Downhill racing remains a highlight of our sport. Watched by hundreds of thousands of fans across the globe, the UCI DH World Cup series highlights what bike designers and some of the most talented riders in the world are capable of when tasked with simply getting a bike down a hill, over varying terrain, as fast as possible. No other discipline pushes the boundaries of MTB technology quite as hard, with the variation in tracks, the high speeds achieved and the pressure to win driving development of frame, suspension and component technology, which filters down to the trail bikes most of us ride.
While downhill bikes are a niche market, there’s a dedicated following who race weekend in, weekend out, and hit up the bike parks, looking to push themselves on the roughest tracks, biggest gaps and steepest trails. If you want all-out speed on the gnarliest terrain, nothing comes close to a DH bike.
The three bikes on test here are all being used in the DH World Cup series, so are clearly capable of crazy speeds and have otherworldly potential under the right rider. But how well do they work for everyday folk, who aren’t racing World Cups? Are they too specialised, needing to be ridden ungodly-fast to get the best from them? Or can anyone jump on and have fun?
To find out, we took them to Les Portes du Soleil – a cluster of resorts on the French/ Swiss border, long beloved of gravity riders – for two weeks, to test them on the terrain that suits them best. We’re talking huge jumps, even bigger berms and plenty of root-littered, steep, techy trails, with conditions ranging from bone-dry dust to sloppy mud, and everything in between.
Sure, these are luxury items with high prices, and riders with no plans to race and limited funds could have almost as much fun on a much more versatile enduro bike. But DH rigs highlight just how fast a mountain bike can be ridden.
Good suspension is essential on a downhill bike, so we picked three equipped with the best forks and shocks available from Fox or RockShox at the
