What happened to AM bikes?

I’m in the market for a full sus 29.
Last time I looked, I was an All Mountain bike rider. Its been a while, but it seems its now Trail or Enduro. And really its based around travel, in increments of 10mm.

Crazy ass prices and nonavailability are ruling out a New bike.
What used bike should I be considering? What is the old ‘All Mountain’ these days? What needs avoiding?
I’m moving from an Orange Crush 27.5 cos I’m old and my back hurts after a big ride. Peaks, Lakes, Wales riding. Cant jump, wont jump.

I have a shortlist in my head, but interested to see what your thoughts are before revealing them.

D

Nobody rides all of mountains anymore.
You want Aggressive Trail/Soft Enduro.
😉

Just buy the one that looks nice and tell everyone it’s an xdowntrailenduro bike.

AM = enduro

AM = enduro

Shirley not.
I thought AM was trail..

Clearly I need a new bike.

All Mountain is basically trail or enduro now, basically just pick a bike that suits you just now, if it’s wheels on ground stuff, then trail, if it’s gravity defying stuff, enduro.

Reality is that ‘All Mountain’ back in t’day was just XC bikes with slacker headtubes and more travel, usually with some horror look (maverick, etc) or geometry (ellsworth and many others), i don’t miss the ‘if we mess about a bit we can get it up to 5″ of travel’ days, much prefer the bikes now ;o)

Shirley not.
I thought AM was trail..

Clearly I need a new bike.

Yeah, Freeride was the old Enduro!

🙂

Names! I want names!

There are dozens and dozens of great bikes out there – at the moment it comes down to availability, price and spec. Secondhand there’s the durability issue (like Orange make some great bikes but go back a few years and they had a lot of failures). How tall are you? How much dropper travel and reach do you want?

I have long legs for my height so on older bikes I can size up for more reach and still fit a decent length dropper in.

Secondhand Bird AM9 is probably a good bet!

Oh, I thought All Mountain was now Down Country?

Downcountry

Tallboy Trail or downhillers XC bike 130 -120mm

Hightower AM down country 150- 140mm

Megatower Enduro smasher 160 160mm

The later climbs almost as well but offers a little more when things get out of hand .. There arnt many bad 29ers out there now just make sure you dont short change yourself

If you like Oranges, the Stage 6 is their all-mountain bike really – despite what their marketing might have said about it being an enduro bike.

If you’re interested in a 2018 large (fits like a modern medium), drop me a line.

😀

IMHO 100-120 is xc.
120-130 down country.
130-150 trail.
150-170 enduro.
170-180 super enduro, milder DH.
180+ DH.
Am defunct.

141 Complete Bike (GX)

Sonder Evol

AM = trail or enduro bike with 140-150mm rear travel and front travel not exceeding 160mm. Something that treads the boundary.

Bird AM9, Stumpjumper EVO, Ibis Ripmo, Canyon Spectral, Orbea Occam, Deviate Highlander, Commencal Meta TR.

Privateer 141 too heavy.
Commencal Meta AM is a 170/160 enduro bike.

I just bought a Bird Zero 29 with a 120mm fork.

A 64 degree head angle with that fork n

Does that make it an XC Enduro Hardtail?

Or just a bike.

Anyway the Aether9 or the AM9 wouldn’t be bad choices. I think probably the Aether9 given the way my son can throw one around.

(Yes a lot of Birds in there, but having been a Orange rider for years, I’m just really impressed with how they ride, the flexibility of specification and the price – it’s what Orange used to do 20 years ago)

you seem to be bang on the border between downcountry and upduro

that means you can have a coil shock but the spring has to be black

I feel fully justified in being confused.

So are you saying you ride fairly chunky terrain but you aren’t going to be doing big jumps and drops? Needs to be all day comfy but not fast like an xc bike?

If so there are literally loads of bikes that will do that – anything from 130-160mm travel in all likelihood.

On the lower travel end I reckon:

Bird Aether 9
Nukeproof Reactor 290
Cotic Flaremax / Jeht
Vitus Escarpe (newest one)
Santa Cruz Tallboy (newest one)
Trek Fuel EX
Sonder Evol 29er

Then maybe a bit burlier:

Bird AM9
Ibis Ripmo
Canyon Spectral
Transition Sentinel
YT Jeffsy
Santa Cruz Hightower (newest version)
Privateer 141 (quite heavy)
Commencal Meta TR (quite heavy)

I’ve had good experiences with Bird bikes – had an Aeris 145LT and an Aether 7. Wanted an Aether 9 to replace the 7 but they were out of stock at the time. Was thinking about a Nukeproof reactor 290 but they were out of stock in alloy frame sets and the carbon was too expensive. Bought a 2022 alloy Transition Sentinel and I love it. Maybe on the burly end of things for your uses at 34lbs built up fairly lightly. The carbon version has a much lighter frame but it’s £££.

Thinking the Reactor 290 could be a good option for you both in downhill ability / cost to buy. The spectral is quite a lot more travel but you might find those with good spec for the money and they seem to be well liked by owners.

@joebristol awesome list thank you.
Jeffsy, Hightower and Fuel have been what I’ve been looking out for. Will take a look at the Transition.
Lots of love for Bird in this thread. A friend rides one but I’ve not paid much attention.

Orange Five (coz you are supposed to recommend what you own). TBF mine hasn’t seen a mountain.

@dazzydw

Bird defo worth a look. Aether is a really good allrounder – the AM9 adds a bit more travel and probably edges the Aether for steep tech. The AM9 and Sentinel 2022 probably have similar intentions.

If you could find a Reactor 290 that should be in budget – the carbon one is pretty nice.

I considered the Hightower AL vs the Sentinel alloy vs the Ripmo alloy. I think the Ripmo probably climbs the best, the Hightower is technically the plushest rear suspension – the Sentinel has the most aggro geometry.

I did consider a Fuel Ex but couldn’t find an al one Frameset only. The carbon one is a very sleek looking frame.

If looking at the Jeffsy then the Spectral is pretty similar I believe.

I’d ask @weeksy…reckon he’s ridden more bikes than the STW editorial team combined 🤔😉🤣 (PS, I was wondering where ‘all mountain’ had gone too. I seem to remember AM being a moniker on lots of things like wheels etc.)

PS, I was wondering where ‘all mountain’ had gone too

I think it went snowboarding

‘Upduro’ first time I’ve heard that one! Hehe

The new Canyon Spectral is probably the best bang-for-buck in this segment IMO.

In terms of geometry combined with spec.

All Mountain?  Still a thing!

https://www.bansheebikes.com/prime-v3

You want Aggressive Trail/Soft Enduro.

Yes, agrrail or soduro.

I think the word you want these days is trail.

I’ll join in the Bird recommedations – for an Aether 9 – as the happy current owner of 2 Bird bikes.
While I don’t think I’m good enough or have ridden enough differnet bikes to truly pass judgment on the ride quality, I think its good.
But add on the excellent customer service and the custom speccing and/or ability to buy frame only. (really, you only need a frame, fork and wheels?) and they are hard to beat.

If not, anything on the first half of Joe’s list looks like the sort of thing you want.

It’s just marketing bollocks though isn’t it.

I still describe myself as trail hacker but always (and still do) rode AM style bikes that could do everything with a bit of a bias to gravity.

Given that Enduro these days is DH stage racing with a bike to match, I’m certainly not an enduro rider, but I’m not really an ‘XC-plus’ trail rider either.

I just choose a bike appropriate to my needs and ride it. Currently thats an Aether 9c with fox 36 and X2 and it seems bang on.

Birds are very hard to beat for an all rounder UK bike.

I found the AM9 a bit of a barge at below warp factor 5 when I did a test ride. It did have very, very heavy tyres on it mind.

Aether 9 looks like much more of an all-rounder.

That being said, I agree the Spectral does look rather good. But both you base specs 125/160mm are pretty heavy and the 125 Al5 fork isn’t great.

If your budget is over 3k you’ll be fine.

Yup, my Slayer is a DH bike that you can pedal uphill. The 180/170mm travel is simply a skill compensator. 🙂

It’s just marketing bollocks though isn’t it.

I think it went snowboarding

Dammit!

Although, I did notice the words all mountain in the description of the Vitus Escarpe!

I’ll tell you what, that Spectral 125 Al6 looks like the smart pick:

Sensible tyres
Full slx groupset
Good fork and shock combo

I can’t see the Aether beating that. Geometry very similar.

I like my Bird, but if it was my money, that’s what I would get.

Or maybe that new Airdrop that just landed….

I’d perhaps consider the low BB against the Birds as an AM bike. Between 5-10mm lower than most of the other options that have been mentioned.

How much money you got and what are your normal trails like?