Vitus Sommet CRX

£3800 Lightweight trail/enduro shredder with a retro old-school feel.

It’s fair to say that the 2017 Sommet is a good-looking beast. That positivity extends to the scales, where the frame’s sleek carbon front end and top-tier components result in an impressive total weight of 12.7kg. If first impressions really were everything, we’d stop right there and whip out the credit card. But sadly for the Sommet, we weren’t quite as impressed when it came to the riding…

Fit finding

Vitus claim the XL Sommet we tested will fit very tall riders from 6ft 3in to 6ft 7in. But when slinging a leg over it from a mere 6ft 3in frame (body not bike), we had to double-check Vitus hadn’t sent us a size large by mistake. With a reach figure of just 468mm in XL, combined with a fairly stumpy 50mm stem, it feels incredibly cramped to the point where our knees were inching toward rubbing the bar when climbing out of the saddle - these days 480mm and up is more typical for an XL enduro bike. Shorter riders may be able to go up a size from Vitus’ recommendations to achieve more reach, but fairly tall seat tubes (523mm in XL) make this difficult. Most riders will just have to put up with the short frame or look elsewhere. The result of this cramped cockpit is an uncomfortable position on the climbs and flatter trails.