Charlie's Commencal Meta TR V4.2 Origin

Countless hours on the trails make this the ultimate test of performance as well as reliability

MONTH 1: Will Charlie’s canary yellow Commençal sing on the single track? Time will tell...

It’s been a long wait, but I’ve finally got my hands on the canary yellow Commençal Meta TR V4.2. As my new long term test bike it’s going to have a hard life over the next eight months, and yet it also faced a baptism of fire at the Welsh Gravity Enduro race at Afan forest, just three days after pulling it out of the box.

It was a last-minute decision to load the bike in the van, but it didn’t disappoint, and I bagged third position in my category on some horribly rocky tracks. I can’t take all the credit though, as the 130mm-travel Commençal is a complete animal of a trail bike, never feeling overwhelmed on the awkward and unforgiving terrain of the race.