eBikes Blog
5 of the most recent XC mountain bikes for 2024 and past
Aug
After just a few years within the doldrums, cross-country mountain bike racing is again to its nail-biting, jaw-dropping greatest.
With a purpose to cope with the rigours of contemporary cross-country racing, the bikes are extra succesful than ever, however nonetheless place a give attention to low weight, with each gram watched within the pursuit of all-out velocity and winners’ glory.
This 12 months, we’ve seen no scarcity of recent releases – with bikes from newcomers comparable to Pinarello by way of to established gamers together with Specialised.
Listed here are 5 of the most recent light-weight cross-country bikes to maintain an eye fixed out for by way of the remainder of the season and past.
Pinarello Dogma XC
Not many bike manufacturers can say they’ve received three gold medals in a single mountain bike World Championships. That is particularly spectacular for a model that has solely simply returned to mountain biking after dominating the Tour de France for years.
Pinarello noticed large success on this 12 months’s cross-country races in Scotland, with its Dogma race machines claiming three of the 4 elite gold medals within the short-track and Olympic-distance occasions.
Whereas Tom Pidcock raced the full-suspension Dogma XC to golden glory within the males’s elite Olympic-distance occasion, he used the brand new Dogma XC hardtail to take bronze within the short-track race, whereas team-mate Pauline Ferrand-Prevot did the double on the hardtail.
Who says hardtails are useless?
Identical to the full-suspension Dogma, the hardtail incorporates a distinctive backside bracket with a further strut between the shell and the seat tube, giving a smaller triangle inside the primary entrance finish.
Pinarello claims that is to spice up stiffness.
It’s not simply the BB that turns heads. The rear triangle options seen asymmetries within the seatstays and chainstays, in typical Pinarello model.
The non-driveside of the rear triangle is bolstered, which, in keeping with Pinarello’s claims, permits the bike to counter-balance the forces put into the drivetrain for a extra balanced power switch.
Pinarello has been fairly coy on the bike’s geometry, specification and pricing. All we actually know is it’s designed round a 100mm fork, is suitable with dropper posts and incorporates a one-piece built-in handlebar and stem with inside cable routing.
Does the brand new Dogma show there’s life within the previous hardtail but? Tell us what you suppose within the feedback.
Trek Supercaliber
As anticipated for the ultimate World Championships earlier than subsequent 12 months’s Paris Olympics, many manufacturers have been rolling out new bikes for his or her racing debut in Glentress.
Trek was one such model, with a revised 2023 Trek Supercaliber showing beneath its riders.
The weird-looking body – that’ll depart you questioning whether or not it’s a hardtail or full-suspension bike – has had the same old longer and slacker therapy, in addition to being despatched besides camp to shed some weight.
Coming in round 200 grams lighter than the previous bike, in keeping with Trek, and with weights for full bikes beginning at roughly 9.45kg for the range-topping mannequin, it undoubtedly meets the light-weight standards that racers demand.
Nonetheless, with a lift in rear-wheel journey as much as 80mm, and 120mm up-front in comparison with the earlier mannequin, in addition to having 1.5 levels lopped off the top angle, the brand new Supercaliber also needs to be greater than succesful on techy terrain.
The attain has been prolonged by 10mm, as much as 465mm on a dimension massive, and the chainstays are actually 5mm longer in a bid to spice up stability within the high-speed rock gardens that litter fashionable XC programs.
You might discover we’ve made no point out of a decrease backside bracket, as a result of the bump up in journey means Trek has raised the BB top by 7mm with a view to keep enough floor clearance.
The IsoStrut rear suspension stays although, with a specifically designed Rockshox SIDLuxe shock doing the enterprise, relatively than having a selection of Rockshox or Fox rear dampers, as was the case on the previous bike.
All however two bikes within the vary include RockShox forks. The vary begins at £3,780/$4,199.99, and tops out at a cool £10,800/$11,699.99.
We have now a head-to-head check developing between the Supercaliber and a motorcycle that shares a really comparable silhouette, the Specialised Epic World Cup.
Ibis Exie
Ibis is probably not the primary title that springs to thoughts once you consider World Cup cross-country machines, however the Exie is already proving its means on the circuit – Jenny Rissveds rode the Exie to a number of World Cup podiums in 2022.
Ibis claims the Exie is a motorcycle that flat-out shreds and, with geometry that wouldn’t look misplaced on a downcountry or path bike, we are able to begin to see why.
With a 67.2-degree head angle and a rangy 478mm attain on a dimension massive, the Exie can definitely declare to have a number of the most progressive numbers of any XC race bike on the market.
Utilizing a 120mm fork as customary, to go along with 100mm of journey out again and brief seat tube lengths for longer dropper posts, solely emphasises Ibis’s quick however enjoyable intentions for this bike.
Initially launched solely as a boutique hand-made possibility, made within the USA, Ibis has added a extra reasonably priced, and heavier Exie made abroad, to carry the value down.
In case your finances doesn’t stretch to the $7,999 XT-equipped Exie USA, not to mention the $12,299 XX SL range-topper, Ibis affords a Vietnam-made Exie Deore for $4,999.
Scott Spark
Whereas all of the bikes listed below are established World Cup contenders, none can declare to have a trophy cupboard as stacked as that of Scott’s Spark.
Initially launched within the 2000s, the present iteration of the Spark remains to be doing the enterprise below Nino Schurter, near two-and-a-half years after its launch.
With its attention-grabbing hidden-shock body design, progressive geometry and Scott’s signature TwinLoc system, the Spark ticks all of the packing containers the greatest cross-country bikes ought to.
As one of many first cross-country bikes designed round at the moment’s rougher, extra technical programs, the Spark RC options 120mm of journey entrance and rear, and progressive geometry to provide riders comparable to Schurter the arrogance to cost head-first into descents and jumps.
With an adjustable head angle to tailor the geometry to a rider’s choice, room for 2 water bottles within the entrance triangle, and house for large 2.4in rubber, it’s additionally a flexible machine that can be utilized outdoors the race tape as effectively, making it a preferred selection with privateer racers.
You need to use the sub-2kg weight of the lightest body choice to go full Dangerholm and construct one of many lightest bikes on the beginning line.
Few can match that, and few can match the Spark’s price ticket both, with the range-topping RC SL costing £14,999/$14,999.
Fortunately, with the RC vary beginning at £4,299 for the bottom Comp mannequin, you don’t must have fairly such deep pockets to get your palms on a Spark.
Specialised Epic World Cup
We promised to carry you the Trek Supercaliber’s primary rival and right here it’s: the brand new Specialised Epic World Cup.
The Mind-equipped full-suspension Epic has been round even longer than the Spark, and has racked up a number of wins over time.
Certainly, Specialised’s proprietary Mind rear shocks, and later forks, have been key options all through its lifespan.
For 2023, although, the Epic treads a brand new path.
It had already ditched Specialised’s famed FSR Horst-link pivot for flexstays with the earlier era, and the brand new bike takes issues to the following degree as – shock horror – the Mind is now useless… within the rear shocks at the very least.
Not solely that, the SIDLuxe WCID rear shock, co-developed with RockShox, strikes into, relatively than below the highest tube.
The built-in shock has no type of on-the-fly exterior pedal adjustment like different shocks in the marketplace.
As a substitute, you regulate the destructive air strain within the shock to offer your pedal platform.
Specialised says there are three settings; No Gulp, the firmest, most effective mode; Half Gulp, a steadiness of effectivity and traction; and Full Gulp, the softest setting for absorbing the roughest descents.
In contrast to the Supercaliber although, the place the prolonged seatstays actuate the shock, the Epic nonetheless makes use of a small rocker hyperlink, so is arguably extra of a full-suspension bike than a softtail.
Whereas different bikes, such because the Spark, are getting bumps up in journey, the Epic World Cup has much less journey out again than its predecessor, sporting simply 75mm of bounce, down 25mm from the earlier mannequin.
It does see a lift in fork journey although, now sporting a customized 110mm Rockshox SID SL fork up-front.
If you wish to know in regards to the new bike, make sure you take a look at our Specialised S-Works Epic World Cup first experience assessment.
Which bike would you select to swing a leg over, prepared for the beginning line? Tell us within the feedback.
https://customised-ebikes.co.uk/