Poll Results: What MTB Do You Ride?

Last week, I asked you guys to participate in a poll here on Mountain Biking by 198. The question was simple, which mountain bike do you ride the most? While a lot of you just have one mountain bike that you ride, there are some others (like me) that have different horses for different courses. That is why I wanted to find out which of your rides gets the most saddle time. For those of you with one bike, that was easy! It was the mountain bike that you take to the trail head day in and day out ripping up sweet singletrack that just begs for more abuse.

Over the past couple of years, things have changed dramatically in the mountain biking industry. The introduction of the light 5.5″ travel trail bike and larger hoops with the 29″ wheel platform have given recreational mountain bikers more options than ever. With this poll, I wanted to see if the old school way of doing things is holding strong, or is the new blood taking over with longer travel and bigger wheels.

Poll Results: So what did we find?

What Mountain Bike Do You Ride Results

What Mountain Bike Do You Ride Results

It is actually a little bit of both! The 5.5″ trail bike is sweeping the world, and I expected this ride to top the charts in this poll. As the 5.5″ trail bike continues to the most versatile in the group, it will continue to grow in the market. Right now, there are more options in that category of mountain bike than any other as every manufacturer has several different options in the 5-5.5″ (140mm) travel mountain bike.

To my surprise…the 26″ hardtail and short travel full suspension rigs are holding on strong still! With 19% of the poll voters casting in their ballet for the conventional geared hardtail, it secured its spot in 2nd place! I haven’t had a 26″ geared hard tail in quite some time, but it is great to see that riders are still out there putting in the miles on that platform of mountain bike. It is what started it all (technically the rigid 26er…but you get the point!)

With larger travel bikes getting lighter with time, it is no surprise that the 6-6.4″ travel bikes are getting some more love these days. These mountain bikes can be pedaled to the top of mountains and then blasted down faster as they are more capable rigs with slacker angles. Its great to see that this segment of mountain bikes is continuing to grow.

After that…the 29er start cleaning up the results. I have found that in certain areas, 29ers have become incredibly popular. However, there are some riding spots that I visit that you won’t see one for hours…if at all. I suspect that we will continue to see the 29er segment grows over time as its benefits in the hard tail and short travel arena are measurable…especially for taller riders.

What do I think about the results of the poll?

I think that this poll is pretty accurate on where the mountain biking industry is as a whole. Your local trail head may or may not look like these results, but if you look at sales over time…I think we are about dead on. As new riders enter the market and seasoned riders start replacing their current mountain bikes, I think we are going to start seeing the 26″ HT start to slip in the results. Full suspension mountain bikes are starting to get much more price competitive than in the past, and as competition among brands rises…the better bike you get for less money as the consumer.

What do you think about the results?

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