Mountain Bike of the Year Winner
2020's
Mountain Bike of Year nominees included the Transition Spur, Raaw Madonna, Commencal Meta TR, and Specialized Stumpjumper EVO. This is a highly competitive category, and all of the finalists had standout traits that put them in the running for the win. After several rounds of heated video chats between Pinkbike's tech editors a winner was finally chosen. The 2020 Mountain Bike of the Year award goes to...
Specialized Stumpjumper EVO
It's the Stumpjumper EVO's adjustability and level of refinement that helped it earn the
Mountain Bike of the Year title. All it takes is a few minutes with some Allen keys and you can transform it from a peppy 150mm trail bike into an extra-slack, gravity-oriented machine. It's an outstanding example of a modern mountain bike, a prime example of just how far the technological side of the sport has advanced over the last 40 years.
Of course, it takes more than a bunch of geometry options to come out on top in this highly competitive category. Luckily, even in that slackest setting the EVO still maintains its 'ready for anything' attitude. This isn't a heavy monster with a one track mind, which comes in handy when you need to pedal back up to the top after a long rowdy descent.
There are six sizes to choose from in order to accommodate riders of all heights, and while it's the extra-fancy S-Works version that's pictured here, there are more reasonably priced options that hold their own when it comes to parts spec, even compared to some consumer direct options.
When it comes down to it, the Stumpjumper EVO's effortless handling and ability to excel on a wide variety of terrain are what really cemented the win, although the massive amount of storage in the down tube didn't hurt either. At the end of the day, there aren't many bikes out there that are as well equipped for long rides through technical terrain, the type of riding that got many of us hooked on mountain biking in the first place.
Nice words. Stay classy
Lucky bastard. I'm hoping at best for a 2037 delivery
Person 1 " I heard she killed herself"
Person 2 " who?"
Petson 1 "Reece, uh, Wither, uhm...."
Person 2 "Witherspoon.....!!!!"
Person 1 "NO, with a knife"
I'll show myself out
There was already a value bike winner, but it's not the best bike.
Downvote me fools!
Raaw is a finalist, but certainly they don’t have the advertising dollars of Trek, right? So why was Raaw a finalist and the Slash not?
As far as component/parts margins, they’re lower than the average bike sale margin. People can usually get better pricing online, so after you f around with price matching and finagling over a $40 saddle it’s a wash. Some of my component margins are around 10% because I’m price matching a giant who buys much cheaper and and has less overhead.. And doesn’t organize events, build trail or teach people how to change a flat, etc.
And the problem with your “small selection” idea is that now, just one example, we have twice as many commonly ridden wheel sizes, try stocking even a small selection of tires and tubes as a small shop, with 20 sizes.
And when should I organize and hold those free events? Pretty hard to take time off to organize events if you’re relying on labor to pay the bills! You can’t do both, now can you? Especially if you have a life whatsoever, or maybe even a family. The reality is, I need to be open and dealing with customers all day, then plenty of wrenching before or after work.. then you have cleaning the shop, ordering, and 100 other little details to keep in the air.
Furthermore, stocking bikes “representative of various price brackets to showcase technologies and variation in component kit” is the idea! Yeah that used to be the idea behind a bike shop! Have a selection to look at and ride, help people find the right bike. So that’s a size run in what, 5-10 models minimum? Do you see where this is going?
As for shop sponsored events free (i.e. organized rides) or pay-to-play (i.e. races) the expectation is that those occur outside of normal business hours say after 5:30pm or on the weekend. It is not uncommon for bike shops to be closed on a Monday/Tuesday to accommodate these expectations or to open later in the day than a typical business. You've obviously figured out a strategy that works for you, so it's not my place to criticize and that was not my intent. I understand innovation frustrates the LBS sector since it results in a need to carry more diverse inventory, but in a very saturated bicycle market differentiation is the key to survival for a bike brand. If everyone has the same thing other factors will drive who succeeds and who loses. I feel your pain, it's not an LBS friendly industry, it's a bike and component brand friendly industry. To ease your pain, might I recommend setting up an e-commerce shop to boost sales of bikes/parts and then just carrying things people are likely to need in a pinch along with cheap bikes for those looking to acquire a bike in a pinch. If you don't already, it may be advisable to have a dedicated events coordinator or perhaps a broader outreach coordinator and separate personnel to run the shop that you're not overwhelmed and better able to accommodate both ends. Just some ideas to help you out since you sound a bit frazzled.
Outakes as the presentation
To draw a loose analogy to American baseball, the 2020 World Series was between the LA Dodgers with the 2nd highest league payroll and the Tampa Bay Rays with the 3rd lowest, and the Rays came within two games of winning it all.
I feel the way you do when I see bikeradar, or mbr.co.Uk review brands I’ve hardly even heard of, that I don’t think I can even buy here in the US.
actually just about to upgrade with 1x 11 too..
Straight up, bike vs bike, ride vs ride, looks vs looks... the Spur beats the Stumpy Evo in all relevant categories. Reviewer after reviewer raved over the Spur all year... not so much on the Stumpy.
Is the configurability enough to leap over the Spur... idk, it’s not that close... maybe that novelty brings it up to the already perfect Spur, but I think PB got caught up in the latest cool thing ... that has really been around for some time now.
That’s the primary reason to do this. It won’t add much stiffness to the frame.
Makes me wonder why I see more Santa Cruz bikes (and others) than Specialized on the trail these days. I guess everyone likes bikes that dont get awards.
It is a Horst link bike.
Perhaps I was/am doubtful of how well the Stumpy EVO could ride since there isn't seemingly anything particularly cosmically different about it from an older horst/FSR design. I get the impression that it only rides well because of the shock put on it. Put a crappy shock on it and all the typical FSR problems would likely show up (read lots of pedal bob). I have not ridden it though, so I am merely speculating based on past experience with FSR bikes. It is that inefficiency of my old bikes with FSR that lead me to find a bike with better efficiency. DW link was perceived as a newer more thought-out design that resolved those efficiency problems. Sidebar, Specialized may have a large R&D department and a large budget, but I would not agree that they utilize those resources effectively. They move like the large corporation they are, very slowly and very incrementally as a risk mitigation strategy since they have a large workforce to keep employed. They could arguably advance the bike industry much more rapidly if they really wanted to but they don't.
"My point was that from all the classes of bikes, the stumpy evo was just that step ahead of its competitors within its class, and it likely won because there weren't any XC bikes that hugely rose about their competitors and the same for DH bikes", I'm inclined to agree that is was the approach to selecting BOTY, but I don't agree with that approach, largely because the field was too narrow, and perception is finicky.
If the reviewer begin with learning how to ride properly to begin with, the conclusion would be more reliable.