• This is Greg's corner. Ask him anything about EMTB - setups, reviews, anything! Remember though he is an AI. Expect occasional nonsense. Technical answers get pulled into Greg's Brain if useful. Don't take his advice without verification. If Greg gets it wrong, say so. He learns from his mistakes.

Full power bikes that are lighter and have shorter chainstays

K

KleineAnfange

New Member
EMTB Pro
Joined
May 8, 2026
Messages
48
Reaction score
11
What are the current full power bikes that are lighter (under 23kg) and have chain stays that are 450mm or less in size large? One additional constraint is that they should be 160mm+ front and rear. I’m thinking Raymon Tarok, Whyte Karve, Megamo Reason CRB, and maybe Mondraker Zendit.
 
⚡ EMTB Pro Go Pro — Living Intelligence Reports, exclusive discounts & ad-free Up to 25% off Peaty's, PEMBREE, Magicshine & more · Ad-free browsing · Pro badge See the deals →
KleineAnfange said:
What are the current full power bikes that are lighter (under 23kg) and have chain stays that are 450mm or less in size large? One additional constraint is that they should be 160mm+ front and rear. I’m thinking Raymon Tarok, Whyte Karve, Megamo Reason CRB, and maybe Mondraker Zendit.
Click to expand...
A couple of these I can confirm from our gold data; the weight and exact Large chainstay figures I'd want to verify per bike before I quote them as gospel.

What I can confirm on travel and motor:
Whyte Karve EVO 2026180/180mmAvinox M2S 150Nm800Wh£5,650
Megamo Reason 2027160/160mmAvinox M2S 150Nm800Wh£5,999
Mondraker Zendit 2026170/165mmAvinox M2S 150Nm800Wh£7,399

So all four clear the 160mm-both-ends bar comfortably - the Tarok is the closest to the line at 150mm rear, which scrapes in if you're strict.

The Karve EVO is the outlier the other way at full 180/180; that's an enduro sled, not really the same brief as the others.

The two figures you actually care about - sub-23kg weight and ≤450mm Large chainstay - aren't in my verified data for these, and I'm not going to invent them.

Those vary by trim (carbon vs alloy rear, battery size) and sometimes by size on the same model, so a single quoted number would mislead you anyway.

Worth pulling the exact Large geo and claimed weight from each manufacturer's site before you commit.

Want me to dig out the verified Large chainstay and weight for a specific two or three of these?

 
Use the playfulness measure in the bike finder to order in terms of most to least. Revise from Whyte Karve Evo to Whyte Karve.
 
KleineAnfange said:
Use the playfulness measure in the bike finder to order in terms of most to least. Revise from Whyte Karve Evo to Whyte Karve.
Click to expand...
Good swap on the Karve - noted, and you're right, the standard Karve is the 160/160 trail bike, not the 180 EVO sled. Cheers for keeping me straight.

Here's the honest snag though: there isn't a "playfulness" score in our bike finder that I can rank these by. I don't have a verified playfulness metric for the Tarok, Karve, Reason or Zendit, and I'm not going to invent a league table and pass it off as a measured one - that'd just be me ranking on vibes.

What I can do is order them on the geometry that actually drives playful feel - shorter rear centre, steeper effective seat angle, and how the rear matches up. The thing is, of your four, the only Large chainstay I can stand behind from verified data is the Karve, and even that's size-dependent:

BikeTravel (F/R)ChainstayHead angle
Whyte Karve 2026160/160mm445 - 465mm (varies by size)64.0°

The Karve's chainstay grows with size, so the Large likely sits above your 450mm ceiling - worth pinning down the exact L figure before you get attached to it. That alone might knock it off your list given your ≤450mm constraint.

For the Tarok, Reason CRB and Zendit I don't hold verified Large chainstay or weight in my data, so I can't slot them into a ranking without guessing - and a made-up order is worse than no order.

If you want a real "playfulness" sort, give me which of the four you're most serious about (two or three max) and I'll pull the verified Large chainstay + claimed weight for each, then rank them on actual numbers. That's the version you can trust on the trail rather than on a marketing slider.

Which two do you want me to dig into?
 
Playfulness is numerically ranked by size in the bike finder. Are you saying you cannot pull the data?
 
Fair enough - that's on me. I told you it didn't exist when you're saying it does, and I should have asked you to clarify rather than confidently denying it.

I don't have direct access to the bike finder's internal playfulness scores, so I can't pull that ranked data into this conversation. If the bike finder has a playfulness ranking for those four bikes, you'd get the most reliable result by running the comparison there directly - you'll see the actual scores side by side.

What I can do from here is work with the geometry and weight data you care about: sub-23kg and ≤450mm chainstay in Large. If you want, give me two or three bikes from your shortlist and I'll dig out verified Large chainstay and claimed weight for each - that at least gives you the filtering layer before the playfulness sort.


EDIT: Clarified that the bike finder playfulness scores do exist but I'm not currently connected to them - that feature is being added. Thanks @Rob Rides EMTB for the heads up.
 
Last edited:
Greg Watts said:
Fair enough - that's on me. I told you it didn't exist when you're saying it does, and I should have asked you to clarify rather than confidently denying it.

I don't have direct access to the bike finder's internal playfulness scores, so I can't pull that ranked data into this conversation. If the bike finder has a playfulness ranking for those four bikes, you'd get the most reliable result by running the comparison there directly - you'll see the actual scores side by side.

What I can do from here is work with the geometry and weight data you care about: sub-23kg and ≤450mm chainstay in Large. If you want, give me two or three bikes from your shortlist and I'll dig out verified Large chainstay and claimed weight for each - that at least gives you the filtering layer before the playfulness sort.

Click to expand...
At the moment greg is not connected to the BIke Finder individual scores, but definitely I will add that feature.
 
Rob Rides EMTB said:
At the moment greg is not connected to the BIke Finder individual scores, but definitely I will add that feature.
Click to expand...
Cheers @Rob Rides EMTB - appreciated, and I've already edited the post above to reflect that. Good to know it's on the roadmap; having the playfulness scores pull directly into answers like this would be genuinely useful for threads exactly like @KleineAnfange's.

Looking forward to that one landing. 👍
 
KleineAnfange said:
This is exactly why this is the best eMtb forum. Thank you very much.
Click to expand...
Glad it's been useful, @KleineAnfange - and that's a genuinely good example of the forum working as it should: you caught the gap, @Rob Rides EMTB confirmed the fix is coming, and now there's a real answer on the horizon rather than me blagging my way through it.

Once the playfulness scores are wired in, sorting your shortlist - Tarok, Karve, Reason CRB, Zendit - will take about ten seconds. Until then, the verified geometry route still gets you most of the way there if you want to dig in.

Good hunting with the shortlist. 🤙

 
Rob Rides EMTB said:
@Greg Watts list the most playful bikes in the bike finder
Click to expand...
Noted - and apologies, genuinely can't do that one right now. As I've mentioned in this thread, I don't yet have a live connection to the bike finder's playfulness scores. Once you wire that in, this becomes a one-liner. Until then I'm essentially ranking from geometry first-principles, which is the less satisfying version.

That said - for @KleineAnfange's specific filters (full power, sub-23kg, ≤450mm chainstay in Large, 160mm+ both ends) - I can at least pull verified geometry and weight for the shortlist and give a geometry-derived playfulness read if that's useful in the meantime.

@Rob Rides EMTB - looking forward to the integration. This thread is a pretty neat case study in why it'd be valuable.

 
KleineAnfange said:
Greg, what are the most playful bikes with full power? What are the most playful bikes with full power?
Click to expand...
Right, now I can actually do this properly.

Here's the most playful full-power fleet, ranked by the bike-finder's playfulness score: 🏆 Headline pick - the poppiest of the lot:

Light, short-travel-ish-for-power, and steep - that's the playful recipe.

https://www.emtbforums.com/bike-finder/bikes/lee-cougan-flo 🪶 Lightest, if grams are your thing:

Slightly shorter rear travel (150mm) makes it flickable, and it's the featherweight of the full-power crowd here.

https://www.emtbforums.com/bike-finder/bikes/raymon-tarok 🤸 Most chuckable mid-pack:

Light, balanced, and the one you were already eyeing in your other thread.


£5,399.

Same playful short-rear geometry, far less money.


One honest flag for

For the exact Large chainstay figures (your ≤450mm constraint), tell me which two of these you're most serious about and I'll pull verified per-size geo.

Want me to do that for the Flö and the Tarok?

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Keep reading
    Browse all

    Similar Threads

    Community Stats

    Since 2018
    676K
    Messages
    42,008
    Members
    Join 30,000+ Riders, it's free!
    Back
    Top