Commencal have taken the work that they did on revising the Contact System on their DH bike and have put it to great use in this new 150mm travel addition to the Meta range.

The first thing that you notice when you get on it is the generous amount of standover height, and with the whole thing being so low there’s bags of room to move about. As soon as you get going though you notice the changes that the new suspension has brought about. Previous Commencal designs were already good in terms of grip and power transfer, but this incarnation takes it on to an even more impressive level.

There’s also that trademark Commencal quality of the bike feeling like it has more travel than it actually does. Some of the internal cable routing could be tidied up a bit because it’s screaming out to collect water and mud, but we can forgive it for that failing purely because of the way it rides. You’ve got to admit it looks pretty damn nice too.

Price: Frame £1149.99, Complete £3799.99
Decade 01792 469 811
www.commencal.com