Trail Bike Vs. Enduro Bike | Is More Suspension Travel Better?

Trail bikes and enduro bikes each offer the chance for thrills, spills and covering terrain fast. But what is the difference between them and which is best for you?

In this video, we explore the features of a Cotic FlareMax trail bike and an Intense Tracer 29 enduro bike and ride them back to back on the same tracks to see what each is good – and not so good – at.

We examine how much travel they have, how much they weigh and answer the important question: are YOU over-biked?

Which bike is your favourite? Let us know in the comments 👇

#MBUKmagazine #MTB #mbuk #mountainbike #mbuktech

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:17 How To Tell The Difference
01:17 Suspension
02:14 Wheel Size
02:50 Geometry
03:47 Weight
04:44 Wheels And Tyres
05:32 Climbing
06:02 Riding The Enduro Bike
08:31 Riding The Trail Bike
10:37 Which Is Best?
11:38 Outro

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[bikeradar]

Do you prefer a trail bike or an enduro bike?

[WhaJMc]

I ride a XC bike with 120mm travel front and rear. It's light, climbs well and handles all the terrain that I'm prepared to ride.

[superawesomefuntimego]

The answer here is to have both. 😁 I absolutely love my Enduro rig for 85% of the riding I do, but I do sometimes like to ride flatter and less demanding terrain, where it can still absolutely have a good time, but a shorter travel and more responsive trail bike is a better tool for that job. On those trails, I liken the Enduro to using a mallet to hammer small finish nails. Sure it can do it, but is a bit cumbersome and takes more effort. I actually just ordered a hardtail just for those 15% of trails, to hopefully unlock a different level of fun.

[thecount]

i used to have both. love short travel fully's, but as i age and feel the creaks in the joints more, the enduro bike is just more comfortable for the fun stuff and the bikes climb so good these days, it's not as much of a trade off as it used to be. more suspension is also more forgiving, no matter the speed you're going.

[benjy]

I went from a 150 rear 160 front enduro bike to a 120 rear 130 front trail bike, and I have much more fun on the short travel trail bike, even in bike parks, in fact I'll never go back to a big travel bike again.

[zacharypump]

Translation, anyone who actually needs the information in this video should get a trail bike :-)

[shafiqjan]

150 and 153 rear travel on my 2 favorite bikes is the sweet spot for me. I go for an extra inch just in case and it has come to be helpful... 👍🏼

[miindthegaap]

This is the best demonstration of the differences between the two I’ve seen. Trail bike for me I’m rarely on the gnarly stuff.

[abeautifulview]

The amount of people you see riding 160mm+ enduro E bikes, with a full face and body armour on an 'XC loop' in the Peak District is hilarious. I suppose what is extreme to one person is a cross country ride to another.

[joshuaallswang]

I would pick a trail bike every time. A Enduro bike would be overkill in most situations.

[petersilie]

It became clearer to me why I feel like my massive 180mm mullet Enduro feels like the perfekt do-it-all bike to me. We have almost no smooth parts on any of our trails. And lots of real rough technical climbs to match. A Trailbike just wouldn't be as much fun in our mountains.

[CCW]

I'm riding a LT trailbike (Occam LT) with heavier tires. Really like that for a lot of riding. Usually looking for slow riding uphill and faster/steeper downhill. I'm not super skilled or fast though, probably mediocre at best.

For XC kind of rides I'll take my 120mm fully. Which is also fun on less technical, but longer trail rides. If conditions require I'll just grab the trailbikes frontwheel with burly tire. Makes the 120mm XC bike awesome in handeling, steering and braking on steeper and wetter stuff.

[Bonky-wonky]

Being underbiked is a ton of fun and makes for good skills training. Being overbiked is just bland.

EDIT: when you already feel comfortable on the trail riding your appropriate bike.

[gainknowledgeandinsight]

Yeah! Just picked up a trek slash 7 (gen) 5 LAVA for 2699.0 - huge discount - direct on webpage. Cant wait to ride it. I also have the 9.8 XT top fuel - haven’t ridden it yet, either . 😝 I have a nonbranded from China that I’ve been using for the last 4 years and love it - it was the beast that taught me this amazing hobby - it was time to upgrade. I’ll use both of my new bikes (keeping the old too) - on different trails. Woot woot. Great video!!

[GregAspenson]

I feel good on my 130mm hardtail with 67.5 head tube angle. My trails are mostly all XC with long climbs and very little steep sections.

[Jpq]

The newest enduro bikes 29/29 pedals really well and forks with 38 chassis they just save yours hands in longer DH

[usernamefromhell]

140mm lightweight trail bike is where it's at. (specially lighter tires and wheels)

[michaelgoodwin]

If i wanna ride 180mm 29er full face body armour on my local xc runs then i bloody well will

[bencooper]

Damn straight I am and happy that I am.

[Vokunos]

*me looking at my rockrider st540v2 budget hardtail* "am i overbiked ?" well actually i am because i am a huge puss and mainly ride road and gravel because of that lmao. i want to get started with "actual" mountainbiking. i am going to the skatepark soon (it has some little dirt jumps too) to try to get over the fear of my wheels leaving the ground and steeper sections. but i dont think i am ever going beyond cross country levels of "gnarly" not because i dont think i am able to conquer my fears one day, but because i am more of an "long epic rides" "climbs" and "huge adventures" guy and not so much of an "adrenaline Downhiller" "big jump" "trickster" guy.