So what about the wheels? The Torrent is fitted out with properly wide plus bike rims. The same can be said for many other plus hardtails the Orbea Loki, Merida Big Trail, Specialized Fuse, Trek Stache and more. With a 130mm travel RockShox Yari fork and slack trail geometry, the Torrent is clearly designed to handle far more aggressive use. The frame weighs in at 2,180g that’s a 200-300g more than most alloy hardtails but they’re typically designed for XC racing. The cleverly designed chainstays provide plenty of tyre clearance too, even with 27.5x3.0 tyres. These figures accurately reflect modern trail bike geometry and there’s no compromise to fit in the wider wheels. Short 55mm stems feature across the board. In keeping with modern trends, the front end is quite long our large has a 442mm reach. Such a short back end adds agility while the slack 67-degree head angle helps to boost descending confidence. Whichever size you need, the chainstays will be really short just 425mm on our large bike and as short as 420mm on a small Torrent. It’s meant to keep the weight distribution and handling more relatively consistent across all frame sizes. Norco varies the chainstay length with the frame size-a concept they call Gravity Tune. This in turn allows for really short chainstays as the rear wheel can tuck in closer to the bottom bracket. Plus bikes typically run wider ‘boost’ spacing on the hubs/drivetrain to gain additional tyre clearance. The geometry on the Torrent is clearly aimed at trail riding, with a bias towards confident descending-it’s a common theme on many plus hardtails. With enhanced traction and a bit of added bounce, plus tyres can make the simple hardtail a more palatable option for trail riding. However it seems to have gained the strongest presence on rugged hardtails bikes like the Norco Torrent. Some manufacturers saw it as an option for the adventuring/touring market while others fitted the larger tyres to dual suspension bikes. When plus wheels and components appeared on the MTB landscape, nobody seemed sure how they were going to fit in.
FUSE BIKE VS STACHE 7 BIKE FREE
We’ll start with a detailed rundown on the ins and outs of each platform but feel free to skip to the end if you just want a simple conclusion. We rustled up two bikes that reflect modern thinking for fat and plus design, and then rode them in a wide range of situations both where you’d expect them to perform as well as beyond their comfort zones to gauge their versatility. Perhaps my fat loving mates would be right and a modern fatbike would perform so well on the trail that I’d consider using it beyond the niche applications that most people associate them with. Maybe a plus bike could handle the occasional beach/snow adventure whilst still offering a fun and engaging ride on the trail-this would make the N+1 purchase far easier to justify. So all this got me thinking which platform is more versatile? The idea of beach riding and off-track adventures seems attractive, but I can’t see myself doing it enough to justify the purchase of a fatbike. Plus bikes on the other hand are around the 2.8 to 3.0 mark. Proper fat bikes are generally accepted as having tyre widths from 3.8 inches and up, although 4.0 to 4.8 is the most common these days. Plus tyres split the difference between fully fat and your regular MTB widths. In the meantime we’ve also seen a whole new breed of mountain bike appear-the ‘plus bike’. I know of people using them as their go-to trail bike and others who race gravity enduro on them, so there seems to be some truth to it (or maybe they’re just masochists). You certainly see them popping up in a wide range of situations. I can clearly remember the amazing traction and flotation, as well as the excessive weight and poor handling when thrust into general mountain biking duties.įatbike fans constantly tell me that these balloon tyre beasts have evolved since then and now perform well across the board-I’m told they’re no longer just for sand and snow riding. My first taste of fatbikes came five years ago. I’ve long been curious about fatbikes and who hasn’t really? It’s almost comical when you first see a machine fitted with four or five-inch-wide rubber-you can’t help but want to ride it.
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