TRACER 29 PRO: 5 STAR REVIEW
That’s right, our Tracer 29 Pro model Enduro bike has just scored a five star review with legendary UK mountain bike magazine MBUK as one of their ‘long-term’ test bikes. The concept is a simple one, each MBUK journalist has one long-term bike that they keep and ride for a whole year. They start off with a stock-standard bike, and then if they need to they make some component changes as the year goes on.
We were lucky enough to have MBUK/BikeRadar presenter and writer Will Soffe riding the Tracer 29 all year, and he loved it.
“As a do-it-all enduro or park bike, the Tracer is hard to beat. Pedaling better than a 170mm-travel bike has any right to, it’s light enough to take hills in its stride, feeling far more sprightly than the tough components might lead you to believe.” Will Soffe, MBUK
Will did make some change minimal changes to the bike, he visited J-Tech Suspension to dial in his forks and rear shock, added an Ochain (active spider) device, and ‘tricked it out with a few choice components’ like Pembree’s D2A pedals and VFS stem. You can read the full review HERE, but before you do have a read through of some quotes from the article that we’ve picked out:
“The Tracer 29 is a big-hitting monster-truck 29er enduro rig with 170mm of travel. This bike is built to take on the hardest terrain and pedal back to the top for another go.”
“As a do-it-all enduro or park bike, the Tracer is hard to beat. Pedaling better than a 170mm-travel bike has any right to, it’s light enough to take hills in its stride, feeling far more sprightly than the tough components might lead you to believe. Downhill, the supremely sorted rear-suspension curve and aggressive geometry make gravity-fed terrain a pleasure.”
“The Tracer 29 fills the cliched jack-of-all trades niche rather well; it's light enough to handle full days in the saddle and much more sprightly on the climbs than one might expect of a big enduro bike.”
“This bike has 170mm of travel and I used all of it on more than one occasion. Setting the suspension up with more than the recommended pressure and dropping the link-mounted flip chip into the ‘low’ setting makes this one amazing machine for tackling big bike-park terrain.”
“It handled the massive punishment from when I got it wrong on huge gap jumps without a hiccup.”
“It’s a beast on technical downhill terrain, too. Softening the suspension slightly and using the amazing Ochain, it feels like a lightweight and more nimble downhill bike, capable of matching bigger-travel and burlier bikes on all but the gnarliest DH race tracks.”
“Conquering big jumps has to be the highlight of my time with the Tracer. I ticked an item off my bucket list when I finally managed to ride Windhill Bike Park’s notorious double-black-diamond-graded Viagra Falls top-to-bottom, including some 50-foot jumps. I was speechless, for once.”
“The bike has also brought me success between the tapes. I competed in the famous downhill race at the Malverns Classic festival. Thanks to the Tracer, I managed to record the fastest time of the day – and when I crossed the line it was an incredible feeling.”
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