It’s said that the heart of Bergamont beats HARD in the old slaughterhouse HQ, located in what is nowadays a buzzing part of Hamburg (Germany). Based in an area of cobbled streets, where bars, clubs and ‘weird dress shops’ fight for a place, Thomas Marquardt and the crew took time out from the city earlier in the year to visit us here at Dirt in more rural setting. Diggi Prost…
From Dirt Issue 138 – August 2013
Words by Steve Jones. Photos by Ben Winder
Dropping into the shops a shade under €1999 the Bergamont Straitline 7.3 simply has to be a consideration in this price range. With competition on home soil from Canyon, Ghost and YT it’s in a tricky class but then so is everyone, and not just in the downhill class. However the key in this price range is getting something decent. The Bergamont is one such offering.
It offers a very good ride for under two thousand euros. The rear damping and shock tune are hard to fault, tracking, supporting and generally working as well as on bikes twice the price. Up front the RockShox (RS) Domain doesn’t give you the polished performance of a nicely prepped RS R2C2 from but it does offer good compression damping. The only niggle is the relatively high chassis movement that occurs because of the basic damper when you compare to higher end downhill bikes. It’s not a massive issue and this bike will still be competitive.>>
