Liv Intrigue X Superior Overview

In April 2024, Liv expanded its ladies’s off-road mountain bike lineup with the brand new Liv Intrigue X Superior. This mid-travel bike slots in between the present Intrigue fashions. Liv designed it for all-around path driving, with 150 mm of journey within the entrance and 140 mm within the rear. 

I examined the premium long-travel Liv Intrigue LT Superior Professional 0 final summer time. It’s a extremely customizable, tech-heavy design that I loved on steep, techy climbs and descents. So, I used to be excited to take a look at the center baby within the Intrigue household. 

I rode the Intrigue X Superior 0 for five months this previous summer time and fall on the huge path networks in Crested Butte, Colo. I noticed the way it carried out on broadly different, simply accessible world-class singletrack.

Briefly: The brand new Liv Intrigue X Superior ($4,800-7,000) lineup targets established and knowledgeable feminine mountain bikers with a nimble, light-weight mid-travel mountain bike. It perseveres by way of tough, steep terrain and remains to be environment friendly for pedaling on cross-country terrain. It’s a extremely versatile path bike that’s succesful and enjoyable to experience nearly in every single place.

Liv: Girls’s-Particular Bikes

Liv is an offshoot of Big Bicycles and one of many solely manufacturers to supply ladies’s-specific mountain bikes. Not each feminine rider wants or desires them, however some want them. Liv’s all-female design group instilled body geometry primarily based on compiled information on feminine anatomy. 

The lineups, that are field-tested by ladies, embody small and extra-small body choices. This contains 29ers and mullets (blended wheel sizes) and doesn’t sacrifice premium elements.

Liv Intrigue Fashions

Liv at the moment makes three variations of the Intrigue with various quantities of suspension journey geared toward totally different riders and terrain. I beforehand examined the LT (long-travel) model. It has 160/150 mm of entrance/rear wheel journey and is geared toward extra aggressive riders and terrain.

The Intrigue 29 is the shortest journey mannequin with 140/125 mm of entrance/rear journey. The Intrigue X falls squarely within the center with 150/140 mm journey entrance/rear.

This provides riders the flexibility to decide on the suspension journey that most accurately fits their driving type, terrain, and preferences. The phrase “Superior” within the mannequin title refers to a carbon fiber body. For the Intrigue X Superior, the M and L sizes include 29-inch wheels entrance and rear. The XS and S sizes include blended wheels — 29-inch entrance and 27.5-inch rear.

In comparison with the Intrigue LT Superior Professional 0, the 2024 Intrigue X Superior has easier tech. It has 10 mm much less suspension journey entrance and rear, and the worth is a number of thousand much less.

Liv Intrigue X Superior 0 Overview

General, I actually favored the light-weight and adjustable body, and the suspension was distinctive. And I appreciated the inner body storage and the vast majority of the top-tier elements.

Moreover, whereas I don’t sometimes gravitate towards aesthetics, the paint was an eye-catcher and dialog starter, particularly within the solar. The Mulberry Glitter colour is a Barbie pink meets grape, filled with shimmery specks that shine within the solar. 

That mentioned, I had ongoing points with the drivetrain on this “0” construct, which I’ll focus on intimately later. 

Testing the Liv Intrigue X Superior 0: How and The place

From June by way of October, I milked mountain bike rides on the Intrigue Superior 0 in my yard. I rode in Gunnison, Crested Butte, and Telluride, Colo. I totaled 67 hours and 370 miles within the saddle, plus 61,000 toes of vertical ascent/descent.

My largest single-day rides had been 30 miles with 5,000 toes of climbing. I didn’t go for any lift-served bike park laps final season, so these digits replicate human-powered driving days solely.

The terrain included steep, technical, rocky, and root-laden ascents and descents, with lengthy cross-country type approaches and returns. There was additionally a justifiable share of buttery-smooth singletrack and high-alpine slick rock and sand.  

Highlights: What I Cherished

Light-weight Carbon Body

When dealing with an extended climb and you are able to do a one-armed bicep curl together with your bike, it’s value a smile. The carbon body and premium construct of the Intrigue X Superior 0 add as much as a delightfully light-weight bundle. Weighing in at round 30 kilos, the Intrigue X Superior is competitively mild amongst bikes in its class.

Throughout these lengthy climbs, a snug saddle is a necessity, and the ladies’s-specific Liv Sylvia deserves a callout right here. It was among the many most snug inventory saddles that I’ve examined. 

Digital Shifting 

When you haven’t used digital shifting but, you’ll love how {smooth} the operation is. Maybe counterintuitive, the shifting performs surprisingly effectively below load. In contrast to the old-school strategy of shifting prematurely, I discovered it to shift easily mid-climb and below energy.

Regardless of some points, the shifting efficiency was in any other case spectacular. The SRAM AXS POD controller and a variety of 12 gears had been ample for all of the terrain I encountered.

In fact, it is advisable to recharge the battery. I conservatively did this after every experience however the 25-hour claimed battery life is spectacular. I’d solely be involved about experiencing a lifeless battery on a multiday bikepacking journey or a century race. On this case, I might carry an additional battery. 

Mid-Journey Suspension 

Driving the Intrigue X Superior on simple to very troublesome terrain in Southwest Colorado was nice for comparisons. The mid-travel size was able to dealing with every part that got here down the path with out feeling like over- or under-kill. On many bikes, it may be simple to search out your self in conditions with an excessive amount of or too little journey. However the Intrigue X hit the “just-right” candy spot.

As talked about, this bike delivers 150 mm of entrance suspension and 140 mm of rear journey. In distinction, the long-travel Intrigue LT Superior Professional 0 carried 160/150 mm of entrance and rear suspension. I by no means bottomed out with that long-travel setup.

With the mid-travel setup, I reached the top of the journey a couple of times on a tough descent. And it was by no means to a level that may hurt the bike, trigger discomfort, or trigger a lack of management.

The shock comes custom-tuned primarily based on Liv’s information relating to ladies’s physique positions, top, and weight. That mentioned, there’s loads of adjustability to additional dial within the suspension to your preferences, which I did. 

On my first experience, the suspension wasn’t responsive sufficient and felt sluggish, though the sag was set appropriately. A neighborhood mechanic eliminated one of many two inner tokens contained in the entrance fork to assist match my preferences. Tokens scale back air quantity within the chamber and affect the suspension journey fee on the finish of the stroke.

Subsequent, I tinkered with the high-speed compression and low-speed compression dials whereas driving. This took some trial and error. My choice ended up being to go away the high-speed compression comparatively open, which I favored for quick, chunky rides.

The low-speed compression has dozens of small increments, and I favored having this extra closed. When it was extra open, I felt like my forearms had been taking the brunt of lengthy descents. 

Geometry Changes: A Tailor-made Trip 

Other than dialing within the suspension, this bike body has some big customization perks. These changes enable the rider to tweak the geometry barely to raised match particular preferences, terrain, and driving type.

Particularly, the Flip-Chip Maestro 3 makes incremental modifications to the body geometry with three positions to select from. Whereas that may sound intimidating, I discovered it was tremendous simple to do by myself. It was fairly superb how such a easy adjustment may change my on-trail expertise.

The flip-chip is actually a small chip within the higher arm of the rear suspension linkage. After loosening, it could possibly rotate 180 levels to alternate between a low or excessive setting. A second chip — which comes with the bike and also you’ll want to soundly stash someplace — has a mid-level possibility. 

Every “flip” of the chip delivers a 5mm change in backside bracket top and a 0.4-0.3-degree change within the seat and head tube angles. The modifications are most substantial when going between high and low. This raises or lowers the underside bracket by 10 mm, and the seat and head tube angles steepen or slacken by 0.7 levels.

My largest takeaway was the low Flip-Chip Maestro 3 setting hindered climbing on rocky and rooty trails. With the decrease backside bracket and slacker head tube angle, I hung the bike up extra simply. The excessive place gave me extra pedal and body clearance. I not often snagged path obstacles, conserving my uphill momentum.

Nevertheless, the low place dropped the middle of gravity, aiding descents, particularly if I hit mud or unfastened rocks. Both approach, the Flip-Chip Maestro 3 was simple to regulate, and the dealing with variations had been noticeable.

The opposite main geometry adjustment with the Intrigue X is the reach-adjustable headset. It offers positions of -5mm, 0mm, or +5mm. This may additional fine-tune the bike’s match for consolation, dealing with, and stability to particular person choice.

Cargo House

Contained in the body, the down tube is hole for storage. The small door of the storage compartment was tremendous simple to open. When you mount a water bottle cage on high, you’ll simply want to drag out your bottles first. The storage compartment comes with a small bag for organizing instruments, although I by no means used it.

Whereas not for bulkier gadgets like a tube, the inner storage was ample for a packable ultralight rain jacket. My jacket by no means bought moist driving within the rain and thru puddles regardless of Liv not deeming the storage space waterproof.

Critiques: Drivetrain Points 

On my first experience, I had points with the rear derailleur. It shifted effectively between the 2 lowest gears as I climbed a rocky singletrack with a girl crew. However after I dropped to the third lowest gear, all of the sudden, it wouldn’t downshift. I used to be nonetheless capable of climb 2,000 toes — but it surely was arduous and never probably the most, err, fulfilling. 

Upon inspection (and ensuring the battery for my shifter was totally charged), a number of mechanics decided that the derailleur physique pivoted backward when it smacked a rock. This prolonged the jockey wheel cage ahead, lowering stress on the chain. Diminished chain stress could cause the rear derailleur to not shift easily or in any respect within the decrease gears.

A powerful promoting level of SRAM’s Transmission derailleurs is its capability to shrug off severe impacts. That’s good in principle, but it surely didn’t work on this occasion as a result of the pully cage didn’t retract after getting hit. The mechanics checked every part and tightened every part to spec, and I continued to test-ride the bike.

Sadly, the problem endured. If the pulley cage moved an excessive amount of, it bought caught within the prolonged place. The one answer was to hop off the bike and push the arm again into place to supply stress on the chain. It wasn’t arduous to do. However for somebody who enjoys getting within the move and has targets on powerful climbs, this was a significant annoyance. 

After ending my check interval, I spoke extra with a number of mechanics. We speculated that one in all two issues occurred. Maybe the fallacious Transmission was on my demo bike (whoops). Or, Liv presumably didn’t check this particular bike body and rear derailleur configuration (huge whoops). SRAM publishes a listing of the examined configurations, and in line with the mechanics, this particular one wasn’t on the listing. 

Regardless, it was an actual head-scratcher. In principle, any bike with a Common Derailleur Hanger (UDH) needs to be suitable with SRAM Transmission derailleurs. And all Transmission elements needs to be cross-compatible. So, if it really works with the GX model, it also needs to be superb with the XO model and vice versa. Due to this fact, if one Transmission configuration works on a body, all of them needs to be viable. Maybe that isn’t all the time true.

It appears unlikely that both Liv or SRAM would knowingly ship out merchandise that don’t work effectively collectively. And different critiques of this bike don’t point out comparable points. Likewise, different GearJunkie editors have examined quite a few bikes with SRAM’s Transmission drivetrains with out experiencing any issues.

However with electronics and more and more extra superior designs, drivetrains are solely getting extra complicated. Each occasionally, issues simply don’t operate correctly. There may need been some invisible injury, or possibly it was only a lemon. Regardless of the trigger, I assume that SRAM’s guarantee would cowl a problem like this if it occurred to you.

Intrigue X Superior 1: Why You Ought to Get It 

Liv doesn’t promote all fashions in all areas, and the Superior 0 construct isn’t supplied within the U.S. market. Liv solely sells the Superior 1 and Superior 2 in the USA. So, choosing up both mannequin is a smoother buy expertise when you stay stateside. Of the 2 choices, I like to recommend the Intrigue X Superior 1 ($7,000).

With the Superior 1, you’ll hand over the Mulberry Glitter end. However you get a timeless darkish chrome that has a gold shimmer — which seems tremendous rad. But, the superior elements of the design that I personally loved stay the identical. The Superior 1 prices a whopping $2,400 lower than the Superior 0. This displays the lower-tier, however nonetheless glorious, elements.

The rear derailleur is the SRAM GX Eagle AXS versus the Superior 0’s SRAM XO Eagle AXS. Along with the derailleur, the Superior 1 differs from the Superior 0 because of the Fox 36 Efficiency Elite suspension elements, Big Contact SL TR35 handlebar, and Big Contact SL stem, plus a special cassette, chain, and crankset. 

When you don’t have that a lot to spend, the Intrigue X Superior 2 ($4,800) has the identical body however downgraded however nonetheless trailworthy elements. Going with an aluminum body of the Intrigue X ($3,300-3,800) line saves you one other chunk of cash. However the geometry is similar because the carbon fashions.

Who Is the Liv Intrigue X Superior For? 

Regardless of my — hopefully remoted — shifting subject, the Intrigue X Superior is a good bike that I believe ought to enchantment to loads of feminine riders. With middle-of-the-road journey numbers and ample geometry changes, it’s an adaptable and versatile path bike that may do all of it.

Extra aggressive, aggressive, or enduro riders who prioritize downhill efficiency may want an extended journey bike. These trying to cowl floor extra rapidly on mellower trails may go for one thing with rather less journey. However intermediate to superior riders who benefit from the full spectrum of trails, from mellow cross-country to steeper, more difficult routes, will discover severe pleasure on the Liv Intrigue X Superior. 

Sure, the “0” mannequin isn’t on the desk. It’s not offered within the U.S., and I had points with that individual configuration. However the “1” configuration has all of the attributes that I completely cherished about this bike and none that I didn’t. Plus, it prices a lot lower than the one I examined.

When you’re on the lookout for a light-weight ladies’s-specific carbon mountain bike with a extremely customizable body, reasonable journey, digital shifting, inner bike storage, and attention-grabbing type, the Liv Intrigue X Superior needs to be on the high of your listing.