Welcome to 2022 PINKBIKExBETA
Value bike field test
9 Full suspension and hard tail were evaluated
Mike Levy’s Words, Photo of Tom Richards
Do you remember being really disappointed when you reviewed a $ 9,000 trail bike at one point? Yeah, me too. If you throw a lot of flashy parts into a flashy frame, you’ll find that the finished product is also flashy and probably won’t smoke. This goes far beyond the stale etiquette and trivial criticisms of cable wiring and chainstays. protection.
But for a full-suspension bike, dialing that number for less than $ 3,500 or dialing a hardtail for less than $ 2,100 makes things even more interesting. This time, we headed south to Tucson, Arizona for our annual Value Bike Field Test. In this test, nine affordable machines faced each other on a rugged rocky desert trail. Riding two weeks later, you can (almost) agree on which bikes were the most impressive, which were the most scary, and how much Horchata the human body could consume before serious medical treatment was needed.
To be honest, hardtails are a lot of fun, but most of us would prefer to ride a full suspension bike most of the time. Holdups for some people can certainly improve comfort, traction and speed compared to having only the front suspension, but the extra movable bit is more money Means weight, and complexity. If you’re okay with a fortune, these aren’t too worrisome, but if your budget is at its best under $ 3,500 USD, as you did with five full-suspension trail bikes, it’s a different story. Well then, I’ll talk a lot in future reviews.
I want to get a mountain bike, but don’t have a lot of money to spend? Full suspension rigs made almost entirely of carbon fiber win most headlines, but hardtails offer a simpler and therefore cheaper ride. And because they don’t pay for extra engineering, materials, and all those pivots, they often feature impressive spec seats that similar-priced dual-suspension bikes can’t even approach.
But they’re not just budget bikers. If you can’t survive the riding season without breaking another set of chainstays, destroying another set of bearings, or blowing another shock, you may be lucky-and Rest less bikes-by choosing a hard tail.
How do you choose a bike?
To “Choose,“What I really want to say is”Please send the bicycle in stock.“We already know that if you try to buy a new vehicle at any time in the last few years, or even part of your bike, you’re more likely to come across the Ark of the Covenant than the 12-speed chain. We talked sweetly about getting five full suspension bikes selling for less than $ 3,500 and four hardtails selling for less than $ 2,100.
Yes, I would have liked a few more bikes. Yes, some prices have gone up after the fact. And yeah, Kajimar can be quite fascinating when he wants to be, but how disappointed he was that he couldn’t get the exact bike you wanted. Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t tell him this field test.
This is our 10th field test and locks the test process at this point as it doesn’t include all the trips Kajimar and I took over the years before naming. doing. It’s not complicated. Go out on a short test lap and then run another lap. Then do something else, and do something else. After that, after returning from the test lap, head to some test laps before heading to some test laps. Then, after we get back, we go a little more to La … Well, you get the points. Nothing beats short, repeatable laps on a course that fits any kind of bike we’re riding.
This continuous test is important because it allows you to compare comparable bikes that are far better than riding alone, highlighting the striking differences in geometry, suspension performance, and bike specifications.Don’t call it shootout
If the trail is a pump track rather than a single track, all these laps will not be counted. But at the same time, all of these affordable bikes are for the Door Die Line, as much as it seems to know what we’re doing in our pictures of riding on rough terrain. Not made in. In reality, they have to ride a single track that matches their intentions.
And that’s what Tucson has provided us. A rugged trail with a mix of tricky, slow uphills and fast, rough downhills. All of these are paved on pointed rocks and are pulling our feet because they have all or no traction. As you can imagine, there were several crashes during the two-week ride, but the voyage was almost smooth. There were also mechanical concerns that we’ll discuss in future review videos. Oh, then Palmer had to hand-sew his Maxis rear tires to get out of the desert before it got dark, but we’ll go to those behind-the-scenes stories in future podcasts.
Our Value Bike Field Test is not very interested in using control tires to equalize traction and efficiency, and is far less focused on lap timing, which is what a regular group review is. It’s a little different. why? Well, if you’re looking for a bike in this price range, you might want to know more about how it works out of the box, not after you put $ 250 on rubber. This is far better than any tire. The bike was in stock.
In other words, if you’re spending all your hard-earned fun tokens on a bike under $ 3,500, the spec is definitely important and you didn’t want to emphasize that important factor.
When it comes to commenting things, lap timing is always important in these gatherings as it provides another metric for comparison and discussion, but a few seconds gap between two affordable bikes. Is certainly not the case. ”T means that one is better than the other. After all, did our feet feel better in the morning, or was it all Horchata that I went so fast and dropped Kajimar?
That said, given the huge differences in shape, suspension performance and specs of the nine test bikes, don’t be surprised to see some noticeable differences in the timing seats. However, it’s up to you how much inventory you put in these numbers.
Impossible rise, (no) efficiency test, and hack to flat
Stopwatches don’t lie, but all of us are based on buying decisions, which aren’t really possible rises and hacks to flats, right? In other words, it wouldn’t be a field test without a pointless climb before hitting the bottom on a pancake flat landing, so the series concludes with Matt Beal putting a steep stuff on all nine of these bikes before getting off. Something ridiculous that you can expect to be.
What I haven’t done this time is the efficiency test. I know, I know, you’re probably as annoyed about it as I am, but listen to me. Value bikes have different tires, four of which are hardtails, so I thought it would be better to spend some time doing other work. So the extra mountaineering was replaced by a video disassembling each component of every bike. I was most impressed with us. We’ll talk about which budget forks, drivetrains, brakes, dropper posts, and other parts worked best, and arguably some that didn’t.
As always, the testing obligation was split into multiple riders, giving us some perspective on the performance of each bike. We agree with most, but not all. It allows us to calmly discuss our different opinions, like a well-tuned adult. Yeah, that’s how it went …
height: 5’10 “/ 178 cm
weight: 170 lbs / 77 kg
Note: Technical editor, allergic to everything
height: 5’11 “/ 180cm
weight: 160 lbs / 72.6 kg
Note: Technical editor management, alien skeptics
height: 5’10 “/ 178 cm
weight: 148 pounds / 67 kg
Note: Moonlight, a news editor as a technical editor
height: 5’10 “/ 178 cm
weight: 155 lbs / 70 kg
Note: Technical Editor, I don’t know if it’s an alien or a lizard
height: 6 feet / 183 cm
weight: 200 lbs / 90 kg
Note: Beta senior tech editor, too poor for this sneaky person
Ryan, Kajimar, Matt, Alicia, and I are in front of the cameras in these field test projects, but the five of us don’t even know how to focus or where to put the film. Without the overworked video and photo crew (Max Baron, Tom Richards, Lear Miller), we would be completely lost. Not only can they make sure we are mostly focused, but they can also look much better than they really are. Then, after shooting for two weeks, I’ll lock it in a pink bike-edited cave and send Timbits through a small hole in the wall until the other side becomes pale and thick and the video series is complete.
Speaking of the finished video, which bike review are you most looking forward to? Which bike doesn’t look the most promising?
