All

Reviewed by Matt Thompson and Jess Pedersen // Written by Brandon Turman // Photos by Shawn Spomer and Brandon Turman As of 2013, the enduro bug is officially upon us. To create a bike that excels at the discipline, one that's capable of killing it on the descents and hoofing it back to the top in record time, GT took their 2012 Force and Sanction platforms, mashed them together and tweaked the result to meet the enduro racer's needs. In this case, those were the needs of Dan Atherton and the recently signed young gun, Martin Maes, both of which...

Reviewed by Matt Thomson and Jess Pedersen // Written by Brandon Turman // Photos by Shawn Spomer and Brandon Turman The BMC Trailfox is a 150mm travel all-mountain rig that BMC lovingly refers to as the "Swiss Army Knife" of their lineup. Much like that beloved pocket knife, the Trailfox was designed to come in handy for a variety of uses. The do-it-all bike is something many companies try to achieve, but few actually succeed. When Switzerland-based BMC set out to make the Trailfox, that's exactly what they had in mind, but did they pull it off? We invited the...

Reviewed by Steve Wentz, Joe Schneider, and Brandon Turman // Photos by Shawn Spomer and Brandon Turman For 2013, Norco has eliminated the 26-inch version of the Range in favor of a new 650B "Killer B" version. Yes, you read that right, another victim of the big wheel. They didn't do it to spite the 26-inch lovers among us, though. The reasoning behind the switch, according to Norco, was simply in the pursuit of making the best all-mountain bike. In their eyes the way to do that just happened to be with the 650B wheel size, so they rolled with...

Reviewed by Matt Thompson and Jess Pedersen // Written by Brandon Turman // Photos by Shawn Spomer and Brandon Turman When Commencal first reintroduced the Meta range in 2011, they did so with the aggressive rider in mind. Slack head angles, low bottom brackets, roomier top tubes and a fresh suspension linkage system made the bikes stand out. One year later Commencal pushed things even further down the aggressive path with the Meta SX. Now for 2013, they've refined the bike's parts list once more, making it ready to tackle the gnarliest of descents right out of the box. In...

Review by Sean “Griz” McClendon // Photos by Brandon Turman Manitou has been in the mountain bike suspension game for over 20-years. During the last decade, Hayes Bicycle Group (now Hayes Components) acquired Manitou, and in 2010, under new ownership, Manitou launched a completely redesigned version of the Dorado. Boasting larger stanchions, an improved chassis, new internals, and a new air system, the latest design has improved across the board. When first reintroduced, the 2010 Dorado was only available in the uber expensive carbon variety. Later in the year they released an aluminum Dorado Pro version at $1600. Now for...

Forget the new piece. How good is that shot! Not to mention I would love to ride that trail—mindsurfing the heck out of it right meow!

Completely different.... Carbon unicycle. With a handlebar.

Reviewed by Matt Thompson and Jess Pedersen // Written by Brandon Turman // Photos by Shawn Spomer Born and bred in the USA - these aren't words we can often write about bikes, which is why it was a real pleasure to hop on the latest version of the popular Tracer platform from Intense Cycles. Already available in both 26 and 29-inch versions, the Tracer 275 aims to gain the "best of both worlds" by utilizing the in-between 650B wheel size. Rather than simply slapping some slightly modified dropouts on the bike and calling it good, Intense went back to...

Reviewed by Steve Wentz, Joe Schneider, and Brandon Turman // Photos by Shawn Spomer and Brandon Turman The all-new, all-carbon, 650B wheel equipped 2013 Rocky Mountain Altitude came to life just a few months ago, making it a perfect candidate for Vital MTB's Test Sessions in Southern Utah. This 150mm travel rig is Rocky's flagship trail bike, designed with the goal of getting the job done well regardless of the terrain. From the first minute of the Altitude’s design process, Rocky says there was never any doubt that they would build it around 650B wheels, citing limitations of both 26-inch...