Revel Ranger Assessment | 2026 Short Travel Trail Bike Shootout

Revel has constructed a die-hard following in its comparatively brief time available in the market, and the Ranger is again for its second era with a floor up redesign. The CBF suspension platform stays, however some important updates have been made to the kinematics to extend capabilities when the path will get tough. The Revel Ranger now options 120mm of journey out again, and the entrance finish could be set to wherever from 120mm to 140mm to tailor the dealing with of the bike between a path mountain bike or a extra XC-oriented machine. We completely loved placing this imply crimson machine to the check as a part of our 2026 Short Travel Trail Mountain Bike Group Test, and now it’s time to speak about the way it carried out.

These intensive group evaluations wouldn’t be doable with out some wonderful companions. Their assist ensures our whole crew can experience all these bikes on quite a lot of terrain to determine real-world knowledge for our viewers.

SUPPORTING BRANDS

Thule dealt with all our bike transportation and equipment storage wants. Their merchandise had been essential to assist all of the bikes and equipment we had whereas touring to completely different zones over the a number of months of testing. On the every day, we used the Thule Verse two-place bike rack, with its built-in work stand. For our massive shuttle days, we used the Thule Revert, a 6-place vertical bike rack which helped us effectively transport almost all of the bikes on-test. We additionally obtained among the finest MTB gear luggage within the sport: the Thule Roundtrip 70L duffle. It was the right bag to retailer all our gear, whereas the Thule Chasm saved all our spare elements in a single place. Out on the path, our crew utilized the Thule Rail hip pack, making certain snacks, instruments, and necessities had been all the time readily available.

Delium offered us with our management tires, making certain constant, reliable traction for all bikes on check. Balancing rolling effectivity and grip by means of our dry summer season circumstances, we opted to run the Steady up entrance and the Fast out again, each within the All-Round building. We ran these tires at 23psi up entrance and 26psi out again, with no flats or rim dents and a stunning quantity of traction on faucet.

We additionally wished to maintain our contact factors constant, so partnered with SDG Components. SDG equipped us with their new Thrice Open Core Grip and Bel Air V3 Overland saddle. These proved to be the right mixture for lengthy days out, and we had been stoked that testers didn’t must complain about OE grips or uncomfortable saddles.