After a huge amount of riding and much deliberation, the incredibly good value Propain Hugene takes the top honours in our trail bike category this year
Our winning trail bike in all its glory – the Propain Hugene. Photo: Dan Milner
Propain Hugene (custom build) £3,561
With so many strong contenders in our trail bike category this year, crowning a winner wasn't an easy task. But with all factors considered – frame, build kit, ride quality – we're pleased to announced that Propain Bikes' Hugene has come come out on top. It'd be wrong to describe a bike costing £3,561 as cheap, but given that the Hugene has a carbon frame and is specced out with a suite of parts you'd normally expect to find on a bike costing twice as much, it offers incredibly good value for money. Plus on top of that it absolutely rips out on the trail.
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See below for our video review of the bike and be sure to pick up a copy of our April issue (on sale now) to read reviews of all the other bikes we tested and how we whittled them down to just one winner.
Specification
Price £3,561.00
Weight 13.7kg (L), without pedals
Brand Propain
Features
Available sizes S, M, L, XL
Headset Acros IS42/IS52
Tyres Schwalbe Magic Mary ADDIX Soft 29x2.35in front, Schwalbe Hans Dampf ADDIX Soft 29x2.35in rear
Stem Sixpack Leader, 50mm
Shifter SRAM X01 Eagle (1x12)
Seatpost Bikeyoke REVIVE, 160mm
Saddle Sixpack Kamikaze
Rear shock Rockshox Super Deluxe Ultimate
Rear mech SRAM X01 Eagle
Handlebar Sixpack Millenium, 785mm
Bottom bracket SRAM DUB
Grips Propain
Frame Carbon fibre, 130mm (5.1in) travel
Fork RockShox Pike Ultimate, 150mm (5.9in) travel
Cranks SRAM X01 Eagle, 32t
Chain SRAM
Cassette SRAM X01 Eagle
Brakes SRAM G2 RSC, 200/180mm rotors
Wheels Stan’s No Tubes Flow S3 rims on Propain hubs
Thanks to the following for facilitating this year’s Bike of the Year test:
Thanks to the following for facilitating this year’s Bike of the Year test:
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Former Mountain Biking UK features editor Ed Thomsett is a downhiller at heart but has been riding bikes of all types since a young age. He's raced both nationally and internationally in downhill and enduro, and has spent several summers living in the Alps and Canada, riding, roadtripping and living the dirtbag lifestyle. Now Ed calls upon his years of experience riding bikes to the limit as a writer and reviewer for MBUK and BikeRadar. He's also an avid trail builder and has scraped out numerous steep and technical lines in the woodlands of his native North Yorkshire. These days Ed will happily turn his hand to any discipline and believes the sign of a good week is when every bike in his shed ends up muddy by the end of it.
