£3,000 TRAIL BIKES
Amid the current shortages, finding a new bike that suits your riding and wallet can seem an impossible task. We approached 28 brands and inquiried about 41 models before finding four that met our criteria for this test and were available to buy. Don’t be rushed into a panic purchase, though – it’s important to get the right steed for your needs.
That’s especially true in the hotly-contested £3k trail bike category. These are everyman’s (or woman’s) bikes, designed to handle everything from bridleway bashing to the odd uplift day. Categorising a trail bike by its geometry or suspension travel is becoming harder, because bikes are getting lower, longer and slacker with more squish. Generally, though, you should expect 130mm to 150mm of travel, plenty of standover room, a decent reach (the horizontal distance from BB to head tube, which affects how a bike feels when stood up on the pedals) and a stable head angle, between 64 and 66.5 degrees.
At this price, an aluminium frame usually offers the best compromise between performance and cost, letting brands focus on providing better parts. You will find carbon fibre options too, though. Kit-wise, you should get a 1x12 drivetrain, big-name suspension with externally adjustable damping (or at least a lockout), a dropper seatpost and tubeless-ready tyres. The quality of the components will depend on whether the bike is from a direct-sales outfit or a bricks-and-mortar shop. With fewer overheads and no distributor taking a cut, online brands can afford to up-spec the parts, but you forego the ongoing customer support of a local bike shop.
Most of all, a trail bike should be fun on the descents but light and comfy enough for all-day rides. Picking the right one has never been harder, but we’re here to help.
THE LINE-UP
SPECIALIZED STUMPJUMPER COMP ALLOY £2,500
On this second-cheapest
Stumpy you still get decent parts, including a Fox fork and shock, and SRAM NX Eagle drivetrain. This latest iteration of Spesh’s most popular MTB continues to use the brand’s ‘FSR’ Horst link suspension platform, delivering 130mm of travel, but has moved to their reach-based S-Sizing with its shorter seat tubes – pick a smaller bike for flickier handling or a bigger one for a more stable ride. The geometry is adjustable, too.
SONDER EVOL GX EAGLE £2,599
Parent company Alpkit may own a chain of stores, but most of Sonder’s bikes are sold direct, via their website. Designed and tested in the UK, the EVOL has relatively long, low and slack geometry, along with 140mm of Horst link suspension. Capitalising on their cost-saving business model, Sonder have specced a boutique Cane Creek fork and shock, a SRAM GX Eagle drivetrain (the next rung up from NX) and Code R brakes. It’s a lot of bike for the cash.
VITUS ESCARPE 29 CRS £2,699.99
is one of the few full-sus bikes at this price to boast a carbon fibre front triangle. As the in-house brand of online retail giants Chain Reaction Cycles, Vitus have the buying power to provide an impressive parts spec, too, including a RockShox Pike fork and Deluxe shock, DT Swiss wheels and Shimano SLX drivetrain. On paper, there’s little to upgrade. This latest model
