which 6" travel bike is the best at climbing

it is friday!

Heh.

That one.

SC Nomad 😉

The one with the fitter rider on it.

from what I've seen it's more about the rider.

Edit: darn.

one with lockout 😀

waits for biters

Yup, the one with the fittest and lightest rider on it.

Dizcostix, i think they mean to ride up hill, not push 😆

Maverick.

i'm constantly surprised by what my hemlock will get up.

a proper seat-tube, a not-short chainstay, and a not-long top-tube are probably the secrets.

(everything my old enduro didn't have)

pronghorn pr-6

Intense 6 point 6

It's the only bike i've managed to get down & up the Goring/Hartslock
steps in one without dabbing (can't do it on my 456 ;( )

My bike

motor bike

i tested it between a group of 6inch travel bikes. i lined them up at the bottom of a hill and not one of them moved!

i tested it between a group of 6inch travel bikes. i lined them up at the bottom of a hill and not one of them moved!

Good test! the mag's should adopt it 🙂

Lol @ Jedi's test.

I would guess that if a load were testing by the same rider then it would come down to the type of terrain. For example, on a road climb the one with the lockout would win (or otherwise the one with the least active suspension such as single-pivots) whereas on a very rough rooty or rocky climb the one with the active suspension, such as horst-link Spesh Enduro, would work very well, provided the shock was set up properly (horst link bikes can wallow in their travel a bit if not set up properly), although that probably goes for all suspension bikes.

From my point of view, and as someone who went from a horst-link Titus Motolite to a VPP type Banshee Rune, that the best compromise is the VPP suspension that stiffens up under pedal pressure but is supple enough to achieve the grip required.

And then you have geometry, although I actually find my slacker Rune climbs better than my Titus, with the steeper HA, and despite having more travel.

I'm sure I have got some of this wrong and it is all IMO of course ;0)

Something with a travel-adjust fork on the front and lock-out on the back?

The one Nick Craig rides.

Its a yeti 575 with 36 tallas up front. Ok so its 7mm or so under 6" at the back but thats the winner so there. End of thread. Prize by paypal as gift please.

Maverick ML8 without doubt

LOL @ Jedi though… Hehe

Ml8 maybe but not with you on it thats for sure. It may return down the hill minus its pilot quite quickly though 🙂

Ml8 maybe but not with you on it thats for sure.

hehe

Did I say anything about the rider? 😉

any bike with a dw-link

any bike with a dw-link

are you sure?

Dirt did a test of 6-7" bikes years back, kona coiler (the original un molested single pivot one) was up the hill first and down the hill 1 second off the giant faith (same basic layout as a DW link) which took a lot longer to get to the top.

My point is that any given suspension system can be made to do any one of a variety of things well, so saying DW links are better than single pivots or horst links or VPP or anything else is both factualy inacurate and impossible to quantify.

Just look at the world cup DH winning bikes from the last decade. If you re-phrased the question "which bike is quickest downhill" the answer would be "whichever one Steve Peat is riding", so a 222/223/224 (all very different single pivots), or a V-10 (of which the Mk2 and Mk3 are very different), or a iron horse sunday, or a specialized demo8. The only thing that hasn't won is a linkage driven single pivot! Ohh wait, no that would be Nico winning just about every year in the 90's………

That's all well and good but doesn't answer the OP's question. The point he is asking is which one, given the same rider each time, would allow that rider to get to the top of a climb the quickest. I suppose one way to look at it is "which suspension design is the most efficient", but obviously you have weight and grip to factor in as well.

As I said previously, I find the VPP type suspension of my Banshee to be more efficient at climbing than my horst-link equiped Titus, despit the greater travel, weight, and slacker geometry.

My carbon Enduro SL goes up pretty well…

another vote for maverick

Ibis Mojo?

Why anything with a DW link?

i'm sorry you have all misread the question.

the answer is a 6" hardtail. thank you.

Find that when I go climbing, that what with the weight of a rack of nuts, friends and quickdraws,not to mention ropes, I really struggle carrying a 6" travel bike up a route

at risk of getting flamed, if you put the same rider on different 6 inch bikes to see which was the best climber (which I think is the point of the question here) my bet would be that the 07- 09 Spesh Enduro sl (like mine!) would be among the best climbers – especially with that goddam fantastic E150 fork dropped!! 8)

having said that, the Scott genius with that very clever "traction mode" seemed pretty impressve too

i doubt any 6 inch bike is particularly good at climbing

the answer is a 6" hardtail. thank you.

aka Maverick

I don't think that the OP was suggesting that any 6 inch bike would be "the best climber" above all other mountain bikes Nina.

meh, just buy whatever then and put up with the fact it climbs like a dog.

oh and it's probably a spicy, or an alpine 160, or a mojo HD. not having ridden any I cant really comment though…. 😀

I appear to be the only one who saw this thread as a pisstake.