Field Test: 10 Trail and Enduro bikes VS the Impossible Climb
PINKBIKE FIELD TEST
10 Trail and Enduro Bikes VS The Impossible Climb
Pseudoscience in the name of climbing
10 Trail and Enduro Bikes VS The Impossible Climb
Pseudoscience in the name of climbing
I know, I know, you're patiently waiting to watch the Huck to Flat bottom-out orgy. That's on the way - it wouldn't be a Field Test without it - but first, we need to get to the top of the mountain. Sometimes that means shuttle runs, or spinning up a gravel road, or maybe even a difficult and long climb that requires everything you've got. Or sometimes it means facing a wall of wet roots, tall ledges, and switchbacks so tight they'd trouble a unicycle. This is where we find ourselves today.
Thanks to evolving geometry and suspension, modern trail and enduro bikes offer descending performance that was unheard of only a few short years ago. But everything is a balance and that should, presumably, come at the expense of climbing capability. Thing is, these new, relatively long and slack machines don't seem all that fussed by some tricky uphill singletrack, handling nothing like you'd expect given what the geometry chart says.
Just another dozen attempts to go...
Good thing this version of the Impossible Climb is the most heinous yet then. Its shiny roots were about the same diameter as your bicep, and the loose rocks offered the same purchase as a few thousand wet marbles, all of which were laid out over a steep, 200-foot wall. The climb might be new but the same rules apply: Each bike gets a couple tries to set a high mark, and they're all wearing matching tires set to identical pressures. The enduro bikes got Maxxis' Assegai and DHR II tires, both with EXO+ casings (Double Down wasn't available in time), while the trail bikes all wore a Minion DHF and Dissector combo with the same casing and sticky compounds. Of course, all of the suspension was adjusted correctly as well.
It was a long day and two bikes set identical high marks by the end of it: Giant's Fox Live Valve equipped Trance X Advanced and Specialized's all-new Stumpjumper.
Previous Impossible Climbs
13 Bikes VS The Impossible Climb
8 Value Bikes VS the Impossible Climb, 1 Huge Upset
9 XC Bikes & the Grim Donut VS Impossible Climb
The 2020 Pinkbike Field Test was made possible with support from Dainese apparel & protection, Sierra Nevada refreshments, and Smith eyewear and helmets. Thanks also to Maxxis, Garmin, Freelap, and Toyota Pacific.
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Member since Oct 18, 2005
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Does Salsa just lack the cred to get a mention?
Seems to me like you’d get more of a spread among the bikes if the climb slowly escalated in difficulty instead of weeding out all but a few bikes immediately. Next time!
#BarneyGotRobbed
PHEW
The shorter, lighter bikes with soft fat tyres do best on such tech pinches.
2.35 to 2.5" tyres are just normal these days.
So at least, make sure you and your cameraman are doing this blindfolded with whatever bike is given to you the next time otherwise it´s no more than eminence based bro-science.
Honestly, hats off. This climb does look impossible, even once, let alone 20x. I guess it´s less of a hardware thing than a combination of practice vs. fatigue?
Reason being is the softer the compound the more susceptible it is to hardening when the temperature drops. For example: At anything below 3 degrees Celcius Maxxgrip is harder than Maxxterra and Ultrasoft is harder than soft.
The bikes handle exactly like the geometry chart says, the person interpreting the geometry chart is where the error lies, perhaps making assumptions of what certain adjustments do to handling without complete knowledge. Math isn't wrong....
On the first day of Christmas Mike Levy gave to me
an Impossible Climb Challenge
vimeo.com/494552824
Need to do it again with a camera person, Christmas Tree ornaments instead of beer cans, tinsel instead of tape, in my red lycra elf outfit, and a Linus and Lucy soundtrack
MERRY CHRISTMAS
I find technical climbs like this a little easier if I drop the seat a couple inches. To high and I feel like I can't get around it, too low and I don't feel like I have anything to "rest" on.
Looked like the nose of the saddle was hitting your lumbar area, that is what I try to avoid by dropping it a little.
I would never make this climb or even come close to as far as he got.
where is that climb?
"the average 60 year old Swede is fitter than the average 30 year old Canadian"?
so how about "a 60 year old BC XC rider can climb further than the average 30 year old EnduroBro"?
Looks like Bridle Path on Seymour.
Need to do it again with a camera person, Christmas Tree ornaments instead of beer cans, tinsel instead of tape, and in my red lycra elf outfit
MERRY CHRISTMAS
Down Country bikes for the win
Getting to the first hoppy hoppy step was hard because it is pin-bally, after that it could be done on a gravel bike, but probably not the Grim Donut.
The circle around the beer was hard too, without hopping
This was gold
the course can be doable on a cyclocross bike without hops
Good try anyway, KEEP AT IT and raise your torso more upright for balance, you have potential !
This would have been much better with more accuracy if they got Yoann Barrelli do the testing.