XC RACE HARDTAILS

TESTED THIS MONNT

 MONDRAKER CHRONO CARBON R

£2,399

SCOTT SCALE 920

£2,199

SPECIALIZED EPIC HT

£2,249

TREK PROCALIBER 9.7

£2,250

We love hardtails at mbr. And while we comprehensively cover the trail rider’s needs with our Hardtail of the Year and performance trail hardtail tests, it’s been a while since we reviewed thoroughbred XC race models.

So why now? If you follow XC racing, even from a distance, you’ll have noticed that it’s not just the race courses that have evolved in recent years. When we tested XC full-suspension bikes this time last year, one thing was crystal clear: XC race bikes have never been in a better spot, the bikes rising to the challenge of modern courses and the demands of the next generation of racers.

And while most of the racing elite have smoothly transitioned to 29er full-suspension bikes, if you’re just getting into XC racing, a trusty 29er hardtail is a much more affordable way to get your hands on a lightweight, efficient bike.

Which is why we have four carbon XC 29er race hardtails lined up on the grid for this month’s test. Mondraker, Scott, Specialized and Trek are no strangers to the XC podium, and with all four bikes costing around £2,200, no bike has a jump on the starter’s pistol.

XC bikes have never been in a better spot, rising to the challenge of modern courses and the demands of the next generation

If you’re looking at these XC whippets and wondering what sets them apart from the typical trail hardtail, the short answer is attitude. The most obvious difference though, is that none of them come with dropper posts, even if lightweight short-travel droppers have been adopted by top-flight XC racers keen to gain an advantage on the technical descents that populate modern racing.

Fork travel is also less than on the typical trail bike — all four bikes in this test sporting 100mm-travel forks. Obviously the geometry is adapted to the intended use, so the head angles are much steeper than your typical trail hardtail. Long stems still prevail, which is why the reach measurements aren’t anything like as long as you’d find on a trail bike, even if the sizing and fit are both very similar.

By far the biggest difference though, is that XC hardtails are optimised for weight saving, which is why our four test bikes all have slender carbon frames. It’s also why they have skinny, fast-rolling tyres, as energy conservation is king when it comes to racing.

So we have four bikes cut from exact same cloth — probably Lycra — and all designed