Test / Leaderboard: The season is about to start and after our aero racing bikes, we have the second complete bike leaderboard of the year for you in good time with the mild temperatures - this time it's the mountain bikes' turn. We looked at 10 all-mountain bikes with 29-inch wheels and are looking for the best off-road all-rounder of the year.
All mountain bikes were once the undisputed shooting stars of the mountain bike market. Universal all-rounders with no real weaknesses, bikes that can do everything from a weekend tour to an Alpine crossing to the occasional trip on enduro trails. In the course of the latest MTB trends - first the enduro boom a few years ago, then the trail bikes, which are still in the headlines of the specialist press - the All Mountains moved somewhat into the background. Wrongly so, in our opinion and as is currently evident in the manufacturers' portfolios: While the word All Mountain was hardly to be read there until last season, almost every major manufacturer has such a bike in its range again for 2019. The reasons for the all-mountain revival are actually quite obvious: while the latest trend mountain bikes all tend towards descents and thus become more potent on the trail, they often lose their suitability for touring and are often only able to cope with long climbs with difficulty to move above.
Enduro, trail bike, all mountain, touring fully - there are now many designations and categories for powerful fullys, not every manufacturer uses the terms in the same way, everyone understands something different. It was all the more difficult for us to put together a homogeneous test field in which comparable bikes should ultimately cavort. At the beginning there were only two key data:
Wheel size 29 inches: We consider the big wheels for all-mountain all-rounders to be much more suitable than the small 650b counterparts. Better rollover behavior, smoother running and overall better propulsion are arguments enough. The fact that some of the liveliness or agility may be lost does not matter too much.
Suspension travel up to a maximum of 150mm: While spring travel used to be the distinguishing criterion for different areas of use, this has now changed somewhat. Different kinematics, rear triangle systems and dampers influence the characteristics of a bike more than the sheer amount of suspension travel ever could. Nevertheless, we set a maximum of 150mm for the rear end - from 160mm you are usually moving clearly in enduro areas.
Apart from that, we were looking for bikes that fully do justice to the universal character of the All Mountain: Not just touring bikes, but also not shooting machines. In terms of price, we kept the upper limit open, which is also evident in the test field: one or the other bike is scratching the 10.000 euro mark.
Without further ado, here's the list of the best. This will grow steadily over the coming days and provide an overview of the test field:
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