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XC and Trail - What's the difference?

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Fraz

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
Hi. I'm fairly new t othis MTB stuff and I'm looking to upgrade some bits but I don't get the difference between, let's say, an XC fork over a Trail fork or even an All Mountain :eekster:

Basically, what is the difference please, then I can assess what I ride / need.

I do mainly single track wooland trails, tree roots, some small rocks, wheelie puddles but no big drop-off's.

can someone please clear this up for me?

Thanks

ps sorry for the lame, dum-bass post - I'm easily confused :D
 
#2 ·
It's very simple and Universal, Not.

For the current hype, XC=4, trail=5, AM=6. It's a good start. My All Mountain bike 4 years ago was 4".

Within the travel you also have to consider the type of use as well as 4" travel forks also offers for 4X or Dirt jump. You also have some cross over like Maverick Duc32 6" travel fork that weight 3.8 lbs XCish.
 
#5 ·
Ricko said:
Here we go again....
Click to expand...
Yeah, but I'm pretty sure every time it's an honest question. :p

There's no difference. Get the fork with the amount of travel you need and the weight and price point you can stomach.

XC racing forks sometimes make some sacrifices to save weight.
 
#7 ·
Trail Ninja said:
I think mimi1885 has it about right.

Fraz, for your current style of riding, 4" should be enough. 5" is better and 6" is overkill..
Click to expand...
Not too mention there's

Aggressive XC
Performance Trail
Light weight AM

And Talas, TST, 2STep, RWD, Climb mode, and so on. All are design to maximized the amount of money they can extract from your wallet:D
 
#8 ·
Comes down to semantics and marketing. At one stage, DH forks were only 2 inches of travel, now they're 7 to 8 inches.

Oh other useless terminology to describe a bike based off travel include

- freeride / black diamond (usually big jumps off trails/large cliffs)
- Enduro (something rocky mountain was using 2 decades ago but since copied by other brands, essentially its like XC but more durable, basically what some brands call trail bikes today)
- Marathon XC (another rocky marketing term, originally applied to the ETSX model and later the Altitude models, what used to be called Enduro bikes)
- Super Cross Country (yet another rocky marketing term, used for the Slayer SXC models, other brands call this sort of thing All-Mountain)
- Slopestyle (an industry wide term now, similar to freeride bikes but meant for bike parks with prepared jumps and wall riding)
- Super-D (old school DH type riding, except with modern bikes... so... things you can actually pedal up a hill while racing a course that overall ends at a lower elevation than it started).

There is no hard and fast rules on wheel travel for any of those. Some slopestyle bikes have less wheel travel than top end weight-weenie XC bikes, even though they're catching air in dozens of feet of flight time.
 
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Discussion starter · #9 ·
YES, it is an honest question! :eekster: Sorry if it's been asked before, I searched but couldn't find the answer.

Thanks to everyone who gave me the info on the forks issue, though I really wanted a brief idea of just what XC, Trail and AM riding roughly consisted of, a bit like the great answer from DeeEight (Though he didn't mention XC, Trail and AM :D )

thanks

Fraz
 
#10 ·
Fraz said:
Thanks to everyone who gave me the info on the forks issue, though I really wanted a brief idea of just what XC, Trail and AM riding roughly consisted of, a bit like the great answer from DeeEight (Though he didn't mention XC, Trail and AM :D )
Click to expand...
A big chunk of my team (mostly cyclocross and XC racers) visited the "big bike" trail system during the summer when one of the members finished building up a long-travel hardtail and wanted to try it out. It was funny. Most of us were on XC race rigs, including some rigid singlespeeds, and it's a trail network consisting of DH runs linked by fire roads. We passed a lot of bigger, heavier riders on bigger, heavier bikes on the way up, but some of those guys were flying on the descents.

My area has a new skills park, with some flowlines and a lot of wooden structures. Rumor is that there's a lot fewer riders in that other trail network lately. Hasn't really effected how many riders are visiting the ones with more singletrack climbing and less developed descents.

XC/Trail vs. AM/FR/DH is really a matter of emphasis.
 
#12 ·
Fraz said:
YES, it is an honest question! :eekster: Sorry if it's been asked before, I searched but couldn't find the answer.

Thanks to everyone who gave me the info on the forks issue, though I really wanted a brief idea of just what XC, Trail and AM riding roughly consisted of, a bit like the great answer from DeeEight (Though he didn't mention XC, Trail and AM :D )

thanks

Fraz
Click to expand...
This does a pretty good job of explaining what the different types of bikes are , but doesn't explain the type of terrain you would normally ride them on.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_bike

I've always described myself as XC but it turns out I'm AM & FR on an XC bike.

I need a pigeon hole.
 
#15 ·
There's no meaningful, lasting difference, as others have pointed out. Put a classification in a continuum if terms de jour, and it can be interpreted like this:

If you start with XC Race on the left and Downhill on the right, as you move from left to right,

1. Travel will increase
2. Strength will increase
3. Weight will increase

For a given travel/strength, price will increase as weight decreases.

What should you get? Consider the travel your trails and preferences dictate. Then buy as light as you wish to pay.

Sounds like you'd be fine in the 3.5" to 5" range.
 
#17 ·
One aspect that hasn't been mentioned so far is that, while XC bikes are more likely to be inclined towards "performance at the end of expense of everything else" (including comfort, stability, etc.), and trail bikes are usually more forgiving and more targeted for use by "mere mortals" as a "general-use" mountain bike. For example, it would be odd to hear the adjective "plush" used for an XC model, whereas it is fairly common for trail bikes. In my mind, if you're worried about comfort and reduced fatigue on day-long rides, getting a trail bike would be a better decision. If your riding style is all about being hell bent on speed and little else, an XC bike may be the better option for you.

Other than that, I think the posters who explain that the distinct is less than crystal clear and is more of a continuum are spot on. The delineations based on suspension travel and weight are quite outdated by now (especially when you are including a wide price range in the context of the discussion).
 
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