Commencal Meta TR 29 Essential Fox Brushed | $3,300

The Meta Trail 29 is Commencal’s most-XC-like bike. It arrives wearing a 150-millimeter Fox 36 fork—not exactly gram-counting-XCO-shaved-leg territory. Then again, Commencal hasn’t made any false claims in that world with a history steeped in downhill, tying its lineage back to Max Commencal and SUNN bikes’ renowned DH roots—so, perhaps Trail is the new XC.

But this particular trail bike feels as though it needs to ask a few favors to be included in the trail category we’re testing. For one thing, there’s that stout 36 fork. For another, there’s 130 millimeters of rear travel, edging it into the widening overlapped segment of the trail/all-mountain venn diagram. The final thing? The weight. The Meta Trail 29 was the heaviest bike in the test, at 33.5 pounds for a size large.

Heaviest, but also least expensive. The alloy bike—with no carbon counterparts in true metal-only Commencal fashion—came in at $3,300 and along with that Grip-damper-equipped Fox 36 and Performance DPS rear shock, it arrived with complementary SRAM GX Eagle-level components, a well-spec’d set of Shimano SLX brakes sporting a 200-millimeter/180-millimeter rotor combo, a 150-millimeter KS LEV SI dropper, a WTB SL8 Race Cromo-railed saddle, e*thirteen TRS 32-hole, 30-millimeter-inner-width rims and Schwalbe Hans Dampf 2.35 Addix SnakeSkin tires. So, for $3,300 you get a lot—the Formula-branded hubs being the only eyesore, which is strangely rather refreshing as many more expensive bikes from other brands often spec non-branded ‘blank’ Formula hubs so having a bright red set that actually proclaimed 'Formula' on the hub shell seemed like a nice, full-disclosure moment from the Andorra-based brand.

So considering you get quite a lot of solid, dependable stuff for $3,300, perhaps it’s OK that Commencal’s alloy approach comes in at 33.5 pounds. And from a ride perspective, we noticed it wasn’t light, but its weight really didn’t bother us as much as one would expect from a crew one YouTube commenter (we see you, ToughGuy916) referred to as “precious.”

And yep, the self-proclaimed Precious Pride Posse deemed the 33.5-pound pony, “not bad” for climbing. How? Simple—it was Math Week in Tucson.

Math week? Yes, math week. We revisited our remedial high-school geometry class—the very same one that the “year-ahead kids” were in as freshman while we were sophomores—OK fine, juniors—and we pulled out our protractors. Indeed, the seat angle was the culprit.

You, dearest reader, are probably getting mighty sick of us, failed mathletes, praising steep seat tube angles. But you know what? It’s how the heaviest, least-expensive, alloy bike performed splendidly well in a test that had an $8,700 not-awesome bike and a $9,200 boutique bike from a brand that had the audacity to name a model the Bow-Ti. So, hate it or love it, the seat angle makes a huge difference, and this Bible alone is proof. Harrumph.

What compounds things—math reference not intended, though noted—is that the Meta TR 29 does not tout a fancy linkage, no no, not even slightly. It’s a basic single pivot, but the 76.5-degree seat tube, along with a reasonable, 475 millimeters of reach—long, but not stretched—puts the rider in a position that feels forward but is still manageable, avoiding loading and sagging into the rear shock. And it doesn’t bob much either, despite the simplicity of a single pivot, you don’t feel much robbed of you for your pedal strokes.

We are becoming more used to seeing 76- and 77-degree seat angles on longer-travel, 150-plus-millimeter bikes, but seeing 76.5 on a 130-millimeter-rear 'trail' bike is a treat, there’s no reason to not see steep angles on mid-travel bikes and the Meta Trail reiterates that point several times over.

Also time proven by Commencal is that an alloy frame can feel plenty stiff. We saw this on the Meta AM 4.2 World Cup during the 2018 Killington Long-Travel 27.5 Bible Summer Camp, and Bike’s gear editor, Travis Engel, noticed it again while testing the Meta AM 29. The bikes are stiff, there’s no perceived notion of flex and inspecting any of the three frames, you see stout linkage pieces, big oversized axles, pivots and rockers. Things have a made-to-last-a-longtime look to them.

Descending, those robust pieces work together and well, don’t want to stop rocking on—the Meta Trail 29 felt freight train-ish compared to its trail stablemates. We agreed, unequivocally, that this was the descender in the group, it had at least one wheel in all-mountain, even if it’s rear was technically still in the trail category. It wasn’t quite as sensitive or supple over the terrain’s subtleties, but the Mt. Lemmon test course wasn’t about subtleties. It was about barreling into something and holding on, and that’s exactly what the Commencal wanted to do. The suspension had good mid-stroke support, even if overall it felt more bash-it, brutish than the other bikes.

The downside to well … err … the downside, was the tires. Our Mount Lemmon test track had rock slabs, decomposed granite, loose pebbles over off-camber rock chunks and even had some sandy riding too. All of it dry and desert-like as one would expect. The Schwalbe Hans Dampf 2.35s didn’t provide confidence-inspiring traction or predictability. Maybe they would have performed better in more of a natural-dirt environment.

Other gripes? The Meta Trail is an incredibly capable descender, so seeing a piggyback rear shock would be lovely, and for $100 more you forgo the Fox DPS for a RockShox Super Deluxe RCT, but you also give up the Fox 36 for a Pike—which we weren’t as fond of on the Fuji Rakan or Revel Rascal, so it’d be a trade-off. But, those willing to pay a bit more can move to a RockShox Lyrik RC2/Super Deluxe RCT pairing for $4,000—or, the option we’re most excited about: the Meta Trail 29 British Edition with a Fox 36 Factory Grip2/DPX2 Factory pairing for $4,200—the marvels of a consumer-direct model.

Regardless of which Meta Trail 29 you choose, do so knowing you’re armed with a heavy-handed descender that’s a well-spec’d bike and value that’s not too shabby of a climber, all things considered.

12

Gallery

12 Images

Q&A with Lucas Berghman, OEM spec manager, Commencal Europe

1) We've now tested three bikes from Commencal that use 31.8-millimeter handlebars. Is this diameter for ride-feel purposes, for cost reasons, or something else entirely?

Generally speaking there is little to no cost difference between 31.8-millimeter and 35-millimeter bars, however, there is usually a big difference in terms of ride feel between the two standards. Thirty-five-millimeter bars usually feel harsh and too stiff in rough sections, however, some brands [of bars] are now offering a nice compromise between stiffness and feel. It highly depends on the design.

2) The Meta Trail 29 had by far the most progressive seat-tube angle at a 76.5 degree but surprisingly, it didn't have the slackest headtube angle at 66.5 and also was a bit more middle-of-the-road for reach and wheelbase. Can you walk us through why Commencal went so steep on the seat-tube angle, but didn't go quite as radical on the other measurements?

When we design our frames, we don’t enter in a competition regarding who has the slackest headtube angle, the lowest bottom bracket or the longest reach on the market.

We chose the Meta Trail 29’s numbers because we feel these are the right numbers.

We believe trails bikes can go really fast but also have to deal with tight corners, low speed sections, steep climbs ... it’s all about balance.

An example: Having a not-so-long reach allows us to keep a stem not too short for a better feel when climbing ... but we are far from the 90-millimeter stems from back in the day!

3) The Meta Trail 29 felt like a trail bike that could easily compete within the all-mountain category too due to capability—and a lot of all-mountain bikes are spec’ing reduced-offset forks. Why’d Commencal choose to spec a standard, 51-millimeter offset 29-inch fork?

Offset forks is not the only parameter. Short-offset forks only works with short stems, slack headtubes and long reach. And for a trail/all-mountain bike, we feel the 51-millimeter offset is better suited (regarding the geometry and stem we’re using).

Find all the reviews from the Tucson Bible HERE.