LESS IS MORE? DOWNSIZED TRAIL BIKES

Big travel and a burly frame may flatter your ego but downsizing on travel can reconnect you with the trails and supersize your thrills

- Alan Muldoon

As with so many things in life, the pendulum always swings back to the centre. Trail bikes are no different. And with the A line between trail and enduro becoming increasingly blurred, it makes sense that there's an emerging category of shortertravel 29ers. Not quite light enough to be called down-country, but capable 130mm-travel trail bikes with a keen eye on weight and speed.

Probably the easiest way to define this category is to look at what they are NOT designed for: basically steep ups and downs. The focus here is what lies in between. Literally, the middle ground. And if we're being perfectly honest, that's the type of riding most of us are doing, most of the time. We've always said that you should get the bike that fits 90% of the riding you do, not the 10% you aspire to, and the bikes in this test capture the essence of the statement perfectly.

So, if you're a trail rider at your very core, we have four bikes that should be on your radar. The Bold Linkin 135 is a unique design, where the shock and linkage are concealed inside the frame. In keeping with the ultra-clean look, the Bold also has integrated storage in the down tube. Canyon's new Spectral 125 looks very similar to the 150mm Spectral, but it's very much a standalone design, built for the hard-charging rider that wants less travel and more interaction with the terrain. Mondraker's new Raze comes with built-in suspension telemetry to maximize the performance of this short-travel shredder, while Specialized's Stumpjumper Expert strips the platform back to its bare bones, even eliminating the signature Horst-link suspension, in pursuit of reduced weight.