Mountain biking includes a wide variety of trails, terrain and riding types, ranging from flat and smooth trails to climbs, fast descents and rough terrain. To be able to ride these different types of trails effectively, the right mountain bike for the job can vary greatly.
Some bikes are lighter weight and built to cover long distances as fast as possible and can be as light as 20 lbs, and others can weigh as much as 40 lbs because of big tires, long wheelbases, and long travel suspension suited for fast descents and hard impacts.
Read on to figure out how much your bike should weigh for the riding you like to do.
Does the weight of a mountain bike really matter?
The short answer is yes. The weight of your mountain bike affects how it feels under you and also how it performs.
Climbing performance
Climbing up hills on your mountain bike is where you’ll notice its weight the most, which makes sense when you think about it. On flat or descending trails, your bike is simply rolling along the trail and not working against gravity (and in the case of descents, gravity is actually helping you and your bike along).
However, on climbs you’re working against gravity, meaning the heavier your bike is, the more weight you need to lug up the hill with you.
For this reason, heavier mountain bikes underperform lighter ones on uphill sections of trail. Riders who do a lot of climbing and are concerned about getting up the hill quickly may opt for lighter mountain bikes instead of heavier ones.
Maneuverability
It’s no surprise that generally speaking, heavier mountain bikes are less maneuverable.
The extra weight you carry on a heavier mountain bike makes it harder to throw around while you’re out riding. Heavier bikes can feel less playful and harder to quickly maneuver around tight turns or obstacles.
They can also be harder to pull off little tricks and maneuvers like bunny hops and manuals since more force is required to get your wheels off the ground because of the added weight.
Fatigue
Riding a heavier mountain bike will cause you to become fatigued more quickly during your ride. This is especially true if you’re riding cross country or trails with lots of climbing involved.
Riders who want to go on long rides that include more than just downhill riding will have a harder time on heavier mountain bikes. Lighter bikes will be much less of a burden to ride uphill or cross country on.
The longer the rides you’re doing, the more noticeable this difference will be, as the fatigue you experience from the extra weight on your bike will be amplified over longer rides and distances.
Factors that affect mountain bike weight
There are several major factors that can affect how heavy a mountain bike is, including the types of materials it is built with, what components it has, and the size of both the bike’s frame and wheels. Even the tire and drivetrain setups you run can affect the weight of your mountain bike.
Frame material
Aluminum
Aluminum is the most common frame material used in modern mountain bikes. Aluminum is a good frame material because it is both lightweight and strong. Aluminum frames are also relatively affordable, making them a material of choice for the most common mountain bikes.
Steel
Steel frames have their place in MTB, and some riders swear by a steel frame because of the extra flexibility steel has compared to aluminum. Steel is a heavier material to use for a frame, however, so if you’re concerned about having as light a mountain bike as possible, its probably not going to be your first frame choice.
Carbon
Carbon frames are the lightest type of MTB frame on the market. These frames are made of a carbon fiber, and in addition to be lightweight offer good stiffness for control. Carbon mountain bike frames are more expensive than steel or aluminum. Carbon is the frame material of choice for some of the highest end mountain bikes.
Drivetrain
How your bike’s drivetrain is set up can make a difference to its weight. Riding with a 1x drivetrain, where you only have a single chain ring in front instead of multiple cogs, and no front derailleur, can save weight on your bike.
By contrast, if you ride a 3x setup, you will have more gears to choose from but will be adding weight to your bike to achieve this.
For this reason, many modern mountain bikes come standard with a 1x drivetrain with only the single chain ring in front.
Suspension
The suspension on your bike affects how much it weighs. While having lots of travel in your suspension can make your bike more capable, more suspension typically will mean a heavier bike.
Full suspension mountain bikes are heavier than hardtail mountain bikes because they have a rear shock and all the components that go along with it.
Hardtails are often the bike of choice for cross country riders for exactly this reason. while the rear suspension is nice to have over rougher trails and terrain, the extra weight it adds can slow down and fatigue riders on XC trails, long rides and climbs.
Frame and wheel size
Your bike’s frame size (small, medium, large or XL) and wheel size impact how heavy it is. A larger sized frame will be heavier, as will larger sized wheels.
A word of caution: you shouldn’t choose the size of your wheels or frame based solely on their weight. The frame needs to fit your body size first and foremost, and while larger wheel sizes, like 29 inch wheels, will obviously be heavier, they do have advantages including better roll speed, and ability to roll over obstacles more smoothly than smaller sized wheels.
Wheel material
Wheels can be lighter or heavier depending on what they are made of. The most common type of mountain bike wheels are made out of aluminum. Higher end, lighter carbon fiber wheelsets are also available.
While aluminum wheels are not extremely heavy, they will never be as light as carbon ones. Carbon wheels are lighter and have a snappier feel. They can help in keeping your mountain bike’s overall weight down and keep fatigue at bay.
Tubes or tubeless tires
Setting up your tires as tubeless is most often done with the purpose of allowing mountain bikers to ride with lower tire pressures and help improve both traction and the tires ability to absorb bumps on the trail.
There is a secondary benefit to tubeless tires, though, which is that they save some weight from removing the need to have inner tubes inside the tires. This doesn’t seem like a huge amount of weight, but small changes like this when stacked on top of each other have the potential to really lighten up the weight of your mountain bike.
Typical weights for different types of mountain bikes
Cross country mountain bikes
Cross country mountain bikes are usually the lightest type of mountain bike. Dedicated cross country riders will put a premium on their mountain bike being lightweight. Because of this, a typical XC mountain bike will be in a range of between 20 and 27 lbs.
Trail bikes
Trail bikes are where the largest variety of mountain bikes fall. Trail bikes are meant to be able to ride descents aggressively while still being able to make it to the top of a hill reasonably quickly. These bikes can be either hardtails or full suspension mountain bikes.
Trail bikes can range in weight from around 27 lbs and go up to around 34 lbs.
Enduro bikes
Enduro bikes fall between trail bikes and downhill bikes in terms of their size and weight. They are more downhill oriented than your typical trail bike, but there is definitely some blurring of the lines here where some riders would consider a bike to be an enduro bike while others would call it a trail bike. Enduro bikes can weigh anywhere from 32 lbs to 37 lbs.
Downhill bikes
Downhill mountain bikes, with their longer wheelbases and long travel suspension, will typically weigh in somewhere between 35 to 40 lbs.
Sprung and unsprung mass on mountain bikes
Sprung mass refers to weight on your MTB that is supported by the suspension. Sprung mass includes the bike’s frame, stem and handlebars.
Unsprung mass is the parts of your mountain bike not supported by its suspension system, including its wheels, tires and brakes.
Keeping your bike’s unsprung mass lower allows the suspension system to react more quickly to bumps on the trail, and also helps maintain better traction. Higher unsprung mass will make your mountain bike’s suspension more sluggish and less responsive, while reducing traction.
Balancing weight and performance
So what weight should your mountain bike be? It depends on what types of riding you do, and what components you need to do it effectively.
If you primarily want to ride at lift access bike parks where the vast majority of your time on the bike is going downhill, a downhill mountain bike with long travel suspension designed to handle fast, hard impacts is what will best fit your needs. This type of bike will usually fall within 35 to 40 lbs, but this isn’t a problem if you’re mainly only riding downhill.
By contrast, if all you ever want to do is cross country mountain biking, you can get away with much less suspension. A lightweight, short travel hardtail will fit this type of riding best, meaning your bike will probably fall in a range from 20 to 27 lbs.
A trail bike that is a jack of all trades but master of none will be a happy medium, with mid travel suspension and a moderate wheelbase length. Bikes like this will typically weigh between 27 and 34 lbs approximately.
Frequently asked questions
Compared to road bikes, mountain bikes have to be built much sturdier to handle the rougher terrain they are designed to ride through. This includes much larger, heavier tires, suspension systems and frames all built to hold up to impacts on the trails.
No 30 lbs is not overly heavy for a mountain bike, and would be considered a relatively lightweight trail bike. Some downhiill mountain bikes can weigh as much as 40 lbs or more.
Lightweight mountain bikes can be more expensive in some ways and less expensive in others. For example, lightweight mountain bikes would usually have less suspension than heavier duty downhill or enduro bikes, and suspension can make up a significant part of the cost of those bikes.
On the other hand, lightweight materials like carbon in a bike’s frame and wheelset are premium options that can cost a lot, whether you’re buying a bike with those features included, or upgrading your current bike.
There is no one ideal weight for a mountain bike. If you’re in the market for a new mountain bike, first you need to determine what features you want or need on your bike. If you’re planning on doing a lot of fast descents and rough terrain, you will be best served by a mid-to-long travel full suspension bike which will tend to be heavier.
Conclusion
As you can see, there is a wide variety of mountain bike styles out there with just as wide a variety of weights. You want to first make sure your bike has the right features and design for your type of riding and then optimize it for weight. Having a lighter mountain bike can be a huge help to keeping you on the trails longer, riding faster, and having fun without getting too tired.