SHORT-TRAVEL TRAIL BIKES

When it comes to buying a new bike, we always recommend the 90/10 rule – choose the bike that matches 90 per cent of the terrain you typically ride, not the

If you want a light, agile trail bike, less really could mean more

10 per cent you aspire to tackle. And while that seems really obvious, it’s surprisingly hard not to get drawn into the more-is-better mindset. Increased suspension travel, increased tyre width, increased stopping power and increased seatpost drop are all very appealing, and definitely have their place. But every addition that makes a bike more capable also adds weight. So if you want a light, agile trail bike that covers ground just as quickly as it gets you into trouble, less really could mean more.

This month, we have three 29ers that all carry a trail-bike tag, albeit without the outsized baggage. The Giant Trance Advanced Pro 29 2 and the Marin Rift Zone Carbon 2 have been designed from the ground up as short-travel trail bikes. And by short travel, the Giant has 115mm out back, the Marin just 10mm more. NS has taken a very different approach with the Synonym TR 2. By swapping some suspension parts and key components on its XC race platform, NS has delivered a 120mm-travel trail bike with XC DNA.

It should come as no surprise then, that the NS is the lightest of our trio. At 12.92kg, it’s 410g lighter than the Giant and over 1.5kg lighter than the Marin. That’s a lot of variation, but if we examine the tyres we get a much clearer picture than simply looking at the readout on the scale. And that’s because the Marin comes with reinforced EXO + casing Maxxis Minion tyres. The tyres alone are over 0.5kg heavier than the shallow-tread Maxxis Rekon/Ikon