TEST BIKES RIDDEN HARD FOR A YEAR

TOM’S HOPE HB.130 £6,585

Some head-to-head testing has brought out the best in the Hope

What a change a season-and-a-half makes! My last ‘real’ ride on the Hope, back in early March, was a frustrating one. I literally couldn’t get to grips with the bike, thanks to a clogged rear tyre and slippery roots making even the Maxxis Shorty up front struggle. Fast-forward a few months and suddenly I find myself rolling fast and free, and absolutely loving the HB.130 on steep, dusty, jump-heavy tracks – lots of which seem to have appeared during the course of the lockdown.

I did a bit of back-to-back riding on the Hope and the new Yeti SB115 recently, not just for testing purposes, but also because I’d been videoing the Yeti for BikeRadar and then jumped on the Hope for some post-work laps with a colleague who fancied a shot on the SB115. The difference between the bikes was stark. OK, they’re built for different purposes and there’s a big variation in suspension travel, but it showed how back-to-back testing is vital for getting an accurate indication of how a bike works.

The most noticeable difference was