When not riding he can be found at the climbing wall, in his garden or cooking up culinary delights. He’s also worked out that shaving your legs saves 8 watts, while testing aerodynamics in a wind tunnel. Outside of testing bikes, Tom competes in a wide range of mountain bike races, from multi-day enduros through to 24-hour races in the depths of the Scottish winter – pushing bikes, components and his legs to their limits. With more than twenty years of mountain biking experience, and nearly a decade of testing mountain and gravel bikes, Tom has ridden and tested thousands of bikes and products, from super-light XC race bikes through to the most powerful brakes on the market. Mine failed after only 10 weeks, so rather than replace it with another Powerspline, I decided to. He is also a regular presenter on BikeRadar’s YouTube channel and the BikeRadar podcast. The Calibre Bossnut 2020 comes with a Truvativ Powerspline. It has a longer 140mm Rock Shox Reba RL fork that slackens out the head angle creating a more gravity focused ride. Tom has written for BikeRadar, MBUK and Cycling Plus, and was previously technical editor of What Mountain Bike magazine. Built on the success of the Beastnut and Bossnut. He has a particular focus on mountain bikes, but spends plenty of time on gravel bikes, too.

While Calibre has done a truly outstanding job with the design and equipping of the Bossnut Evo, it unsurprisingly hits its limits slightly earlier than the 40 to 50 percent more expensive bikes it is often compared to.Tom Marvin is a technical editor at and MBUK magazine. The Recon fork retains control a long way down rocky descents before your forearms start to blow up, and is easy to adjust for rider weight, too. The simple Monarch R shock has better peak oil flow than more complex compression-adjustable dampers, so the 130mm of rear travel will swallow surprisingly large blocks and drops before things get sketchy.Īlthough there’s no lockout lever for climbs and road sections, the Evo pedals well enough that this isn’t an issue. The Calibre’s back end isn’t as rock-meltingly smooth as some of its competitors, but it does a good job of minimising impact force while keeping the bike level and the rear wheel connected. Continual updates to sizing, geometry, shock tune and specification helped make the Bossnut.

Team Sky Ineos would be proud of Calibre’s ability to aggregate marginal gains. In short, the geometry works just fine for what most people spending £1,000 are going to think of as mountain biking. Pros: Same frame and five star handling as the old Calibre Bossnut. The 67-degree head angle means the fork doesn’t flop around like a sulky teenager on steep climbs. It’s quicker and easier to change direction in tighter situations, though, encouraging you to play with trail features rather than plough through them. There’s routing for an internal or external dropper seatpost cable/hose, but you’ll have to add the actual post yourself Andy Lloyd / Immediate Media With a relatively short 445mm reach and 1,145mm wheelbase (large), it doesn’t feel as unshakably stable through rocks and roots or scythe through high-load turns like longer bikes. The 45mm stem ties everything together nicely, so the steering is light and obedient but the bike doesn’t need to be pointed downhill and moving fast for it to make sense. Your initial contact with a bike is always important, and the Evo’s 780mm bar and 67-degree head angle give a reassuringly safe feel, without being super-wide or slack.

The Kore bar and own-brand stem match the handling well. Shimano’s Deore brakes offer better modulation and power than their M300-series anchors, and SRAM’s clunky NX 11-speed shifter and rear mech are relentlessly reliable. Released two weeks ago, weve now got one of the brand new, hot off the press Calibre Bossnut mountain bikes in for review. The WTB rims are wide for extra tyre support and easy to turn tubeless, and the tyres are acceptable for the price. While the Recon fork isn’t the latest Boost-width (110mm) version, its 15mm thru-axle adds welcome steering accuracy and security compared to a QR.

Such a mint bike now, kitted out for gravity riding, with a bigger fork and offset shock hardware the head angle is. The 67-degree head angle, 780mm bar and 45mm stem increase control and confidence without being a handful on flatter/climbing trails Andy Lloyd / Immediate MediaĬalibre has put together an outstanding package for £999 (with discount card). HEAVILY UPGRADED Calibre Bossnut 2020 size medium.

Calibre bossnut 2020