The Ride
The Attack Trail falls a bit more on the “long travel trail bike” end of the spectrum, as opposed to something like the Giant Reign, which is much more of a mini downhill bike. While the Attack Trail has a fairly active suspension that irons out the trail nicely, it got overwhelmed on bigger hits.
At “normal” trail speeds, the Attack Trail was pretty fun to ride – it handled smaller and mid-sized bumps better than most of the bikes I rode, but did so without feeling too piggish. The geometry gets some credit here – slacker bikes start to feel kind of dumb on flatter, rolling trails. The Attack Trail’s slightly steeper geometry meant that it had most of the stability, but worked a lot better on mellower terrain.
And while I wouldn’t say it’s a great pedaling bike, it wasn’t horrible either. Reasonable efficiency combined with a respectably light weight (27.8 lbs for our Medium test bike) adds to the fact that the bike does pretty well as an all-arounder.
The Attack Trail certainly has the ability to be pushed harder, but that’s where the distinctions between it and some of the other bikes in this class become more apparent. Those steeper angles mean it isn’t quite as stable, and on big hits it felt like the rear end was getting crushed. Even after reducing sag to somewhere in the ~28% ballpark, I still felt like the bike struggled a bit on bigger impacts.
If one were so inclined, I bet with a bit of suspension fiddling and volume reducing, the Attack Trail could be made to handle those big hits much better without giving up much ground on the small bump sensitivity front.
To see where we placed the Attack Trail amongst a bunch of other 27.5” wheeled bikes, check out our trail bike roundup.
Bottom Line
The Marin Attack Trail doesn’t quite swing in the same class as something like a Devinci Spartan or Transition Patrol, but it works nicely as a long travel trail bike that can get rowdy when needed. It’s more supple than bikes like the Devinci Troy or Santa Cruz Bronson, so it’ll likely work better than those bikes for people looking for something that really irons out the trail.
If you like the idea of having a bunch of travel (because, let’s face it, big squishy bikes are fun), but you don’t quite want to commit to the slack floppiness that comes with most true enduro bikes, the Attack Trail is worth a hard look. It’s more forgiving than some of the slightly shorter travel bikes, but it’s more versatile than some of the slightly longer travel bikes. In other words, it hits a fairly specific middle ground, but it might be a middle ground that works well for a lot of people.