In no particular order…

YT Wicked
Commencal Meta SX
Ibis Mojo HD
Specialized Enduro
Nukeproof Mega
Last Herb Trail/Flow
Lapierre Spicy or even Zesty

Another vote for a 5, done a few enduros on mine, good results, bike loves it.
Or an Alpine, there’s a lovely frame on here at the moment 😉
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/orange-alpine-160-20-frame-in-near-mint-condition-rp23-shock

Not done any enduros myself but v. impressed with my Remedy. Handled the Alps okay.

The whole point of Enduro racing is that you get timed ONLY on the descent.. however there is a time limit in the transition stage to get to the start of the next descent…generally you can ride this at a steady pace so your bike needs to be light enough to pedal but set up for the descending.

http://www.alpinebikes.com/news-events/news/tweedlove-poc-king-and-queen-of-the-hill–event-report/

Six timed stages – two climbs and four descents.

Not sure of what they rode.

“how many single pivot bikes do you see in the top 10 in pro DH..”

Devinci Wilson.
Nukeproof scalp/pulse.
Morewood Makulu.
Trek Session.
Labyrinth Minotaur.
Scott Gambler.
Rocky Mountain Flatline.

I have done a few on various bikes:
Yeti ASR5-great for the link stages and pedally timed sections, a bit lightweight for steeper rougher stuff I thought.
Lapierre Zesty-good up and down, never really felt hampered by the bike.
Lapierre Spicy-took a little more out of me on link stages and flat/pedally sections but great fr downs.
Orange Patriot-poor up/link stages and great down/rocks etc

Hmmm tough call on what is “best” – it’s so subjective. Ride style, weight, body proportions, fitness, strength all have a bearing on it, and certainly out at SuperEnduro the range of bikes was huge.

One recurring theme I did see though was 20mm more fork travel than rear, and a big front/semi slick rear tyre combo, like a Minion/Crossmark pairing. How that would work in our slippy, muddy weather is another matter though…..

Damn double posts……..

What would Vouilloz use?….

Thread closed.

What would Vouilloz use?

To be honest, the guys in that top 0.5% like Vouilloz etc could smoke everyone else on any old bike.

I’d go so far as to say that if you’ve got a good 140 to 160 bike, rather than blowing cash on a new one, spend some money with someone like Tony Doyle or Ed Oxley for skills work, and then a trainer for strength and fitness development. Ability, strength and fitness play a bigger part than just hardware……..

+1

Balls to hard work talent skill and all that I want to buy my wins!

True andyrm however why did the Athertons ride disguised Intense frames?..

When was that hora? I remember Helen gasgill on a Carrara intense but Athertons were giant before commencal.

Muddy Fox.

Like all riders pros are paid to ride a bike. It may not be the bike they’d mucho prefer to ride/enjoy riding.

When they rode for Muddy Fox way back, so I’m not sure of the relevance

Eh? As an anecdote its bang on. They rode stickered M1’s in 2004. Is that ‘another era’ to you?

People perform better on better kit shocker

Muddy Fox didn’t really have a suitable bike at the time, their ‘DH’ bike – the huckster iirc – was a pile of shit with a ridiculous BB height. So they needed an actual DH bike, not just a better one

The Atherton/Muddy Fox/Animal/Intense thing is hardly conclusive proof 😆

Vouilloz would ride whatever he’s paid the most to, and still win & podium.

Legend surely they’d have still done well?..

Pro’s have talent, training and good kit to win against equal pros.

They arent racing the likes of you and me on ‘anything’

If you look at the results for enduro races you’ll find no winner- I can think of big results from Intense, Ibis, Orange, Santa Cruz, Cannondale, Commencal and GT, just off the top of my head. Just about everyone makes an excellent, appropriate bike. Get the one you like yourself, it’ll do the job and if you’re as good as a Barnes, Forrest, Cooksley, Donoghue, Carrick-Anderson etc you’ll maybe win something 😉

nasher – Member

The whole point of Enduro racing is that you get timed ONLY on the descent..

Nope.

Get a Specialized. They look awesome and have a decent warranty.

Specialized? They do the bare minimum required.

Exactly what Northwind says.

Fact is that the top guys are fitter, stronger and more skilled, plus ride more and train in a more focused way.

As has been said, it’s a case of finding the bike that works for you – the next bit, sorting the rider, is the harder part……..

Box has won a few rounds on intense 29ers if memory serves……

Dirt magazine has the Orange Alpine 160 as it’s 2012 No 1 enduro bike. Awesome looking deal on one in the classifieds too! 😉

If you want a very well thought out and great riding Enduro bike, then consider one of these

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/Liteville-301-MK10-Tested.html

I’ve been running one for 7 months and love everything about it 🙂

Liteville? Can you buy from Germany? Edit whoa they charge THAT much for that? Pay 200+ more for an illegal EU price fixing scam from a UK ‘agent’??

If there is a better bike than the Spesh Enduro for “proper gravity enduro” then I can’t think of it. And by that I mean technical DH.

Having said that, Enduro is a pretty open ended term. Some races, and certainly some sections of same race would be better on a 120mm bike.

Sorry Hora – not understanding what your getting at there?

The guys who import Chris King import Liteville into the UK – Evolution Imports

Why do you need to ‘import’ from Germany?

One of the magazines (Dirt i think) was adamant that Enduro races are the European model with timed downhill sections and non competitive transition stages.
The article last year suggested it’s the British confusion with the word ‘enduro’ that leads us to automatically think of endurance and start setting up UK races which really require more of an XC skill set than your original continental interpretation of the events….resulting in an obsession with putting in pedally and uphill sections so the ‘best all round’ rider wins….which is surely what XC aims to do?!

Steve Parr had to include the word ‘gravity’ in his series because he knew full well that to just call it an Enduro would result in loads of hacked off lycra wearers turning up for his events expecting some kind of endurance race.

The original gravity enduros in this country captured the idea perfectly….140-160mm travel bikes on several timed downhill sections over the course of the day….with around 20k of cycling at a leisurely pace in between.

I’ve looked at a few other series since then and been put off each type with this bizarrely British obsession with fairness and mutating the event into some kind of ‘super-XC’….

Basically the ideal bike for Enduro racing would be a DH rig, the reason this isnt practical though is because you’d never make the transitions on a bike like that, hence the preference for long travel FS instead.

deviant
One of the magazines (Dirt i think) was adamant that Enduro races are the European model with timed downhill sections and non competitive transition stages.

That doesn’t mean there can’t be some pedaling on the stage. A sprint into, out of, or in the middle of a stage is fine. Whilst the emphasis should certainly be on DH, I don’t have a problem with some (or even quite a bit) of pedalling on the stages.

Basically the ideal bike for Enduro racing would be a DH rig, the reason this isnt practical though is because you’d never make the transitions on a bike like that, hence the preference for long travel FS instead.

I don’t think I agree with that per-se. You’re right, and it’s abundantly obvious that a DH bike would be pointless for transtions, but I think there is more to it than that.

Although I’ve never done it, to me the Trans Provence looks exactly how I imagine “enduro” should be (whilst not always practical). Long transitions and steep, technical and very long timed sections where a dh bike would actually be slower owning to it’s inefficient pedalling characteristics.

deviant – Member

Basically the ideal bike for Enduro racing would be a DH rig, the reason this isnt practical though is because you’d never make the transitions on a bike like that

Nope- most UK enduros don’t use the restrictive transition time format, and almost nobody uses dh bikes in the events that don’t (and those that do, do badly).

It’d not be a problem at all to get my dh bike round the typical innerleithen enduro routes in 4 hours, but I don’t, because it’s not the right tool for the descents either.

And furthermore I feel that a pure DH track doesn’t necessarily represent a good enduro track. The original Champery WC Dh track for example, (before it was sanitised) would be a bit redundant as an enduro segment as it would be purely a matter of surviving it on a 160mm bike for all but the most elite dh racers in the world.

Enduro is, and should be it’s own thing. Not just DH on small bikes, or multi stage DH. I think most people in the UK and Ireland are getting that, given the explosion in the sport.

Hora – because I wanted to get my bike from an LBS

If i was worried about spending an extra £200 on a frame with a price tag like that, then i really shouldn’t be paying so much for a frame 🙂

If there is a better bike than the Spesh Enduro for “proper gravity enduro” then I can’t think of it. And by that I mean technical DH.

There is no one perfect bike, what if it doesn’t fit you? there are loads up there in the market.

The tight transition times would sharpen up a few of the races too 🙂

Also technical trails are not all down hills, some have flat and uphill bits hence the all round appeal of the sport. Differentiate it from Mini DH and xc and let it be it’s own thing.

First make sure you get the correct bike for what you intend to do
then comes price bracket, and try the ones you can afford.

Also the important one could be frame, so if you can buy a bike with a lower
spec, but good frame you can gradually build up the bike of ones dreams

Only you would know what bike suites you

Rowan Sorrel (Orange rider) said that he’d pick the Five over the Alpine for UK enduro and the Alpine for Europe