XC? Trail? Enduro? | Mountain Bikes Explained!

Happy New Year, everybody. I hope you've had an amazing bit of time off and got out for a ride. For those of you looking to take up mountain biking, well, then I have got the ultimate bike explainer for you. Now, before we get cracking, why not like and subscribe to the channel this year for all the latest and greatest in mountain biking. Now, whether you're looking to get into mountain biking for the first time or looking to buy a new bike at the beginning of this year, don't worry, I've got you covered. I'm going to be looking at the full spectrum of mountain bikes out there, the kind of characteristics and what they're good for. What's up first? This is a trials bike. Trials bikes are used for hopping up, over, and around pretty much any obstacle, unlike me at the mo who's got a bit of a bad back, which is why I'm sitting down. They need to be light, agile, nimble, and minimalistic, not to mention very strong. There are two main types of trials, competition and street trials. Now, street trials is the kind of more open to interpretation, flare to it, creative side of trials where you see people like Danny McCaskill doing all kinds of crazy things. Competition trials is essentially getting through sections as efficiently as possible without putting a foot down. Actually, Jack Carthy, multiple world champion, is incredible at this. We shot a video with him not too long ago if you want to check that out. What about the bikes themselves? Well, this here is a Canyon Stitch CFR Trials. It's actually the very same bike that Fabio Wibmer uses in a lot of his edits that you've seen going around. What's the main difference between this and a competition trials bike? Well, it's this thing here, a saddle. Competition bikes generally just don't have them because they don't need them. Simplicity is the name of the game on a trials bike. As I said, no suspension, 22-tooth sprocket up front, 16 on the back. That gives it a really light gear for that sudden turn in acceleration that they need. Street trials bikes like this have 24-inch wheels. Competition bikes have 20-inch or 26-inch wheels. When it comes to tires, it's fairly low tread patterns, fairly thick on the sidewalls to stop that damage to the wheels and pinch punctures. Aluminum is still generally the go-to frame material, but things like this, carbon fiber, are becoming more commonplace. When it comes to sizing, well, generally, they're only available in one size, unlike most other mountain bikes out there. It's generally a very small size to, like I said, keep things very maneuverable, light, and nimble. What about that crazy bar and stem combo? Now, this is something that stands out and what makes trials bikes quite unique as well is just looking at that setup. This is something that riders will alter and change quite a lot. It's like that because essentially, a trials rider will spend a lot of the time on the back wheel. That longer, more upright stem puts the rider slightly higher and more out in front of their bike. The big riser bars do that as well. Then brake lever position, obviously, we've got some big powerful either disc brakes or hydraulic rim brakes generally found on trials bikes. That lever position is fairly steep when the bike is down like this. Then when it comes up, they flatten out so they can get a good bite on it. That is a trials bike. Next up, the jump bike. Check it out then. It's kind of like a jacked-up version of a trials bike. Now, you'll generally find these or use these for something like street riding, dirt jumps, skate park, or pump track. There are a few subtle and not so subtle differences. They share things like a single speed, there's only one, nothing to go wrong, no rear mech. This time, we've only got one brake, a disc brake at the rear, although sometimes you can find them with two brakes. The biggest addition is this, the suspension fork at the front. Now, obviously, things like riding off of dirt jumps, it being a mountain bike itself, you can get rigid versions, but normally, a 100-mil travel fork is found at the front with the ability normally to lock it out. 26-inch wheels on this, slightly knobblier tires because if you do ride on the dirt, you get a little bit more grip. Predominantly, these things are always metal, always aluminum or steel because they are the strongest and toughest. Because you're going a little bit quicker on these, you just want that extra security. Aluminum bars, aluminum wheels, aluminum cranks. Seat is slammed again, so you've got that maneuverability when you're hammering it around a pump track or around a skate park. If you're up in your game and you're looking at slope-style bikes or slope-style courses, it will be a very similar bike to this, but actually, you might have rear suspension as well. Imagine this, but with maybe like 80 to 100-mil travel at the back. Now, it's time for a gravel bike. This one, in fact, is this the ultimate road biker's mountain bike or the mountain biker's road bike? It is, of course, a gravel bike and it blurs the lines between the two. Perfect for crushing all-day epic adventures on or exploring the roads and going off the beaten path a little bit. Now, what sets it apart from a mountain bike, obviously, is the drop bars at the front there. Additional aero gains there, additional comfort, like you would find on a road bike. Other notable things, generally, gravel bikes are carbon fiber or aluminum. Sometimes, fancy ones are steel or titanium, but carbon or aluminum is the general go-to material. Wheel size is 27.5 or 700c. Actually, a lot of the times, they're rigid, but we're seeing more mountain bike influences creep across. We see a small dropper on this one and a small suspension fork as well. When it comes to tire size, a 28 to 50-mil tire is generally the go-to. We're seeing more cool integration, should we say, because obviously, these bikes are designed around lots of long riding. Frame storage is often a thing, lots of mounts for various additions like tools, pumps, God knows what else, bags that you might want to put on there, disc brakes. Gearing-wise, it's often a 1x12, maybe 1x11, but here you might still see the front mech live on as a 2x might also be included as well. A great bike if you want to try a little bit of off-roading but you're a road biker, or if you're a mountain biker, you want to go out on the road but still fancy a taste for off-road, could be a good option too. Now, time for a cross-country hardtail. These bikes are the lightest, nimblest, sharpest cross-country weapons out there, but actually can also be the most budget and wallet-friendly versions as well, like this Canyon Grand Canyon, which are a great gateway into mountain biking themselves. Designed to be smooth, comfortable, and fast-rolling thanks to 29-inch tires, these kinds of bikes are absolute weapons. Now, the hardtail obviously has roughly 100 to 110-mil travel only on the front, obviously no rear suspension, but there are rigid versions as well, which you won't see very often out on the racetracks or on the trails too much because, well, they are pretty rowdy and pretty bumpy, but for those people looking to do big distances or ride a lot of fire roads, things like that, well, the fully rigid version could be the one. Now, often we're going to find carbon frames on more expensive models. You'll generally always be able to take two bottles for when you're doing really big rides. Carbon parts are often strewn here, there, and everywhere on the more expensive one as well, but regardless, we still get 1x12 group sets. That's obviously going to have a wide ratio cassette to allow you to go up and down a lot of different extremes. That kind of 1x12 is going to become a more common theme as we move through, but the XC hardtail, great for beginners and great for experts. This is an aggressive hardtail. Grr. If a cross-country hardtail and a jump bike got together one night and made a baby, this is what it would be, the aggressive hardtail. Yes, lightweight, agile like an XC bike, but strong and tough like the jump bike. This is the do-it-all of the hardtail world. What makes this different from the ones before? Well, generally, aluminum frames, carbon frames can be out there as always, but look, longer, lower slacker treatment is given here and more aggressive geometry all around to give it that versatility. You've got a slacker head angle, a slightly longer reach for maneuvering around, and you've got a longer wheelbase as well for that kind of stability. Suspension travel goes up as well, 120 to generally 150-mil travel forks, and just all around, the parts are a bit tougher. Longer dropper posts, oh, I like it. Bigger, burlier tires, bigger, burlier wheels, but again, all these parts are open to interpretation as well. Obviously, it's meant to be a little bit tougher, a bit more rugged to be able to handle the wider variety of terrain that it's going to be thrown at, so that is why it's built that way. It's, of course, also got disc brakes, but we might start to see four-pot brakes creeping on here. We're not quite as weight-conscious as the cross-country versions, which is what makes this also, what I think, because of the less moving parts, a great winter bike. This is a cross-country full suspension bike. We're into the realms of full suspension now with what could be one of my favorite genres of bikes, the cross-country full suspension bike. Now, these are generally very race-orientated bikes, and not particularly your kind of everyday bike, unless you're a bit more of an experienced mountain biker, because they can be a bit harsher and a little bit more uncomfortable to ride, until you get used to them. Carbon fiber is the name of the game, which is one of the things that adds to comfort and the discomfort in a roundabout way until you get used to it. Hundreds, 110 mil travel. Some bikes are slightly less on the rear with 80 mil travel, but that's your go-to range. Now, these bikes have also gone under the longer, lower slacker treatment as well. This here is my Orbea Oiz in a size large. Now, it's actually got 68-degree head angle, a 448 reach, a 74.5-degree seat angle, and a 1,144 wheelbase. This is essentially as tracks and riding styles have evolved over the more recent years. Bikes like this have had to as well. Shorter stems to give slightly tighter handling, wider bars, a bit more control, and the more stable geometry, plus the 29-inch wheels. You're going to find much lightweight parts here, a lot of carbon parts, titanium parts, much more rounded, faster rolling tread patterns on tires, smaller dropper posts. Now, before we actually didn't have dropper posts at all, but dropper posts are fairly commonplace, as well as lockout on the suspension to make them as efficient. Efficiency is the name of the game when it comes to these bikes. Now, it's time for downcountry. We have got us another love child on our hands, people. Yes, if a cross-country bike and a trail bike were to smash, the downcountry bike is what we'd get, a relatively new category in the mountain bike world. I wonder why the lines are blurred. Is a beefed-up XC bike or a slimmed-down trail bike? Either way, they're blooming good, but there's a few defining characteristics which make it very different from the other two. For example, we've got things like frame storage, which you don't find on XC bikes because they don't want to take any extra weight. They're generally a little bit slacker, a little bit more upright, a little bit comfier. The travel is still in the same range at 100 to 120 mil, but the overall ride position and feel of the bike is a little bit comfier, but you haven't got that full squishiness of a trail bike, which we're going to get onto next. You haven't got the additional travel and stuff. Dropper posts become a bit longer and a bit burlier. Suspension, generally a 34 mil chassis. On an XC bike, you might get a 32, but quite often a 34 mil now. 1x12, of course, we've got slightly burlier, wider tires with a bit of more an aggressive tread pattern. We got some slightly stronger brakes, 160 mil rotor at the back, 180 mil at the front on my Canyon Luxe Trail here. Lockout again because efficiency is still the name of the game, but again, it's very much about keeping things lightweight and a more aggressive XC bike. The carbon parts, we've got the titanium pedals, et cetera. Very good bike, but if you want something burlier, you need the next one. It's the turn of the trail bike now. The Swiss Army knife of the mountain bike world, the trail bike. Typically, 120 to 150 mil travel, and that can be mixed up front to rear. I've recently done a video on this bike, but on trail bikes in general, how I think they are, if you were to have a one-bike garage, this would be the one. You can build them up to be pretty bloomin' lightweight like the XC scale of things, or you can make them pretty burly and tough to be more along the Enduro and Super Enduro that we're going to get to in a bit. The trail bike truly does everything, up and down. We start seeing some bigger changes here. Like we said, we don't just go up in travel, we go up in parts size as well. Tires start getting bigger, 2.4s and potentially 2.6-inch tires. 29-inch wheels are the norm, but mixed wheel creeps in as well, especially on size-specific bikes. Carbon fiber or aluminum can be a frame material of choice. It doesn't really matter which one. You start getting slightly stronger wheels, slightly tougher cranks, aluminum cranks, burlier brakes, 4-pots become a bit more normal. Short stems, wide bars for good solid control, and again, we start getting longer and slacker. It's not just the suspension travel as well that's actually going up, the diameter and the types of suspension. You can see the rear shock's got a piggyback on it to deal with more intense hits. The forks at the front have got a bigger diameter to them as well. There are 36 up from the 34s we've been seeing so far, and that's to make them a little bit stiffer, but you could scale this down if you wanted to keep the weight. These bikes are great. They really do do it all. If you're after one bike to conquer everything, this could be the one. Say hello to an enduro bike. The enduro bike, my favorite genre of bikes. Actually, the Orbea Rallon is my go-to bike all the time. I flipping love it. Enduro bikes step up in travel and the big brother of the trail bike, if you like, 150 to 180 travel range. The enduro bike needs to be many things. It has to be able to climb really well, but descend like a downhill bike. You have to be able to ride all day on it. It's got to be versatile, but it's got to be really strong because that's the kind of racing that it's designed around. On these kind of bikes, you're going to find either a full 29-inch wheel setup or mixed wheel like on this one here where you've got the slightly smaller wheel at the back. Frame storage and tool integration are absolutely key because the very nature of an enduro ride or race is to be self-sufficient, so being able to take what you need with you. Like I said, we've got to be built for toughness here because downhill or the stages going back down, which these are typically designed around, are rough as World Cup downhill tracks. A big Fox 38 fork at the front or something there similar of, same with the rear shock, a big burly rear shock designed to take long descents and handle the heat. Burly enduro casing tires, much wider rims. We've got much longer dropper posts, but that long low slack geometry comes in when you look at how low that top tube and standover height is and how sleek it is all the way. The wheelbase is stretched out and head angles are much slacker as well to give you that stability at high speed. If you are still looking for a Swiss Army knife of bikes, but you swayed more to going downhill, then instead of the trail bike, the enduro bike would be the one. Super enduro. We're getting near the business end of things now, people, and super enduro bikes, as the name suggests, are the beefed up version of a normal enduro bike, so what we just had. 170 mil travel plus here. We're going to find a lot of similar parts though. We've got 1x12 group sets, we've got dropper posts, big burly tires and wheels. You might start to find some slightly bigger rotors, 220 mil rotors on these kinds of bikes, but it's business as usual. You'll still see frame storage, tool integration. If you're looking at hitting just big mountain gnarly trails, but still just want to slowly winch your way back up, these are the way to go. The Propain Spindrift. This is a big 180 mil travel bike. Then we morph into what we'll call park bikes and free ride bikes. These are like super enduro bikes, stripped back, if you like. Often, there'll be mixed wheels. Metal frames will be the norm. Tool integration and water bottles is long gone out the windows. It's simplicity here. Gearing, optional, a lot of the time converted to single speed. You might start seeing dual crown forks as well, so a stiffer front end. Droppers, they're generally gone too as uplift is the name of the game. Oh, yes, it's a downhill bike, people. The biggest, the burliest, the most badass bike on the list is this, the downhill bike. Built for one thing and one thing only, going as fast as you can down the roughest, gnarliest tracks out there. On average, 200 mil travel, front and rear, full 29 potentially mixed wheels as well is also available. Actually, a lot of riders like to go for the smaller rear wheel because it makes the bike a little bit sharper on the handling, a bit more flickable. You can turn it around, change direction on it a little bit easier. These bikes are built for strength. Everything about them is about as strong as it can be, from the tubing, which could be carbon or aluminum on the frame, to the tires, to the wheels. We've got a one-by setup, but we're actually running a reduced amount of gears. We've got a six or seven speed, but riders do tinker around with this rear cassette. You can see a really close ratio as well on the back. The jumping between gears is tighter. There's not such a big difference. Obviously, we're only going downhill, so that's why there's such small cassettes as well. Dropper post, don't need it. We ain't riding back uphill on this thing. Big burly forks, often a 40 or a 38 mil chassis. Handlebars tend to be wider here as well with short stems to give as much control as possible at those higher speeds. 220 rotors are the norm now, but certainly, 200 mil rotor, 220 on the front with a four-pot brake sometimes as well. Everything is built to take hits, even down to the pedals where we've got this extra strong cage around the mechanism itself. Saddles are slammed. You can see it's really long, really low, really slack. Low standover height, again, so you can maneuver and throw it around nice and easy. It does keep the weight down as well. These, if downhill is your thing, are the one to go for. They are truly awesome. On the rear, a coil shock is often found. They handle the heat really well and the small bump sensitivity is also great. Well, there we go. Downhill bike to end on, but actually, there's one more. What if you want to electrify your mountain biking experience? Well, e-bikes, I think, deserve an honorable mention. Now, I'm not going to go on too much about them, but a lot of the genres we've actually just looked at, you can get in an e-bike version. Then when you throw into that the different motors and battery combos as well, there's a whole host of other things. I'll let Ian BN explain that a little bit more for you. What do you think about the mountain bike explainer? Which one would you choose? If you had to have one type of mountain bike in your garage, which is it going to be? Let me know. Hopefully, if you're looking to get into mountain biking, this has been really helpful for you. Thank you very much for watching, everyone. Have a great year, have a good ride, and I'll see you next time.