On one end of the spectrum, you have XC, and on the opposite end - DH.  Where an XC rider is generally after ultimate weight optimization, their hard tail bikes are optimized for climbing and long rides.  DH by contrast is defined by full suspension big rigs with long travel and are heavier and stronger.

All mountain, or in other words TRAIL, which is in our opinion the same thing, falls in between XC and DH.

ALL MOUNTAIN / TRAIL riders lean more towards the adventurous side of the sport.  If you are seeking out the fast and flowy, technical riding experience, and you are less concerned with speed and uphill challenges, and more inspired by flow lines with some jumps and drops, you’re riding ‘TRAIL’.

TRAIL bikes  are the versatile steeds of any rider’s bike arsenal.  Single crown forks, full suspension, a tendency toward weight optimization, and high engagement, 27.5” to 29” wheels are the trademarks of the trail bike.

While all SPANK Industries components are essentially ALL MOUNTAIN classed, you will find specifically ‘TRAIL’ performance optimized components in our OOZY range of bars, pedals and saddles, and across all our lines of rims, wheels, stems and grips.

If you are riding ENDURO, you are racing the clock, mostly downhill, in 3 to 6 stages on average in a race, and you are riding (or carrying) your bike uphill in between stages, un-timed.  There’s a little more to it than that, but it’s a race, in essence.  Oh, and there’s a lot of PEDALING!  You know it!

While ENDURO bike geometry is looking more and more like the long wheel base (distance between front and rear axle) of DH bikes, there is strictly speaking more in common between an ALL MOUNTAIN bike and an ENDURO BIKE.

What sets an ENDURO rig apart from an average TRAIL workhorse, is  longer travel and a more relaxed head tube angle.  The key differentiator though, is that ENDURO bikes have heavier-duty components than TRAIL bikes.  This is because there is by nature a more aggressive gravity ride experience with higher impacts, bigger drops, jumps, and the race-rule that dictates that, unlike DH, you have to finish the race with the same components you started on.

Other general differentiators of the enduro rig include wider bars and shorter stems and wider, heavier rims.  Alloy rims are taking over from carbon rims in popularity in ENDURO racing.  It’s totally feasible to hammer out dents and buckles in your alloy rim mid-race.  Carbon rim cracks...hmmm, good luck ghetto fixing that at 3,000 feet on the wrong side of the race tape.

RACING IS LIFE!  If that statement resonates with you, you’re undoubtedly DOWNHILL racing!

DH racing is to mountain biking what F1 is to motor sport.  SPEED is the single goal.  That said, an extreme degree of skill is required to hammer a DH course at speed through rock gardens, roots, drops, jumps and highly technical single-track. 

The DH rig is the thoroughbred in the stable and is often highly customized.  Incredible attention is paid to cockpit set-up (bar and stem rise and length, stack height, bar upsweep, back sweep and set-back), and wheel diameter and rim width is very particular to the individual rider-bike geometry combination.

What is common though, is the focus on light-weight, torsional strength, laterally stiff wheels, generally run under very high spoke tension, to an A-Class wheel build.  For this, look no further than the award-winning rims and wheels in the SPANK 350/359 VIBROCORE™  line.

You will also find World Championship winning DH components in the SPANK SPIKE line of bars, grips, stems and saddles with over 50 customizable combinations of bar / stem set-up for a completely personalized DIALED FIT.

If you and your brothers are disappearing into the landscape for hours, days or weeks at a time, armed with shovels and bush hats, completely disinterested in and oblivious to the ideas sports associations and governing bodies are plotting, chances are high as a kite that you are seeking out virgin brown pow to shred.

You are probably spending most of your riding time in the air, and you can run an inventory of your bone breaks and injuries that will rival the latest list of politically correct gender non-conforming terms.

You dig dirt.  You ride hard.  You are FREE!  Welcome to the SPANK family!

SPANK Industries was literally born from FREERIDE.  It’s where our roots, and rocks, are planted and our range of SPIKE products speaks to you most directly.  Here you will find the bombproof wheels, legendary flat pedals and moto-style cockpits that Sam Reynolds, Ethan Nell and the boys are punishing on Fest Series, Red Bull Rampage and a dirt jump park near you!

If you understand and accept the phenomenon of the full-face helmet without a visor, a cork-screw has nothing to do with wine, and your riding literally revolves around rotations, of every possible orientation - then you see the world from a unique, upside-down kind of perspective, and you are part of the landscape of your local jump park.  You cannot walk past a man-made feature, be it dirt or wood, without imagining the roll-in, amplitude and trajectory that will lead to your perfect combination of flips, rotations and whips. 

Your bike and components are literally an arsenal for aerial attack, and at SPANK Industries, we’ve got you covered!

With jumps getting bigger and bigger, riders are looking for added weight that brings the center of gravity closer to the pedals and bottom bracket.  This adds stability in the air and also enhances cornering and pre-loading for jumps.

The SPIKE & SPOON range will set you up with the flats, wheels bars, stems and grips dialed to the performance-to-weight ratio slopestyle and dirt jump demands.

It’s not unusual or strange at all to see a variety of bikes from BMX, all the way through to TRAIL bikes making appearances on the pumptrack on a sunny weekend. 

The basic principle of the pumptrack is to use your upper body to ‘pump’ through the course, using momentum rather than pedaling.  It’s a fantastic work-out and a good time out for anyone.

Of course, if we’re talking competition PUMPTRACK, its hard tails, very rigid front suspension, or none at all, and riser bars to  optimize all that cockpit action.  Rigid rules the PUMPTRACK roost!

SPANK Industries SPOON & SPIKE lines have you covered for PUMPTRACK.  From sizing and pricing for the youngest and smallest in the tribe, all the way through to the CRANKWORX WORLD TOUR  & RED BULL PUMPTRACK CHAMPIONSHIPS rigs being used by the pros, your options here include our 20”, 24” and 26” rims and wheels, single speed hubs, flat pedals, SPOON & SPIKE grips and saddles, and a great price and geometry variety of riser bars and stems.

Gravel riding has become one of the fastest growing styles of riding, exactly because it offers the rider so much diversity.  From single track, to gravel roads, tar-mac to unpaved dirt, the gravel experience gets you off-road and away from traffic, whilst still offering the long-distance challenge so many love about road cycling.

Even though gravel specific bikes are becoming more common and widely available, the great thing about gravel is that you can set your existing trail bike up for gravel with a few simple component upgrades.

The key to converting your bike for gravel, whether it’s for gravel grinding races, or for adventure and bike packing, is the bars and wheels.

SPANK Industries’ Design & Innovation Award-winning GRAVEL DROP BARS with VIBROCORE™, make incredible sense for those seeking to overcome the buzz of harmful and discomforting vibration in the cockpit on long gravel rides.  Coupled with our gravel bar tapes and gel packs, the combination is plush and ergonomic.

The same award-winning VIBROCORE™ has been translated into our GRAVEL FLARE rims and wheels, and for the racers, our deep well, narrow profile WING 22 is the perfect choice.

E-Bike has become a firm and fixed aspect of mountain biking in recent years.  And not for no reason!  The truth is, electric assisted bikes, or Pedelecs, have come to make so much sense for many mountain bikers.

All that extra power has turned a previously tame trail, or an ‘uphill battle’ into an entirely new level of enjoyment and skills, making all mountain more fun and accessible for many riders.  The added weight and power also result in quite a serious upper body workout, and not to mention that you end up riding even harder considering that trail legal Pedelecs require you to press on the pedals to activate the power-assist.  The high of that full power boost is so addictive, you end up pedaling even more than you normally might!

Now because of the added weight and torque that comes with that power, your choice of components  becomes less about light-weight optimization, and more about robust components that can handle the workload. 

Look for the ‘ELECTRIC-PLUS’ icon in our SPIKE, OOZY & SPOON components to identify the wheels, hubs, pedals, bars, stems, grips and saddles that we have classified for E-MTB.