Ultra-light hill climb bikes go head-to-head
The Trek Emonda gets pitched against a Reilly 600SL in a battle for the best hill climb bike
Published:
Coming towards the end of their time with the bikes, Reuben and Joe go back over what makes these builds so special in this episode of BikeRadar Diaries.
- BikeRadar Diaries #5: Joe and Reuben go deep (and crash) in their Festive 500 attempt
- 10 steps to faster climbing
This time, however, there’s a twist. The guys want you to vote for your favourite build, with the loser having to ride a very cheap, probably very heavy bike up the horribly steep Draycott, a climb famous for it’s prolonged 20+ percent gradient section here in the south-west of England.
Reuben’s Reilly 600SL
Joe’s Trek Émonda Project One
In the Hill Climb Diaries: part 5 — Joe’s incredible 5.2kg Trek Emonda we take a look at Joe’s bike and his training regime.
You can vote for your favourite bike here and look forward to a future episode where you’ll be able to watch one of the duo suffer on the 20+ percent gradient climb on a weighty clunker.
Did they make the right spec decisions? What would you have done differently? Let us know in the comments.
Authors
Alex Evans is BikeRadar's mountain bike technical editor. He started racing downhill at the tender age of 11 before going on to compete across Europe. Alex moved to Morzine in the French Alps at 19 to pursue a career as a bike bum and clocked up an enormous amount of riding. Riding those famous tracks day in, day out for eight years, he broke more bikes than he can remember. Alex then moved back to the UK and put his vast knowledge of mountain biking to good use by landing a job working for MBUK magazine as features editor. Since working for MBUK, Alex's focus has moved to bike tech. He's one of BikeRadar's lead testers, knows how to push bikes and products to the limit, and wants to search out the equipment that represents the best value for money. Alex is also a regular on the BikeRadar Youtube channel and BikeRadar podcast.
