Earlier this year, Nordest debuted an affordable steel hardtail called the Britango that was billed as a modern do-it-all mountain bike. Now refining the bike a bit, it gets broken down into two versions – the Britango TR or Britango XC. Either can be built up with 120-140mm travel forks, but now trail or cross-country detailing makes it easier to pick the perfect starting point for your own riding style…
Nordest Britango TR, affordable MTB hardtail for TRail or XC
Separating the Britango into TR & XC models is less about telling you where to ride the affordable hardtail, than it is simply offering more options. The original Britango (now the Britango XC) was already a long, low & slack trail hardtail built for big tires plus mid-travel trail forks and dubbed a “Downcountry” bike with the intention to zip up climbs & bomb descents. But it leaned towards the lighter side of things with a 27.2mm seatpost and completely external routing.
Now the new Britango TR scales up to a 31.6mm seatpost with internal dropper routing, and slightly tweaked geometry for an even more playful ride.
Tech details
The 4130 TR hardtail is still designed for 120-140mm suspension forks, with a 44mm headtube & Boost rear. And it will still fit 29″ x 2.5″ or 27.5+ x 3″ tires (the XC bike now officially gets rated for 29×2.4/27.5/3″). If fact, at first glance the frames look almost identical.
Downcountry trail hardtail geometry
The newer frame generally gets the same slack 67°/66.5° head angles depending on 120/140mm of fork travel. But the Britango TR actually gets slightly shorter Reach figures all sizes, and at least a 1/2° steeper seattube to make it more nimble both going up & downhill.
The change in seattube, routing & geo tweaks does add ~300g to the double-butted chromoly frames – with the Britango TR now tipping the scales at 2550g for the M/L. It also adds thirty Euros to the pricetag, still pretty affordable at 580€ for the TR including EU delivery. The TR comes in the same three size range (M, M/L & L) and white or black paint schemes (although now both in gloss), or custom paint for 150€ extra.
The made-in-Taiwan frames are available now, as is a 1143€ kit that includes a Marzocchi Z2 Bomber fork in either 120 or 140mm travel for 29er or 27.5+ setup, plus a Cane Creek 40 headset.
The XC versions are also available now. As is a 1400€ titanium version with either seat tube size, and even the option to add custom geometry for just 100€ more.
