Green Bike

Plus tires, bikepacking, aggro XC and more

What are this year s trends in mountain biking — What are this year's trends in mountain biking?
(BikeRadar)

Add one more "plus-sized" option to the roster: 26+ is now a thing

Jamis has designed several of its women's hardtails around the 26+ platform

Salsa's Woodsmoke "buys" clearance by elevating the drive-side chainstay

Even Yeti Cycles has resorted to elevated chainstays in order to tuck the rear wheel in tight on the new SB5+

Everything you need for a weekend in the woods

Even bigs name such as Giant are entering the bikepacking market

The big names are muscling their way into the bikepacking category, but the little guys still lead the way in innovation. Case in point: Porcelain Rocket's dropper compatible seat bag

This Ghost HAMR X ticks off every conceivable box in the adventure category: plus tires, frame bags, gearbox...

Renthal is using telemetry sensors to analyze handlebar flex under real-world conditions

The Shockwiz system was acquired by SRAM this summer and promises better suspension set-up through science

The new Rocky Mountain Element is burlier than your average XC rig

The redesigned Spark has geometry that skirts trail bike dimensions

Now that this year’s tradeshows are over, we have a pretty clear picture of where the cycling industry is taking us. From Sea Otter, Eurobike, Interbike and dozens of product launches along the way, here’s my take on where mountain biking is heading.

1. Plus rolls onward

Two years ago fat bikes crowded the tradeshow halls, but their time has come and gone. While their heyday may have passed, their influence on the market remains — many mountain bikers now have a taste for fatter, if not fully fat, tires.

Plus bikes in various diameters have grown in popularity this year. Nearly every company has a 27.5+ hardtail in its line, many also have 27.5+ full suspension as well.
The mid-sized 27.5+ platform owes its widespread acceptance to the fact that the size often fits nicely into 29er frames and forks. Companies can offer one model with two wheelsizes. Santa Cruz has capitalized on this by offering the Hightower and Tallboy in 29er and 27.5+ versions.

In a similar fashion, 26x3in tires can be squeezed into many frames designed around 27.5in wheels.This smaller plus size is still pretty niche, at least for now. Although it seems to be gaining ground.
Jamis has a line of women’s hardtails designed around 26+ and Rocky Mountain teased the fact that its new enduro bike, the Slayer, is compatible with 26x3in wheels and tires.

2. Elevated chainstays — function over form

This trend is a direct result of trying to shoehorn plus-sized tires into frames while keeping the chainstay length in check.
Trek’s 29+ hardtail, the Stache, started this trend a few years ago. While it might look like the reasons for the design are quite different, many early mountain bikes resorted to this design because the drivetrains at the time were prone to chainsuck. Moving the chainstay out of the way was a Band-Aid fix for the issue, but it worked.
The motivation behind today’s elevated chainstay designs is different. It’s all about packaging. The chainstays, chainring and rear tire are all vying for space. It’s like there’s a land grab going on just behind your bottom bracket!

Cosmetically speaking, Salsa’s Woodsmoke may not be the belle of the ball, but this quirky hardtail can accommodate 29+, 27.5+ and standard 29er rubber thanks to interchangeable dropouts and an elevated chainstay design that keeps the rear respectably short.
Yeti Cycles followed suit with a similar design for the new SB5+. This 27.5+ full suspension also uses elevated stays to gain clearance without resorting to the rangy chainstays.

3. All “adventure” all the time

“Adventure” is the buzzword of the year. This trend may go hand in hand with the growth of plus bikes, but is certainly not limited to them. “Have bags will travel” seems to be the industry mantra at the moment.

Even big names such as Giant are entering the bikepacking market

Until this year, custom bag makers dominated the bikepacking market. But not wanting to miss out on the action, larger bike companies are now developing bags that are purpose-built for their models. Specialized introduced a line for the new Sequoia touring bike and Giant has developed the Scout line of bikepacking bags to fit its frames.

My personal favorite new product in this category is Porcelain Rocket’s dropper-compatible seat bag.

4. Big data comes to mountain biking

Data acquisition is becoming a much more significant part of the development process for many companies.
Renthal is developing a GPS telemetry-based system to measure flex in its handlebars. The goal is to take testing out of the lab and into the real-world in order to design handlebars that are strong without being too harsh — a problem many riders have encountered with 35mm diameter handlebars.

Another key advancement in real-world data wrangling is the advent of suspension set-up technologies. SRAM acquired Shockwiz earlier this year and rolled into the Quarq family of data acquisition products.
When installed, this handy little device transmits information about your suspension’s performance to a smartphone-based app, allowing the rider to make more educated suspension adjustments.

5. XC goes aggro

Last and certainly not least on this list of this year’s mountain bike trends is the progression toward longer, slacker, more capable cross-country race bikes. Yes, all mountain bikes in general are getting this treatment, but this is where it really makes a difference.
If you’ve watched a world cup cross-country race recently, or observed the carnage on the Olympic mountain bike course in Rio, you understand that cross-country racing has become a lot more technically demanding.
Weight and speed still matter, but steeper, more challenging courses have called for a new breed of race bike. One, coincidentally, that’s also more fun to ride on your local trails.

Take for example Rocky Mountain’s revamped Element. This 29er race bike sports 100mm in the back, but boasts 120mm upfront supplied by Fox 34 or RockShox Pike, depending on the build. Best of all, it also comes with a dropper seatpost.
The new Scott Spark is another example of a cross-country race bike that blurs the line between trail and XC. It comes in versions with 29 and 27.5in wheels, the latter sports 120mm of front and rear suspension.

Even the 29in version, which still has the category standard 100mm of front and rear suspension, is refreshingly slack, with a 68.5-degree head angle to inspire confidence during steep descents.
So is this a new genre of mountain bike in need of a catchy name? Are these race-able trail bikes, or aggressive XC machines, and does it even matter? Not really. What’s important is that lines between cross-country and trail bikes continue to blur, and for most weekend warriors this is a very good thing.

What to look for, and how we test them

Our testers go out in all weathers to test the latest lights to their limits
(Russell Burton / BikeRadar)

Pair a helmet spot with a bar-mounted flood and you'll generally have the best of both worlds

Invest in a decent set of lights and you can continue riding throughout the winter

Product reviewer Guy Kesteven tests run times and cooling

Light output is calculated using a lux calibrated industrial light meter placed 5m from the lamp in a blacked out workshop

Light output is measured in lumens. This is usually a theoretical best though, and often doesn’t account for lens design or beam spread, which are highly important in how much useful light is kicked onto the trail

The world of bike lighting technology is packed with jargon and it can be hard to figure out exactly what you need without spending a fortune. Luckily, we're here to help find the best mountain bike lights for you.

To cut to the basics, the only requirement for mountain biking in the dark is some kind of illumination. Even a basic commuting light can stand in, but you’ll quickly discover that riding can get sketchy very quickly without enough power to light the trail in front of you.

How bright is right?

The temptation is — naturally — to get as much power as possible. And power is good, but there’s much more to the story. If you tend to cruise climbs and cane the descents, you want max power for the sketchy bits. You can then toggle right back to save battery power as you trundle back up. If you’re more into mixed trail riding, you need good lights all the time and battery life is more important.

You may have a 1,500-lumen light, but if the battery means you can only run it at 50 percent power for a fast cross-country/trail ride, it’s less bright than a ‘weaker’ 1,000-lumen unit you can run at 100 percent. Given that battery life fades over time, having the extra capacity means you’ll get more years use from your light.
It’s also possible to have too much power — particularly in wet or foggy conditions, where bounce-back and glare mean you see less than with a less powerful unit. Riders with brighter lights behind you can throw your shadow down the trail, blotting it out.
In general, there’s little that will make you wish you had more power than a good average light produces. You’ll find you adjust to whatever you have and that riders who are faster in daylight are still faster at night, regardless of what lights they have.
Overall, you need to pick a unit that suits your riding and your wallet based on the information we’re providing here.

What to consider when buying mountain bike lights

Fit: The first thing to check when buying is that the light and battery (if it’s external) actually fit on your bike — this is especially important if you’ve got one of the latest 35mm diameter handlebars or a compact, curvy, carbon fibre frame. It needs to be mounted securely too — a great lamp is no use if you can't fit it to your bar (or helmet), or if it just wobbles and points the wrong way when you do. A weak or loose bracket that suddenly twists or shakes loose on a rocky descent is a recipe for disaster, and a badly placed helmet light will drag your lid down or wring your neck. Also make sure you can position the light where you want it, and that it'll do the job. Check that bigger lights will actually fit on the curve of your handlebar without sitting at a crazy angle.
Power: The next obvious criterion is power. Firstly though, you need to realise that ‘theoretical’ lumen counts, based on LED power and battery charge in perfect conditions with no heat issues or circuitry to reduce efficiency, are sometimes 30 to 40 percent higher than the actual real-world ‘measured’ lumen output of a light.
Beam type: Power isn’t any use in the wrong place either, so decide whether you want a narrow spot beam for straight and fast riding or helmet use, a wider beam for slower, more technical terrain, or a balance of both — which is likely to be more expensive. If you ride really technical, twisty trails then a cheaper bar light and head light might give better overall illumination than a single more expensive light.
Battery life: You then need a battery that gives enough run time to cope with your longest rides, plus a bit extra for emergencies or when the battery gets old or cold. If you’re likely to be pushing its limits, check it has a battery indicator for rationing power, rather than relying on an emergency alert — these often come on way too late, and being able to check remaining run time is often nearly as important as actual battery life. Being able to run full power on descents or stop to fix a mechanical without worrying about getting stuck in the dark is vital. Sub-zero temperature can also sap battery life dramatically so buy a bigger battery if you like proper winter epics.
Controls: Ask yourself whether you want the convenience of a remote switch or the ability to tune power output, and are willing to pay extra for those features.
Separate lights or all-in-one units? Several other manufactures are now following UK pioneers Exposure down the all-in-one route rather than using a separate battery and light. Mounting is easier and the whole set up much tidier, but larger capacity all-in-one lights aren’t helmet-compatible. They’re also less upgradeable in the long-term than the most versatile modular systems.
Reliability: Mixing delicate electronics, extreme operating temperatures, powerful batteries, mud, rain and regular crashes isn't easy. Yet reliability is absolutely vital, because light failure at speed on technical terrain is no joke. The great news is that most lights available now are reassuringly reliable. If something does go wrong though, a well-established company is generally a lot easier and quicker to deal with than a foreign internet seller.

Features of a mountain bike light

Lamp body (head unit): This houses the LEDs, the lens in front, the reflectors behind, the circuitry that makes it all work and the fins or ribs that radiate away as much heat as possible.
LEDs: Most lights now use LEDs (light emitting diodes), because they produce more light for less power than a conventional bulb and are far less fragile than HID lamps. Technological advances mean performance has leapt forward in the past few years and each new season brings significant upgrades.
Optics: The reflector and lens in front affect how the light is thrown down the trail. Focused spot beams are great for seeing a long way for a given output; wide flood beams give good peripheral vision.
Mount/bracket: How you attach the light to your bike. Most mounts use clips and spacers but O-rings are a great simple solution. If you are thinking of using a helmet mounted light, you need a lamp that’s light enough to be comfortable and secure on your lid, rather than a neck snapper. You’ll need an extension cable and helmet mount too, so check if that’s included or an optional extra.
Battery: The bit that powers the light. Lighter, tougher, far more random charge resistant lithium ion (Li-Ion) chargeable batteries have revolutionised mountain bike lighting compared with older lead acid and NiMH batteries — but battery and lamp efficiencies still vary dramatically. Most brands sell extra batteries (often at a discount if bought with the light) so you can always swap halfway. Check your batteries are properly prepared for maximum performance (this should be in the instructions) and take a back-up until you know you can rely on their run times.
Switchgear: The switch not only turns the light on, but also lets you change power output levels. It needs to be easy to operate while riding, even with gloves on, but hard to operate accidentally. Many lights now use backlit switches that double as mode and/or run time indicators using traffic-light-style colour changes. Switchgears now range from a simple push button sequential mode switch with low battery warning light to wireless bar-mounted units or switches that can also change the different output levels and menus.
Charger: The most easily forgotten part of the lights package. Chargers range from USB leads to a plug with a lead on that lights up green when it’s done, to LCD-screened smart chargers or even battery docking stations that let you change lighting options via your PC. Car chargers are great for 24-hour races. Most chargers now use smart circuits for a fast initial charge that slows to a trickle so they don’t damage the battery, but actual charging speeds can vary quite dramatically. This can be important if you’re the sort of rider who forgets their battery is flat until an hour before a ride.
Leads: There are increasing numbers of all-in-one light systems, but most sets still use a head unit attached to the battery by a lead. Leads are often overlooked but vital to overall reliability. You want secure connectors that don't fall out and joining sections that won't let water or muck in and are long enough to fit your bike. Every joint wastes power, so it makes sense to keep things simple.

Head or bars

Most lights come with both bar and helmet mounting options. Which is better comes down to personal preference, but here are the pros and cons of each.

Helmet

Pro: Light shines where you’re looking
Con: Flattens out visible trail features, reduces depth perception
Con: Can be knocked off by low trees

Bar

Pro: Easy to see indicators and operate switches
Con: Light only goes where your bars are pointed
Con: Drops backside of crests and lumps into shade, so you can’t judge obstacle size

The result — it’s a draw! In reality the best solution is to use helmet and bar-mounted lights, even if you have to buy lower powered units to afford both. It also means you have a backup should one battery die.

Jargon buster

Amp-hour — A measurement of battery capacity. The bigger the capacity, the longer your lights will run. You need to divide this value by the amperage the light operates at in order to get the theoretical run time
Bag — A cloth pack that holds the battery onto the bike's frame
Bar mount — Light bracket that fits around oversize (31.8mm) and/or older 1in (25.4mm) diameter handlebars
Battery cell — The single units that wire together to create a battery pack
Bottle — Plastic water bottle converted to hold a large capacity battery
Candlepower — Unit of light measurement
Cell — Individual unit within a larger battery block. Most mountain bike light batteries are twin or quad cell units
Colour temperature — Colour of the light. The more blue-white, the ‘colder’ the colour; the more yellow, the ‘warmer'
Cree — Leading LED manufacturer
Flood — Head unit designed specifically to spread light over a wide area
GoPro mount — Double-D and thumbscrew set up used on GoPro’s helmet cameras
Halo — A distinctive ring in the pattern of the beam
Halogen — Best of the conventional bulb types. Cheap and easy to replace, but power-hungry so needs big, heavy batteries. Most manufacturers now use LEDs instead
Helmet mount — Bracket that lets you fit the light on your lid
HID (high intensity discharge) — A metal halide lamp that uses a tiny but extremely bright striplight bulb that only draws 10W but produces more light than a 40W halogen bulb. Gives that distinctive blue/white alien light of BMW headlamps. Most manufacturers now use LEDs instead
Jack — Connector plug on the lead
Jubilee clip — Fastener that uses a band tightened with a screw-driven gear wheel
LED — Light emitting diode. A solid state semi-conductor that glows brightly when a current is passed through it. The 'bulb' choice of most manufacturers
Lead — Cable that connects the head unit and battery. Extra long extension units are available for use with helmet mounts
Lens — The screen over the LED and reflector that protects them and can also be used to modify the beam
Life indicator — Traffic light style colour change display that indicates the remaining charge in a battery
Li-ion — Lithium ion. The most expensive but lightest, most efficient battery available. Also the easiest to look after in terms of charging/ recharging and therefore a very good thing
Lumen — Often quoted measure of the theoretical power of a light. Thermal issues and management circuitry normally make it an optimistic guide at best, though. With no standard way to measure it for bike lights, most figures can't be usefully compared
Lux — Lumens per square metre. The real light output figure that we generally use in our comparative lab tests
NiMH — Nickel metal hydride. Cheaper battery type that's reasonably robust in a charge/recharge sense but heavier and bulkier than a Li-ion for the same capacity
O-ring — Thick rubber band used in some handlebar mounts
Peripheral — The outward edges of the field of vision. Useful for seeing movement in low light
QR — Quick release mechanism
Reach — The distance down the trail that the light illuminates
Reflector — The shaped reflective surface behind the LED that concentrates and reflects the beam of light
Seoul — LED manufacturer
Smart charger — Charger that senses how full/empty the battery is and adjusts its efforts accordingly rather than burning down your house
Spot — Head unit designed to focus light in a narrow, long reaching beam
Throw — How far a light's beam can reach in front of it
USB — Universal serial bus. Standard connector for computers
Voltage — The power level the battery releases its energy at
Watt — A measurement of power. You'll often see bike light outputs quoted as 'equivalent to a 20W halogen bulb' for example

How we test mountain bike lights

Being stuck on a wet winter’s night, miles from anywhere with a failed light or everything suddenly going pitch black halfway down a technical descent is a really serious matter. That’s why we take our lights testing extremely seriously.
For all the calibrated data on max power run times, lux ratings, light spreads and ranges we can get in the workshop, what really matters is the test feedback we get on the trails: which brackets continually loosen or which leads fall out; which batteries bounce about, scratch paint or are a right pain to fit on different bikes; which drown in downpours.
There’s no substitute for time on trail in all weathers to find out this crucial stuff — and we’re not just talking about lights used in the past few months. We also reference the sets we’ve run long-term to get in-depth, worst case use feedback that’s directly relevant to the riding you do.

The science side

As is often the case with mountain biking, the scientific part of the testing is the easiest bit. Lights (lamp body plus handlebar bracket) and batteries are weighed on our scales.
We then measure the useful maximum power run time (to when the output fades and low battery warning lights come on) with pre-conditioned (used and recharged) batteries in the highest power setting on an air cooled rig to mimic the cooling effect of riding at night. We also measure the maximum casing heat of the lights with a thermal probe to see if any get dangerously hot.
Light output is calculated using a lux (a measurement of one lumen per square metre) calibrated industrial light meter placed 5m from the lamp in a blacked out workshop. (If the light has more than one beam or head unit we measure both separately and their combined output.)
This method does favour spot beams over flood beams, but it’s still a more trail translatable measurement than the lumen potential of LEDs. The coverage, density and other specific characteristics of the beam are often more important than the peak brightness though, so we also take beam photos to make it easier to compare the lights.

The practical side

It’s the feedback we get from real world usage that really sorts out often very similar lamps in terms of trail performance. When it comes to our test conditions we’re talking serious sorties, often two or three times a week all year round in every trail condition imaginable. Baked hard river bed runs that’ll shake a poor bracket or fragile circuit board apart in seconds or leave a badly bagged battery hanging by its lead; sub-zero tundra trudges that freeze a battery to horribly low maximum power run times; drownings in downpours and hip-deep bog crashes.
Most of our lights have seen it all and, if the most recent versions have only been hammered through summer, we’ve certainly put the models preceding them through the most testing ride schedule possible. Repeated group riding, bike switching, recharging and battery flattening gives us the perfect comparative testing cluster too, so any failures or fading is immediately obvious rather than going unnoticed in isolation.
In other words, if a light scores well, you know it’s gone through some proper optical and electrical purgatory to prove itself. For that reason, for all of our latest lights testing we’ve deliberately stuck with established (at least a year old) lights manufacturers to ensure anything we recommend is a fully supported product.