2023 Pinkbike Awards: Mountain Bike of the Year Winner

Hello, and welcome to the Pinkbike Awards. This video, we're talking about the bike of the year. Now, Kaz, we've had a lot of bikes in this year. All in all, you've been doing this for the best part of a decade. Has this been a strong year for bikes? I wouldn't say as strong. I think some years we've seen more drastic changes. This year, I'd say medium. It seemed like the focus was a little bit more on the longer travel bikes this year, and our nominations reflect that. Absolutely. The first nomination is the Ibis HD6. This bike featured in our enduro field test. What was it about this bike that made it feature and earn its nomination? Yes. I think part of it is it's a longer travel bike, but it's not super demanding. It has 165 millimeters of rear travel, but it's pretty light, and it pedals well. It is one of those bikes if you want more travel, but also don't want to feel like you need to have the steepest, rowdiest trails around to have a good time, it delivers that. Absolutely. I think some bikes, funnily enough, stand out because they're so different. The Ibis is one of those bikes that's so charming because it's extra regular. Yes, exactly. We've said it before. We called it the palate cleanser during the enduro field test just because we had these other crazy, wacky, interesting bikes, but sometimes you just want to get on a bike and ride and not have to think that much, and the Ibis definitely does that. Next on the list is a Skor ST. Help me here. There's so many numbers. There's a lot of numbers. This one says Skor 2030. You rode this bike. It's similar travel bracket. What was it like to ride? I love this bike. It's another short travel trail bike that has a fairly slack head angle. It actually has really short chainstays, and it just makes this really, I call it a goof-off bike because it pedals great, but it descends really well, and you can manual and play around whenever you want. It's really fun, even if you're on mellower terrain, but then when you get on rowdy terrain, super good time as well. Also, it was expensive when I reviewed it, but since then, they dropped the price by around $1,000. It's a little bit better of a value proposition. We're not judging value in this aspect, but it's nice to see that it's come in line with other bikes. It seems they've addressed a lot of the issues we had in that 2021 field test with their trail bike, the slightly longer, whatever it is, the ST4060, because that bike had a real design flaw with the way it collected mud. This doesn't suffer from it. Yes, it just sheds mud a little bit better. The cavern isn't quite as deep, so yes, that wasn't really an issue. Yes, overall, just a really fun bike to ride. Yes, it definitely didn't drop the ball. Speaking of dropping, Kaz, it's onto the Trek Slash, which came in for something of a flame wall for dropping chains. We did some work behind the scenes, yada, yada, yada, and basically found out there was a small spacing issue, which once corrected, that issue was remedied. It's great because it was such a shame to see such a fantastic bike undermined by such a basic issue. Why did we love riding the Trek Slash so much? I think the Slash is that culmination of all the modern aspects of bike design that we're starting to see. It's super adjustable. You can adjust the shock progression. You can adjust the head angle, so getting the baseline geometry set is nice. Then it has that high pivot suspension layout. Some high pivot bikes can feel just like they're getting super long and really lethargic, but Trek managed to make it so it still retains that energy that you want, so you can pump and use the terrain. Overall, a really well-rounded package. Again, it's a big bike. It's an Enduro race bike, so you shouldn't get this to ride your really mellow rail trails or whatever, but for the right terrain, it's a great bike. It's excellent. One bike that could be described both as weird and wacky is the Reeb Stiesel. Now, to the onlooker that's seeing what's happening in bike design, they're seeing this steel bike, which could be levied as a technology from yesteryear, and now it's nominated for Bike of the Year. What's special about this bike, and is there any modern tech hiding in there? There's definitely modern tech hiding in it. We'll start with that. Steel front triangle, aluminum rear, and then it also has some cool 3D-printed bits that they've joined it to, and even the links are nicely machined. It's simple, but modern simple. They've also just done some good stuff with the geometry and the way the suspension works. From a distance, it may just look regular, but it actually rides really well. Yes. As we know from testing and field tests, so many brands are doing exciting things to try and get all the compliance they can out of carbon, but actually steel, in the right application, can also offer a hell of a lot. Now, we have the Canadian-made We Are One Arrival 170. This bike has actually been around in various guises before, but just with different amounts of travel. What do you think makes a bike like this so special, Kaz? I think this one, where you mentioned the Canadian-made aspect, that's going to be appealing to some people. We're talking about the Reeves Stiesel earlier that's made in the US, so it is nice to see these smaller builders produce bikes that are just excellent ride quality. This one with the We Are One, it pedals super well. You have a more, I don't know, energetic ride feel, so you can climb well, but then descending. Also, super exciting to ride. It doesn't just mute everything. It has that liveliness that a lot of people like to have in a bike. Yes. Matt Beer reviewed it, and he noted just how good that suspension platform was. I think this is one of the few really artisanal bikes. It just looks special. It has that hyperbike quality that not everyone has. Next up, we have the new Forbidden Druid. It's the second generation of this trail bike. It retains its high-pivot suspension design, but it has some geometry tweaks. Even that suspension layout has been altered a little bit just in order to allow them to maximize how the bike performs. How did this bike end up on the list? Well, this is a 130-mil travel bike. It is an EWS winner, which says everything. Trail bikes can come in a couple of different flavors. This is probably better for the more aggressive descenders. I think this bike is going to offer those gravity-orientated trail riders a lot. I think it's also arguably a far better-looking proposition than the last Druid, which began to look quite dated. The winner, insert drumroll sound clip, of the 2023 Pinkbike Bike of the Year is the Trek Slash. Now, this is something of two on the bounce for Trek, who also had the Fuel EX last year. Why do you think the Trek Slash stood out in this fleet of great bikes? For me, it descended amazing. It climbed very well, offered a great blend of stiffness, great geometry. What did you think of it? I think you nailed it there. It hits all the little boxes that you'd want to bike to check. It's something that's an easy bike to recommend, a wide range of sizes. From a small rider to a tall rider, they can purchase it. You can run different wheel sizes. It's almost like they made it so adaptable that you can't really say too many bad things about it. The one little gripe that we had about that chain dropping, once that was corrected, it just works great. In some ways, it feels like a really extreme ideology presented in a very moderate accessible way. That's how they roll. They're trying to make bikes that work well for everybody. I'd say they pushed their boundaries a bit with this one, and it turned out it worked really well. Trek have got rad. Do you know what I mean? Like a Honda Accord that's had all the fancy fittings and sporty wheels. It's like, oh, what do you know? I think they're great. They've done a really good job, and they should be very proud. Congratulations to the whole team at Trek for another bike of the year win. That Trek Slash is a truly remarkable bike, and it was so much fun to test. Now, get in the comments below and let us know what you would have if you could have your pick of the bunch. Until next time, thank you very much.