In a marketing landscape that’s dominated by pricey carbon fibre wunder-bikes and hyper-long geometry sleds, the humble hardtail regularly misses out on a lot of the media attention. Which is a shame really, because we like hardtails. As we’ve rediscovered during this group test, today’s hardtail is far, far more capable than those that have preceded it.
Modern technologies have certainly taken the hardtail’s performance a long way. Bigger wheels, fatter tyres, dropper posts, and stiffer forks have all played their part. But without doubt, it’s the new-school frame geometry that has upped the ride quality stakes and enhanced the speed capabilities of each one of these bikes we’ve tested.