Enduro bike advice

Hi guys,

So my current bike set up is a 150mm trail bike (Canyon Spectral), and an ageing downhill rig that I use for Morzine trips, downhill parks etc.

The downhill rig has seen some hammering over the years and is not worth upgrading (26″wheels etc).

I am looking at selling both and picking up an enduro bike – something around 180mm travel that I could use for both trail riding and bike park/downhill.

I do a lot of trail riding, Dalby, Hamsterley, Calderdale stuff… would a full enduro like a Canyon Torque or YT Capra be an absolute nightmare for this sort of stuff?

I’m fully aware its not going to fly up the climbs like a whippet, but will it be unbearable on long rides out? My spectral is bordering on an Enduro and weight is pretty similar, just wondering what people’s experiences are?

Ta!

I do very similar riding to you and also wanted a bike that could handle a few enduros each year. Budget was limited so I went for the 2020 spectral AL5 , it now has 160 upfront but still 150 at the rear. All the events I had booked for this year were cancelled so not really ridden in anger yet but am happy with it.

Edit – I may have misread and you already have a current spectral… ignore my useless advice

I don’t think a 180mm enduro bike should be considered as a one bike solution for all situations….
I’m not expert by any means.. but I still elect to ride my hardtail over my Bird Aeris 145 at times, longer rides.. I’m not sur if I would live with an even bigger bike for all activities

I do very similar riding to you and also wanted a bike that could handle a few enduros each year. Budget was limited so I went for the 2020 spectral AL5 , it now has 160 upfront but still 150 at the rear. All the events I had booked for this year were cancelled so not really ridden in anger yet but am happy with it.

Edit – I may have misread and you already have a current spectral… ignore my useless advice

Ahh yep I have a 2020 Spectral AL.6 currently and I absolutely love it! It handles most things perfectly however I just feel I would be pushing it taking it to Morzine/Les Gets etc

Maybe a bit punishing for a week of DH true, but you could hire a DH bike for the one week a year trip?

For Hamsterley, the Spectral is spot on for most of the trails, though the features at Descend have been getting steadily bugger the last couple of years.

I’ve got a 2018 Yt capra that until very recently was my 1 mountain bike for all riding, its fine for pretty much everything I ride, except for Dalby and cannock chase, those two are just too flat for it to be fun.

what Jon says hire a bike for one week a year, get a bike that fits 95% of your riding,
a 140/130mm trail bike can ride anything i’ve met in calderdale.

A 160/150mm front 140mm – rear 29er would be better as a do-it-all bike.

Are you hitting big jump lines, and really rocky smashy descents – like Swiss alps stuff?

Yeah to be honest I thinkI know the answer to this in my head… the enduro just isn’t going to be suitable for the majority of my riding.

Looks like I am just going to have to keep the trail bike and explain to the fiancé why I need to have another bike… haha!

A 160/150mm front 140mm – rear 29er would be better as a do-it-all bike.

Are you hitting big jump lines, and really rocky smashy descents – like Swiss alps stuff?

Yeah so that what I already own, but I do like to hit the big stuff (my backround is racing downhill many moons ago) during trips to Revolution, Danny Harts Descent, Morzine etc…

I’m just going to have to accept I need two different bikes!

Big enduro things climb quite well with sensible tyres and a sensible set up.

What exactly is the canyon lacking when you do the big stuff on it?

Would getting a second downhill wheelset and a 160mm Zeb/Fox38 for the Canyon solve these problems?

There are plenty of bikes in the market that make great downhill sleds while still retaining good all-round climbing manners: Bird AM9, Orbea Rallon, Ibis Ripmo, Norco Sight, and reportedly the V2 Sentinel, just to mention some.

Don’t get too focused on suspension travel to predict the bike’s behaviour

I’ve a 2019 YT Capra CF Pro as my only bike and I love it! I don’t have the money or space for multiple bikes so it was one bike to do it all..

It is a big bike.. but I think it climbs remarkably well given how capable it is smashing through rock gardens or doing really steep stuff. Sure, it’s never going to be as good as the Jeffsy (or new Izzo) when things are pointing up or along but it’s a damn sight better at climbing than the 2013 Nukeproof Mega I came from.

You should see the conversations that happen on the YT owners FB page re. Capra vs Jeffsy.. it’s madness.. you’d think they were all pros the way they carry on. Aye, the Jeffsy is a bit better going up and the Capra going down but they’re both very capable fun mountain bikes. And who can afford a Tues, Capra, Jeffsy and Izzo anyway?!

That’s my bit anyway. Oh, and I ride Hamsterley on my Capra and it’s a lot of fun.

I though my Capra climbed alright until I swapped it for a Bird AM9. The bird makes the Capra feel really, really bobby.

180mm counts as trail / DH these days? Crikey. When did I get left behind. I do everything with 140 up front.

about 2015 🙂

I have a trail and a dh bike, only do a couple of days dh a year, I recently took my trail bike to a bike park as the person I was with didn’t have a dh bike, I was blown away how good the trail bike was, I was a bit slower and it made ‘lesser’ trails more fun tbh, so much so I’ve put the dh bike up for sale as I’d rather have less bikes, now all that said if I was going to start going a lot again I’d have a dh bike just because my trail bike would get beat up

If you like canyon the new strive is 29er with lots of travel and a flip switch to make it an easier pedal.

Enduro bikes in 2015 were not 180mm travel, not sure they barely are now. Like others have said , you might need two bikes. What’s wrong with something like a Transition Sentinel?

I ride a 160mm bike (Canyon Strive) which I love but I wouldn’t want to ride something with even more travel. Mainly because those 180mm bikes seem to be designed for bike parks etc – definitely more winch (or push!) +plummet and don’t have the angles / weight for more XC-ish riding and techy climbs which is 95% of what I do.

Also if I was going to Morzine I’d probably rather take a 26″ DH bike than a 180mm Enduro bike anyway.

Personally, If I had to have only one bike for riding local trails and a yearly Alps trip, it’d still be a 160mm travel. 180mm is (currently) too compromised to ride XC on IMO. No doubt that’ll change year-on-year.

I have a pivot firebird 29. Best Jack of all trades bike I have owned

Yeti SB150, Firebird or Evil Wreckoning will suit fine…

I have a capra 27.5 and maybe I am going crazy but it climbs better than my old 2020 29er Norco optic (rip stolen) 😛 Got PRs this last weekend on all the climbs around the tweed valley. Capra running cane creek suspension, carbon wheels and ti cranks. Its light. I feel like it climbs better than all the other bigger bikes I have have tested and not by all means the slowest on the downs. Its shorter but just so much fun. On the Golfie this past week (local) along with Innerleithen I think for me it has been the best bike so far. I cannot get along with 29ers on super steep terrain. With ref to: Meta 29er, Privateer, Moxie FS at 160mm, Megatower. Spent weeks with these bikes.

Maybe look at something in the 160-170mm travel range but with a coil shock to cope better with the DH days.
If you’re not bothered about how quick you do the climbs I dont see why you cant build a bike that’s great for trails and a bit of DH.

Really good DH bikes go for very cheap. I just sold my YT Tues AL with full saint throughout, Boxxer WC , Renthal etc for 1200 quid.just get a newer DH bike

My Vitus Sommet is 170 fork, 160 rear. Climbs really well, little or no pedal bob at all, despite no lockout on the rear shock. Survived 2 week sin the Alps following my pesky 15 year old son. Not much slower as a general trail bike than my Giant Trance.

I’ve got a 2019 torque. Use it for all kinds of riding over Dartmoor. Yes it’s heavy but it can ride up anything and it tends to be only the really steep stuff that I now tend to push up. Downhills, techy tight steep stuff, rock gardens, drops, jumps it’s brilliant. It’s very playful. If it wasn’t so heavy it would be the perfect bike.

Santa Cruz Nomad 4 170 travel, 27.5 very off trend. Beast of a bike downhills but also a very versatile trail bike IMO. Pedals and climbs better than my previous Canyon Strive with shape shifter. Doesn’t ever really feel like too much bike on less full on trails

You could consider a Nicolai/Geometron. I’ve just picked up a 2nd hand G15 which is tagged as their Enduro bike and I’m stunned by how well it rides. Pointed down it’s super plush and capable, and despite a super slack head angle and 170mm forks, it climbs really well.

The G1 looks even more capable, longer travel but a lot of options to customise by swapping mutator chips

Very slight hijack, sorry.

I’m seriously considering a Spectral for trail and enduro use. Coming from an Aeris 145, most of my riding is trail but I live in the Peak District and am keen to start entering Enduro events (I have actually entered the Welsh Enduro Series at Llandegla but that was cancelled yesterday).

It needs to replace both my hardtail and Aeris, so I’d be keen to know where the OP finds the Spectral lacking (and which model year it is)?

I’m not sure why you’d go from an Aeris 145 to a Spectral?

Why not just buy the 160 linkage for the Aeris and a pair of 160 forks on and then you’ve got the best of both worlds. I recently did a uplift at Innerleithen on my 145 coil and had more fun than I did when I was my DH bike.

I do a lot of trail riding, Dalby, Hamsterley, Calderdale stuff… would a full enduro like a Canyon Torque or YT Capra be an absolute nightmare for this sort of stuff?

Knowing just how much work went into making Joe Barnes Torque feasible for pedalling all day at a race, I’d be looking elsewhere.

My Capra was pretty decent once I got the avalanche tune done on the shock, made it shell of a lot more lively.

180mm isn’t something I’ve considered tbh, so can’t help, but something 160 in a nice suspension platform would work for you by the sounds of it.

That new commencal meta29 looks the dugs baws.

I’ve been lent a large Mondraker Dune (170mm both ends) this week and at 5’7″ it’s been quite a revelation,on paper it’s a very big bike for me,by far the longest bike I’ve ridden and yet I’ve fallen for it,so much so I’m no longer content with my shorter medium 2014 Capra,I’ll be sad to give it back.
Just in from a 42 miler on it-pedals,climbs,corners well, does just about everything really well.

Don’t get too focused on suspension travel to predict the bike’s behaviour

This.

I am LOLing at the “requirements”. I first went to Les Gets/Morzine a looong time ago on an On-one Inbred with 85mm Marzocchi MX Comps. It DID have disc brakes though. We are talking 2.1 front, 1.9 rear tyre combos here. It survived the Pleney and Mont Chery Dh courses, and I had massive arm pump.

Since them I have ridden all sorts of bikes from fully rigid to 230mm DH bikes. All are great, but I don’t need any more than 160f/140r for general trail duties, and that includes the Alps. Alpine trails are just like normal trails, just they go down for longer…

Isn’t a Nukeproof Mega with a spare airshaft in 180mm for Morzine etc the ultimate do it all bike. Sam Hill has done a few downhills on his Mega, he even had one with Boxxers on a few years back.

Usual daft advice on this thread – I particularly dislike it when people say ‘you don’t need more than x amount of travel’ – like they’re riding gods or something.

The fact is, most EWS riders are using 170mm or more travel and most of the trails used aren’t crazily different to ones you’d encounter in the Alps.

If 150mm bikes were significantly lighter and pedalled significantly better than 170mm bikes, then there might be a case for their use, but they generally aren’t and don’t, meaning that you gain nothing apart from sort of macho nonsense about riding a shorter travel bike beyond its capabilities.

JP

I’m still riding my 2015 Norco Range for everything. Recently rode with a mate who had a newer Cannondale Scalpel Carbon 120mm bike. I kept leaving him behind going uphill and we eventually swapped bikes, whereupon I then struggled to keep up with him. Bike was setup fine. Eventually I concluded that my bike climbs better, but no idea why since it’s heavier and has 40mm more of travel. It did confirm what I already thought, which is that my ‘Enduro’ bike climbs just as well as the shorter travel bike I had before it, reinforcing my feeling that I am fine with just the one bike for everything that UK can provide, including uplift centres. Possibly in the alps I might consider trying a DH bike but likely that unfamiliar feeling of a new bike would outweigh any advantage.
It does surprise me that the new versions of the same bike are now 170-180mm travel but I haven’t tried them so can’t comment.

I’ll stand by my comment of focusing on the geometry and ride characteristics rather than ‘must have X amount of travel’.

That said, eldest_oab has 170mm Radon Swoop 29er and rides it everywhere. It does do as the op requires – its a beast downhill and ok uphill. The tyres are a bigger challenge for speed uphill. It ‘only’ weighs about 15kg, so not too bad at all.

We’ve also realised that at the speed it’s capable of on the trails he now rides, DH wheels, inserts and dual ply carcasses are needed.