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 👇

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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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Trail bikes and uro bikes both offer the chance for Thrills spills and covering terrain fast but what’s the difference between them and which one is best for You trail bikes typically have between 130 and 150 mil travel front and rear and two 29in wheels in Jiro bikes on the other hand usually have over 160 mil of travel and are equipped with either a 20 7 1/2 in rear wheel or two 29in wheels why the difference though I’ll talk more

About the reasons why in a moment travel and wheel size are the easiest ways to spot whether you’re dealing with a trail bike or an urro bike to find out why that can be difficult let’s look at the similarities then dive into the differences before finally taking them

For a ride to see which is best both trail bikes and uro bikes feature full suspension dropper posts disc brakes one by Drive trains with large cassettes provision for bottle cages Riser bars short stems and roomy cockpits so there’s lots of similarities right well let’s look at the differences

To see what sets these bikes apart they might give you a clue as to which one will suit you the Best as I’ve already mentioned the amount of travel on offer is one of the most significant differentiators between trail bikes and injo bikes trail bikes have around 100 130 M of travel front and rear although more aggressive trail bikes may have a longer travel Fork up front this helps slacken the bike’s head

Angle and offers more grip up front whilst allowing them to carry speed on smoother terrain where the movement of suspension especially on the rear can rob momentum injo bikes usually have 160 mil of travel or more with 160 mil being The Benchmark and aggressive injo bikes

Offering up to a whopping 190 mil of travel this is great for taking on the big hits of Enduro courses and keeping traction on rough terrains however the extra leverage of the suspension systems comes at a price and the price is weight the extra metal needed adds mass and the

Higher leverage on the longer components mean they need to be built beefier trail bikes are usually equipped with 29in wheels they roll faster than smaller wheels and offer the potential for more traction because of their larger contact patch however a smaller rear wheel can offer some advantages like extra maneuverability and clearance

For your backside modern injo bikes have a 29in wheel up front just like the trail bike but are often available as either a mullet with a 27 1/2 in rear wheel on the back or as a full 29er bikes like this intense tracer along with others are available with either

Setup according to Rider preference inero geometry has been becoming more aggressive every year with some head angles even slacker than modern downhill bikes take this intense tracer 29 has a super slack 63.7 de head angle which is perfect for Steep descents whereas this large siiz CTIC

Flare Max trail bike has a steeper 65° head angle both bikes have a similar size cockpit with 480 mil reach on the injo bike and the trail bike just 10 mil longer but the trail bike’s geometry is much more conservative than that of the injo bike why is this well injo bikes

Need to respond to extreme terrain big and high speed hence the extreme geometry trail bikes however are designed to Excel on less technical terrain so less radical geometry allows trail bikes to feel more intuitive and playful to ride if you want to find out more about whether the mountain bikes

Have reached Peak geometry hit the link here modern trail bikes are marvels of engineering using exotic materials like carbon and clever design to minimize weight and make light responsive and fast accelerating Trail machines not to be outdone inero bikes are also as light as they can possibly be and use the same

Exotic materials and clever designers however inero bikes are heavier than trail bikes as they have to be strong enough to cope with the demands of modern urro tracks on top of the need for strength is the necessity to carry around more travel than trail bikes this necessitates heavier suspension

Components to deal with the increased loads and longer stroke you can expect a trail bike to weigh in at around the 30 lb Mark with injo bikes coming in at a couple of pound heavier around 32 lb these are just rough estimates and with both disciplines the more you spend the

Lighter the bike will Be uro tracks cover some of the harshest terrain found in all of mountain biking with modern courses often looking more like downhill tracks but with added pedaling and punctures can ruin races well they can ruin your trail ride too but at least there’s the opportunity to

Stick in a plug or use a canister to reinl tires at the side of the trail and you’re not against the clock with these facts in mind manufacturers making jro tires with tougher casings which are heavier than typical trail tires trail bikes therefore accelerate decelerate and turn faster than injo bikes thanks

To the lighter tires injo bikes also have tougher Wheels than trail bikes to shrug off big hits but this comes with a weight penalty Trail wheels are therefore lighter than inero Wheels the steeper angles low weight and 29in wheels mean trail bikes are quick on the climbs flying up faster than the

Equivalent in Juro bikes with their extra travel extra weight and more aggressive descent focused angles modern inero bikes are certainly no slouches and will happily win you to the top of the steepest gradients thanks to their large cassettes and steep seat angles but even with this a trail bike has them

Beat let’s go and take both bikes on a descent and then a climb to see what the differences are when riding okay so here we are on a typical uro truck black R Trail and uh the uro bike as expected do really stable in these rough tight turns yeah it’s it’s

Good under breaking back wheel track as well super smooth so the long travel is eating up the bumps and the slack angles are making it feel really stable at speed on a faster rolling section of track here uh the speed’s a little higher it’s a little flatter it feels a

Little bit more laborious to move around with the big travel perhaps there more hard work to pump as well so it feels really stable in the corners but a little bit less responsive to my inputs and yeah it’s just bit less inspiring we having to put in more pedals to go the

Same speed as I would on a short travel bike it’s not as entertaining I’m not able to whip it around the way I would be a short travel bike the extra weight of the the wheels and tires is really noticeable on these flatter turns where you just want a pump and carry good

Speed oh it’s nice on these rough bits though I know these are tough Wheels I got tough tires so I can just hit these Rocky edges with no worries yeah great on the rough stuff carries good momentum okay so I’ve popped my dropper up and about to tackle the climb the

Steep seat angle on the inero bike keeps my weight nice and far forward but it doesn’t feel that sprightly I can feel the front suspension the fork with it 170 m a travel moving around it’s a little wandery with the slack head angle it doesn’t quite respond at these slow

Speeds of the climb so although it feels stable taking a bit more of my concentration to keep online than it would on a short travel trail bike the heavier wheels and tires on the inura bike are noticeable of every pedal stroke up the steeper parts of the climb

This is uh it’s hard work this okay so here we are black graded Trail on trail bike and straight away I can feel how fast it accelerates it’s super quick picking up speed light light wheels but oh my gosh rough on the h i doesn’t want to slow down in the

Brakes even though the black wheels skipping around all over the shop this suspension is really good there’s just not much of it it’s really easy to move around with the Steep angles but oh it’s just a bit Twitchy oh my God okay so now taking the trail bike on a faster flatter section

So I can feel already that the lighter tires and the Steep head angle combined with the shorter travel really just make the bike float around skip around woo KS up speed like nothing else this is awesome so yeah all those things that made it feel skittish on the rough

Track are translated into making it feel Poppy and fun and entertaining the Steep head angle and the short travel me is super easy to just move it around and just feels faster and more engaging when the Enduro bik at times we’re starting to feel lethargic so so now it’s time to see how

The trail bike copes with a climb so already the the lightweight of the bike makes it feel less laborious at this climb I’ve got it on lock out just like I did with the inero bike and I can feel a lot of my energy going into driving me forward this deeper 65° head

Angle means the bike’s really easy to move around if I want to change my line so climbing on the trail bike really is a pleasure it’s that much easier to just float up the climb feeling like you’re putting in less effort for covering more Ground well that was awesome fun two top bikes and two top Trails but which is best in conclusion then whether you need a trail bike or an urro bike all depends on the kind of riding you like to do if you only ride rough injo tracks once in

A blue moon and spend the majority of your time on flatter tracks or at the trail Center get a trail bike and equally if you’re a Gnar and J Rider don’t get seduced by the lightweight of a trail bike it will be faster on the climbs but the descents will be better

Tackled on something tougher with more travel and aggressive angles like a full-on uro bike and be honest with yourself whilst riding an uro bike can help you unlock Black graded trails having a Nala bike isn’t going to make you a better Rider being over biked on

An inero rig with too much travel for your needs isn’t going to be much fun as ever if you enjoyed this video click the like button and subscribe for more if you want to find out whether an injo bike can keep up with a downhill bike click the link Here now what more coffee