack the essentials. So if you normally carry a spare derailleur, enough tools to tackle any repair and food fit for a feast, being forced to downsize could actually be a useful exercise as it will lighten your load.
Are there any drawbacks to integrated downtube storage? Other than the obvious capacity limit and forgetting about that fermenting banana, the frames aren’t quite as light as those without a gaping hole in the down tube. And
that’s simply because when you cut a hole in a tube, carbon or aluminium, you need to add more material than you removed to restore the strength and stiffness. But again, if this allows you to redistribute the weight that you’d normally have in your pack to the frame, that’s a net gain.
Like all new ideas there was some resistance when Specialized first introduced the SWAT Door. For some, adding a “glove box” to a mountain bike was a dumb idea. But for lots of riders it was the answer to their prayers. Ultimately the concept has stood the test of time, and given the number of other brands that have since introduced similar storage solutions, it’s fair to say that most brands and riders think it’s a genuinely good idea.
So with that in mind, this month we have three bikes with integrated down-tube storage. The recently released Focus Jam 8.9 uses the addition of a carbon front end to add storage. We also have the new Specialized
Stumpy Evo Expert with the second-generation SWAT Door that’s bigger and better than the original. Finally the Trek Slash 9.8 XT is the biggest hitting bike in the test, and it also sports the smallest cutaway in the frame.
And while the theme of the test is bikes with integrated down-tube storage, we won’t simply be looking for the bike with the most carrying capacity, or the neatest solution. As always it’s outright performance on the trail that will determine the test winner.