We are looking into the perfect mountain bike combo, a hardtail and a full suspension bike, that can exchange components and are able to complement each other. With all the current range of wheel sizes it is difficult to complement 2 bikes that don't share the same wheel size, and also having the same wheel size will make the 2 bikes share most of its capabilities so, in the end, making one of the bikes useless and forgotten in your garage.
Thanks to a new trend in tire size, the plus tires, wider tires between 2.6 and 3 inches, we talked about them in what are we expecting for the 2017 MTB brands lineup, we will be able to swap wheels between a 29er and a 27.5+ bike, also the two bikes should mount boosted wheels. We also want these bikes to mount some of the standards that are taking more ground and that seems that are what will make our bikes stay up to date for a few years.
Having a 29er will gives us a trail bike, one that can handle big routes, epic days, more XC oriented on the lighter hardtail, more capable on the full suspension. If we switch to the 27.5+ tires we will get a much gripier bike, a hardcore hardtail or a super capable full suspension. Choose your weapon or have them all with the definitive mountain bike combo!
Let's enumerate what are the requirements and what kind of bikes are we looking for:
- A hardtail or full suspension bike 29" or 27.5+ that mounts boosted wheels (110mm front, 148mm back) of course with a compatible fork between the two tire sizes
- Single chainring drivetrain with wide range cassette
- Of course, if we buy a 29er hardtail then we will look for a full suspension 27.5+ bike, to get 2 different wheelset or the other way around.
- A good move should be getting a lower specced bike (usually the hardtail) and one higher specced (usually the full suspension) so we can switch components and save some money, especially focusing in the suspension.
- In the Category B we include the cheapest bike that mets all requirements
- The Category A price is the price of a bike with an all-mountain specific fork, at least a Rockshox Yari or a Fox 34 Rhythm.
Hardtails
| Bike/Frame | Frame only | Cat B config | cat A config | Wheels | Travel (mm) |
| Dartmoor Primal Plus | ~300€ | 140* | |||
| Diamondback Mason Plus | $1400 | $2300 | 27,5+ | 120 | |
| Diamondback Rely Trail | $1400 | 27,5+ | 120 | ||
| Sonder Frontier | 230€/£199/$250 | 1011€/£879/$1100 | 27,5+/29 | Rigid/100 | |
| Specialized Fuse | 850 € | 4.000 € | 27,5+ | 120 | |
| Trek Stache | 1.800 € | 3.500 € | 29+ | 120 | |
| Cotic SolarisMax | £599 | 120* | |||
| Specialized Ruze | $1000 | $3100 | 100 | ||
| Kona Big Honzo | * | * | 27,5+ | 120 | |
| Norco Torrent | $449 | $1649 | 27,5+ | 140 | |
| Orbea Loki | 1.299 € | 1.999 € | 27,5+ | 120 | |
| Ragley Big Wig | 1889€/£1750 | 29 | 130 |
Full Suspension
| Bike/Frame | Frame only | Cat B config | Cat A config | Wheels | Travel (mm) |
| Radon Slide+ | 2.600 € | 27,5+ | 140 | ||
| Santa Cruz Hightower | 4130€/£3599/$3599 | 29 | 140 | ||
| Santa Cruz Hightower | 5100€/£4399/$4599 | 27,5+ | 150 | ||
| Specialized Rhyme | 2.799,90 € | 3.999,90 € | 27,5+ | 150 | |
| Vitus Escarpe | 3229,99€/£2636,99 | 29 | 150 |
Shown prices are the official prices in their respective websites, some prices may change and if you search a little may find it for quite less.
We will be updating this post in the upcoming days and weeks with the bikes that comply with the requirements exposed before, this is not an easy task as there are many brands out there, if you know of any model that meets our requirements let us know in the comments, through our contact page or on twitter.
Also any help, discount or lend bike from a brand, company or sponsor will be most welcome to test and review, which we compromise to do in a deep long term review.
Also keep track of this article for updates on our twitter account. Stay in touch and thanks in advance!
