VOODOO BIZANGO

Voodoo’s dark arts continue, with the latest Bizango representing crazy value for money

- Paul Burwell

£750 / 29in / halfords.com

NEED TO KNOW

Hardtail of the Year winner with a lighter frameset and revamped geometry

New tapered head tube, triple-butted frame tubing and routing included for a dropper post

Comes standard with Maxxis Ardent tyres and tubeless-ready rims

New wide-range Shimano Deore 11-speed cassette, chainset and clutch rear derailleur

It’s fair to say the Voodoo Bizango is one of the winningest hardtails mbr has ever tested. This bike has won our Hardtail of the Year award on multiple occasions, even when the deck was stacked against it. And the times it hasn’t won, it’s because we haven’t been able to get hold of one due to it being sold out.

For 2022 Voodoo has stepped it up once again. The new Bizango is lighter, has better geometry and more tyre clearance and it even gets a few of the tweaks I suggested the last time I tested it.

Start with a great foundation and you can build a legacy, so at the heart of the new Bizango is a triple-butted aluminium frameset. Only the three main tubes get this treatment but this update and some changes elsewhere means the overall weight of the bike has come down.

To increase torsional stiffness, the top tube has a slightly larger cross-section with subtle profiling and it’s now welded to a tapered head tube. As a result, the frame is stiffer at the front but it’s also more comfortable at the back because Voodoo has dropped the seat stay bridge and also redesigned the chainstay assembly to be more compliant. The added benefit of this rejig is that it adds an extra 13mm of mud clearance and the option to fit fatter tyres if you wish.