Hi all….

Sorry, this is a really basic question but I can’t seem to find a proper answer…

What is the difference between Trail bikes and XC bikes?

I ride mainly in the Peak District, generally between 20 – 30 mile rides, nothing too technical, no jumps or big drops, and I’m not planning on racing, although some of the stuff we rude over can be pretty rocky at times. I’ve currently got a 2003 Kona Caldera but it’s reached the end of it’s life so I’m looking for a replacement. I’ll probably use the Kona to tinker with and rebuild it over time.

For the replacement I like the look of the Cube Reaction GTC SL (its only 10.3kg) and I think it’s a XC bike. Do you think this would be suitable for the type of rides I do?

Cheers,
Pete.

Yes

Trail fun
Xc race

Basic difference really but probably a simple explanation

Marketing.

It’s all XC. That doesn’t sound cool enough, so it became trail.

🙂 @ njee20

I went through somthing similar by buying a “cool” bike mag friendly 150mm full suss.

2 years on I have a Scott Scale 29er “XC Race” bike for my riding duties which involve riding Cross Country on Trails (see what I did there).

Don’t get too hung up on bikes like I did, your Cube will be fine on most stuff, just don’t try 12 ft doubles and 10ft hucks.

Depends. Do you ride XC or ‘aggressive’ XC..?

🙄

(Another expression that makes my eyes glaze over…)

Will you be doing any New School Trail riding? 😀

My answer would be, if you don’t know what sort of bikes these sort of terms relate to, then you probably don’t need the sort of bike they tend to relate to either. Get an xc bike…

That cube sounds perfect for your needs. You seem to be living very much in the real world and just been thrown a curve ball by the bike world trying to invent niches. The replies above are spot on. “XC” (as opposed to DH) was becoming too Lycra-clad-head-down-racy and that’s just way too tricky to sell to people who like fun. Plus no one was racing “XC” or “DH” on 140mm travel bikes. They were just out having fun. It needed a name for the bike reviewers and marketeers to hang their hats on, hence “trail” for anything that wasn’t competition – a ‘niche’ that seems to be able to include any type of riding. Out here in the real world we call it mountain biking.

Stand by for next years bike ranges telling you that you need to split the hair again between “trail” and “Enduro”.

You can tell by the travel – If it’s got 80mm – 100mm it’s going to be XC.
120 to 150 is trail (for general enjoyment riding)
160 – 180 – big dog bike (for those who like gravity riding but can’t afford an uplift)
200mm+ Down Hill

The geometry and detail will also change accordingly.
XC racy bikes tend to be lower at the front with narrower bars, skinny tyres and razor blade saddle. All this is to create as much discomfort as possible and to make the ride as sketchy as possible in order to add a bit of excitement to easy xc race loops.

Add some wider bars and bigger tyres to make the cube more ‘capable’ if you feel it’s nervous on the rockier trails.

boxelder – Member
Add some wider bars and bigger tyres to make the cube more ‘capable’ if you feel it’s nervous on the rockier trails.

This. The GTC is a fast race bike. It has a steep head angle and narrowish bars. I had a similar geometry framed XC bike, the LTD. On steep and rocky downhill stuff like wot I ride a lot of, it was a bit nervous.I often felt like I was going to go over the front, and sometimes did go over the front. Wider bars and a higher shorter stem helped. If you ride a lot of smooth twisty singletrack then the Cube will do it. If you want to do some more rocky, steep, jumpy stuff, then the Racy XC setup of the Reaction is not the best choice.

Well i’ve got a race orientated XC short travel/tight bike and a longer travel/slacker AM bike. I can go over knarly stuff on the XC bike, but it isn’t as nice – the bike is so twitchy you really have to be carefull when the going gets tough and pick your way through more. It challenges your balance skills more than the AM bike, but is far less fun. However when I want to cover distance and am in a more mile munching head down mood, the XC bike is great. Horses for courses really.

Marketing

DH, cool young things in their baggy stuff
XC, ageing men in lycra, not cool
Trail, making XC cool again by pinching ideas from the DH brigade

what the heck, its all riding. Ride what you want and wear what you want just make sure you have fun doing it!

me, I am a XC trail rider 🙂

Xc is more pedally big loops perhaps. Trail a bit more spin up to bomb down. Massive cross over makes the distinction fairly pointless. If your riding is covering more distance then pedal efficiency is more important.

I ride trails on my XC bike, WTF is going on there then

According to the marketing b.s a trail bike generally has slacker angles lower gearing and more than 120mm’s of suspension travel.
apparently one degree on your head angle and 10mm travel makes a world of difference?!!

what the heck, its all riding. Ride what you want and wear what you want just make sure you have fun doing it!

This.

OP this is the STW forum, the majority of members would suggest a 29er hartail if you said you were looking to ride the redbull rampage.

if you can ride fast you will buy a trail bike,

if you want to ride fast you will buy an XC bike.

Depends if you’re riding hardpack, loose or tacky mud. And do you throw it around or lay it over? Also your bike will different depending on how much squaring into catch berms you do.*

*Bullshit bingo provided by BikeRadar

b45her – Member

OP this is the STW forum, the majority of members would suggest a Cotic/On-One 29er hardtail with rigid forks and H-bars if you said you were looking to ride the redbull rampage.

FTFY
😀

So that’ll be a Specialized Camber 29er at 110mm travel that’s an XC travel but as its 29er really is a Trail and AM bike, clear?

XC – Bikes that have 80-120mm of travel, tend to be lighter-weight with a steeper head-angle and stretched out riding positions.

Trail – 120 to 160mm of travel with heavier weights and bigger brakes, slacker head-angles and their overall geometry leaning towards descending-ability.

so what if I have less than 80 mm travel e.g. none?

so what if I have less than 80 mm travel e.g. none?

😉

Asterix- rigid XC

Thanks for all of the advice. I bought the Cube this afternoon. I’m taking it on a proper ride on Wednesday night, but when I took it round the block tonight it felt great. Looking forward to Wed!

What nick said right up there, although I like my Pitch for dicking about on and El Mariachi for “trail riding”, XC sounds like I’ve crossed something, not just ridden in a vague circle taking in some fun bits.

All bikes are fun, some are more fun than others in different ways.