Transition Sentinel Review
Overview:
The Sentinel is Transition’s “all mountain” bike which has 150 mm of travel and 29 inch wheels. I had the chance to demo this bike through a local shop and rode it on both my tame local trails and some gnarly downhill tracks.
Climbing:
This bike has a lot less travel than I’m used too, so from, my point of view it climbed like an xc bike, but I’ve heard others also point out how good of a climber it is. I never once had to flip the lockout switch, and unlike other enduro bikes I’ve ridden, it didn’t have any problems going through tight switchbacks.
Descending:
This bike has a very unique feel going downhill. The suspension platform was extremely poppy and playful, and I began to clear jumps on this bike that I’d never hit before. However when it came to riding tech trails, I quickly noticed that at high speeds it became extremely hard to hold a line on this bike. Its playful nature means it wants to mess around all the time, and it’s hard to keep it straight through the rocks. Despite this, I did get the chance to ride a much slower, yet really gnarly tech trail and the bike felt amazing, so I think if you keep your speed down on the tech, you’ll have no issues. It’s also worth noting that coming from 27.5 inch wheels, I was blown away at how fast this bike was.
Verdict:
The Transition Sentinel is the perfect all rounder if you’re someone who’s biased towards the descents and loves to catch air whenever possible. It could also make a good race bike, but you’ll have to use some extra muscle to get it to go where you want it to.