XC vs Trail

Jamieg285
Jamieg285 Posts: 98
edited March 2016 in MTB beginners
Very basic question (tin hat on), that I've not seen answered anywhere yet.

What's the difference between XC and Trail, and how do bikes suitable for each differ?
«13

Comments

  • TrailGuru
    TrailGuru Posts: 53
    Bit of a grey area, but in my opinion, xc is the broadest possible style of mountain biking which could encompass singletrack, doubletrack, forest roads, cycle paths, open moors and even fields. For this you want a very light bike with shortish travel which is comfortable and efficient to ride on a wide variety of terrain.

    Trail, as far as I can tell is more just that. Riding on trails, predominantly singletrack. Most of the trail bikes on the market are set up to be a little more burly and aggressive than xc bikes... longer travel, slacker geometry, more powerful brakes etc. This type of bike is perfectly suited to "trail centres" which is what most people who buy them would be riding.

    That's the way I see it.
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  • Chunkers1980
    Chunkers1980 Posts: 8,035
    trail is a slightly beefed up xc bike with more travel. most prob slightly less racey geo. about it.
  • 1mancity2
    1mancity2 Posts: 2,355
    Example,

    Giant anthem xc/race
    Giant trance xc
    Giant reign trail/am

    just have a look at the difference between these bikes, xc as it says, trail, hard hitting do anything sort of bike.
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  • trebor127
    trebor127 Posts: 246
    but most 'XC' oriented bikes are capable of riding trail centres with ease....
  • njee20
    njee20 Posts: 9,613
    We did this at length not that long ago. In essence it's marketing. There's vast amounts of crossover between what bikes will do. To some XC is basic bridleway riding, to others it's everything that isn't uplift-assisted DH, dirt jumping, or north shore type 'freeriding'.

    'Trail' bikes will usually have slightly more travel and more relaxed geometry than their XC bretheren though.
  • supersonic
    supersonic Posts: 82,708
    With Giant the Anthem is the raciest and lightest, the Reign the longer travel and hardest hitting, while the Trance sits in the middle.
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  • Indigo Gorilla
    Indigo Gorilla Posts: 189
    TrailGuru wrote:
    Bit of a grey area, but in my opinion, xc is the broadest possible style of mountain biking which could encompass singletrack, doubletrack, forest roads, cycle paths, open moors and even fields. For this you want a very light bike with shortish travel which is comfortable and efficient to ride on a wide variety of terrain.

    Trail, as far as I can tell is more just that. Riding on trails, predominantly singletrack. Most of the trail bikes on the market are set up to be a little more burly and aggressive than xc bikes... longer travel, slacker geometry, more powerful brakes etc. This type of bike is perfectly suited to "trail centres" which is what most people who buy them would be riding.

    That's the way I see it.

    This is pretty much how I'd see it as well. XC being that little bit less technical usually too and trail needing that little bit more skill and guts.
  • The Northern Monkey
    The Northern Monkey Posts: 19,174
    They are the same thing, just for XC you need to wear lycra and shave your legs.
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  • Pudseyp
    Pudseyp Posts: 3,514
    IMHO
    XC Short travel
    Trial Mid travel
    AM/FR Long travel
    DH Fecking lots of travel
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  • ddraver
    ddraver Posts: 26,391
    I would say that XC means racing, so the bikes are designed to go FAST for 1 or 2 hrs at the expense of, say, all day comfort or travel, technical ability (of the bikes) etc....
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  • tsenior
    tsenior Posts: 664
    xc does seem to be becoming shorthand for xc racing..

    i'd always considered it to be getting from A to B going across country i.e not on roads.

    The scenic route to one of my favorate pubs is a good example: 2 miles of country lanes, 2 miles of bridleway type stuff, the uphill bit of coed llangegla, a mile over boardwalks, another mile on tarmac, and about 4 miles (descending :D ) of rough moorland paths, forest singletrack, farm tracks, alleys, old railway line etc.
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    The way I see it, Trail, or All-mountain, is your proper mountain bike, and everything else is a more specialist machine.
    So an XC bike would be racier, lighter etc etc.

    I wish we could ditch the whole "AM/Trail/Freeride light" nonsense and just call them what they frigging are, "mountain bikes"
  • miss notax
    miss notax Posts: 2,572
    It's all marketing blurb to make us think that our 'xc' bikes aren't good enough for riding anything scarier blah blah. They are all just bikes 8)

    However I am completely incapable of listening to my advice myself having just got a new bike for a slightly different type of riding. What can I say? I sell advertising for a job, I am a marketing mans dream... :oops: :oops:
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  • bennett_346
    bennett_346 Posts: 5,029
    yeehaamcgee wrote:
    I wish we could ditch the whole "AM/Trail/Freeride light" nonsense and just call them what they frigging are, "mountain bikes"
    Why?
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    Because it's daft and unnecessary, and leads to millions of discussions about what it actually means.
  • supersonic
    supersonic Posts: 82,708
    But without them leads to loads thinking they can ride DH on Hardrocks lol
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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    But you CAN
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    But you CAN
  • supersonic
    supersonic Posts: 82,708
    You can. I'd rather do it on a better equipped bike, and if somebody walked into my shop and I sold them an XC bike for DH, I'd be a bad salesman! But of course I'd take them through the options ;-) Same as you can ride a DH bike on the road.
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  • bennett_346
    bennett_346 Posts: 5,029
    yeehaamcgee wrote:
    Because it's daft and unnecessary, and leads to millions of discussions about what it actually means.
    I think it just saves stating exact specs, if someone says "i'm taking my trail bike out today instead of the XC bike" people will know they mean a slacker angled, longer travel play bike, whereas the XC bike would be known to people as racier etc.
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    read what I posted again before forming any more opinions based on thin air.
  • bennett_346
    bennett_346 Posts: 5,029
    yeehaamcgee wrote:
    read what I posted again before forming any more opinions based on thin air.
    I read it properly the first time. Im still not sure what your point was, you justified the difference between them then contradicted yourself saying its all pointless and that theyre called mountain bikes, so i part ignored it.
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    If that's what you took away from it, I suggest you ask a responsible adult to read it again for you, maybe slowly, and explaining some of the more complicated words.
  • bennett_346
    bennett_346 Posts: 5,029
    So in your eyes, would it be wrong to say rear derailer, and instead would the word drivetrain be the only appropriate term? Because that's essentially what you're saying.
  • cooldad
    cooldad Posts: 32,599
    bennett_346 wrote:
    So in your eyes, would it be wrong to say rear derailer, and instead would the word drivetrain be the only appropriate term? Because that's essentially what you're saying.
    It should be derailleur.
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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    bennett_346 wrote:
    So in your eyes, would it be wrong to say rear derailer, and instead would the word drivetrain be the only appropriate term? Because that's essentially what you're saying.
    Lay off the crack. It's ruining your mind.
  • Briggo
    Briggo Posts: 3,537
    yeehaamcgee wrote:
    If that's what you took away from it, I suggest you ask a responsible adult to read it again for you, maybe slowly, and explaining some of the more complicated words.

    You stated that trail bikes/AM bikes/Freeride bikes can all be lumped together to be classed as 'mountain bikes' and that XC bikes are more specialised lighter equipped bikes so would be classed separately.

    Then you state that you can ride any bike DH as they're all mountain bikes. (I agree, however certain bikes are better suited to the job, you wouldn't race a Mini Cooper S against F1 cars. You can but you wouldn't)

    So based on that why would XC bikes be classed separately? They can ride up and down mountains and DH routes etc, why wouldn't they be classed as mountain bikes as well.

    The only difference between an XC bike and a trail bike is the geometry and components, same with trail to all mountain and so on but they're all the same they're all just pedal powered bikes with two wheels. They all specialise for their intended terrains etc and the differences between models (XC to trail included) can be marginal.

    Not saying either way we should have an overall classification or break it all down, to be honest I don't care so long as the bike I have does the job I need it to then done, at the end of the day they are all mountain bikes with slightly varying traits.
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    because, sugarplum, what I said was that any non-specialist mountain bike, is an all-purpose mountain bike, or just "mountain bike".
    If you want to get specialist gear, then that's where the XC and DH come into it.
  • Briggo
    Briggo Posts: 3,537
    Ok, but that doesnt explain why XC is anymore specialised than a trail bike, they're all bikes at the end of the day with slighly varying geo etc with the difference being so marginal at times.

    The trail/all mountain/freeride specialise at their specific target terrain, agreed the difference is tiny but as I said the difference between an XC bike and trail bike can be tiny and you could race a trail bike around an XC course and vice versa.

    So why would an XC bike get a seperate specialised classification just because its HA is 70 degrees instead of 69 and weighs 1lb lighter than the now classified 'bog standard mountain bike'.

    Same with a freeride bike compared to a DH bike.
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    An XC racing bike will be considerably lighter than your average do-it-all mountain bike.
    I think what you're doing is confusing a slightly lighter do-it-all bike with a lightweight racer.

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