It’s that time of year when the best sub £4500 bikes duke it out to see which will take home the 2020 Singletrack Readers Awards.
These finalists are all extremely capable machines, however which will take home the 2020 Singletrack Readers Award for best bike under £4500?
Nukeproof Reactor
The Nukeproof Reactor has been a runaway success for Nukeproof which is pretty impressive considering this is their first short-travel full-suspension bike for a long while. After years of dominating the EWS with the Mega, the Reactor is a nice change of pace – though that pace is as still as fast as its longer travel brother only with a little jib-ability chucked in for good measure. To ensure the Reactor is available to as many riders as possible, Nukeproof has made the bike available both as a frameset and a complete bike, you can choose either 27.5in or 29in wheels, carbon or alloy, and there are builds to suit most pockets. At the time of these awards, the Reactor has actually recently been updated for 2021 with new build specifications and options and is probably one of the few 2021 bikes that are still available to buy… ah perhaps not.. but more stock should be along soon.
Privateer 141
Considering that the Privateer 141 is only the 2nd bike from Privateer, we have to hand it to them – it’s a damn fine specimen. Not only is the price spot on, just under £1500 for a frame or £2989 for a complete bike, but just look at it! As the name suggests the 141 is the shorter travel sibling to the all-out enduro weapon that is the 161 but don’t think ‘Short Travel’ equals ‘less capable’ because the 141 is probably more enduro ready than many of the bigger bikes you see out on the trails. The 141mm travel frameset is designed around a 150mm travel fork and comes in four sizes from P1 all the way to P4. Privateer doesn’t use the traditional S,M,L model of sizing because they want riders to read the geometry and choose the size that suits them. Each one of the frames follows the LLS trend with reach figures ranging from 440-510mm, the head angle is a slack 64.5 and the seat angle is a steep 78.88! Privateer has built the 141 from alloy with each frameset featuring beautifully clean welds, internal cable routing and a mix of off the shelf and custom tubing to keep the price down while retaining strength and reliability.
Specialized Status
- From: Specialized
- Read our Specialized Status review here
There is nothing new about an all-alloy full-suspension bike with a mullet wheel layout, long travel, impressive geo with a competitive price, except for when it comes from a bike brand that doesn’t normally compete so keenly on price. When the Status first arrived at Singletrack Towers we couldn’t believe that this Fox 36 equipped, 160mm travel alloy bike was priced at just £2399.99 and even now we still can’t quite believe it. Like the Privateer, the Status ditches old school sizing for more modern S1 – S5 sizing and as you would expect the geometry figures are all new-school too. With the flip-chip set at its lowest, the Status rolls along on a 63.2-degree head-angle and 76-degree seat angle, while reach runs from 417 – 512mm. Because the bike uses a mullet wheel configuration the rear triangle is short for direction changes and manuals while the large front wheel eats up the terrain and helps to effortlessly pick up speed. There isn’t much to complain about when it comes to the Status other than it remains a weird semi mystery that was easier to find on the official Specialized website before it launched that it is now.
How to vote & enter our Muc Off prize draw
Once you have considered the finalists just click the circle next to your preferred winner below and then hit the submit button. Once your vote has been counted you will be redirected to our 2020 Awards page with the other categories so you can vote again in another category.
You can only vote once in each category and once your vote is submitted you cannot change your mind.
Each successful vote will earn you one ticket in our Muc-Off prize draw. Vote in each of the twelve categories and you will maximise your chances of winning. The winners will be chosen at random from the pool of voters on the 30th November 2020 and all winners will be contacted directly via their registered accounts shortly after that date.
Although the draw is open to anyone with a registered account, unfortunately we cannot deliver prizes to addresses outside of the United Kingdom. Overseas winners will need to specify a UK delivery address for any prizes if they win.
[stw_votes id=”7″ redirect_to=”/tag/STRAW2020/” opens=”27/10/20″ closes=”25/11/20″]
Comments (4)
Comments Closed
Surely you can’t put the Specialized in the poll. No one can buy it and like you say it doesn’t seem to officially exist.
The Specialized is very much on sale. They may have sold out though. I bought one myself.
To be fair if we could only vote for stuff that was in stock it would be a very short competition.
Got an S4 status. Mint apart from the tires. Averaged over 1 puncture a ride tubeless till swapped out.