The second Hellenic Mountain Race started a few hours ago, a bikepacking race through the Greek mountains that has it all: over just 883 kilometres, 27,800 metres in altitude have to be overcome. That means 3,148 metres of elevation gain over 100 km. A “tough board”.
Just like last year, I took a look at the participants’ bikes and analysed them for you. The basis for this was the “Rigs of Hellenic Mountain Race” article on Bikepacking.com. A total of 39 bikes were presented there.
This time I focussed even more on the suspension and the handlebars.
Here we go!
HMR 24: a festival for Tailfin, Mezcal & Sour Bicycles
In terms of frame material, the proportion of carbon frames has changed compared to the previous year. This has increased to 49%. Steel is in second place with 33%.
The proportion of mountain bikes is 87%. 5 participants are on monster gravel bikes/drop bar MTBs (13%).
Suspension is, of course, a big issue and 87% are riding with a suspension fork. And again 26% rely on fullys for the HMR.
When choosing a suspension fork, the majority favoured RockShox (46%) and Fox (31%). The RockShox SID Ultimate (28%) and the Fox 34 Stepcast (15%) are ridden the most.
In terms of travel, i.e. suspension travel, the majority are travelling with 120mm, followed by 100mm.
As it’s a Mountainbike race, flatbars are of course the most common (90%). Only 10% have a dropbar (Monster-Gravel or Dropbar-MTB).
When it came to handlebars, this time I mainly looked at the inner bar ends: 49% are fitted with these very practical little horns. However, the proportion of aerobars is quite low at 15%, which is not surprising given the terrain.
When it comes to lighting, the majority rely on battery-powered lights. Only 33% ride with a hub dynamo (92% use SON).
The drivetrain is (as usual) firmly in the hands of SRAM: 56% ride with the American company’s gears. 36% rely on Shimano. SRAM Eagle GX, Shimano XT and SRAM Eagle XX1 drivetrains are used the most.
The majority rely on mechanical shifting – 33% on electronic, with all of them being SRAM AXS. And this is exactly the same ratio as last year. Interestingly, I didn’t see any bikes with the new SRAM Transmission, which would be an obvious choice here.
What has changed compared to 2023, however, is that this year 90% of participants are riding 12-speed drivetrains. 97% ride 1x and 31% ride with a 30 crankset up front.
There are no surprises when it comes to wheel sizes: 29-inch wheels dominate. I could only find one 650B/27.5 inch bike.
Carbon seems to have finally prevailed with the rims: 67% ride with this material.
Vittoria Meczal are usually the tyres that are used the most. This is also the case here: 51% rely on the Italians and 46% on the Mezcal as tyres for these challenges. However, the competition was usually closer: this time Maxxis followed far behind (15%) and Continental with 10%.
The majority of the field is on the road with tyre widths between 2.25 and 2.35 inches. However, 2.4 inch tyres are also more common this time. I also saw one bike with 2.6 inch tyres.
Speaking of bikes: Sour Bicycles from Dresden and Canyon dominate the field. I’m particularly pleased for Sour, because all the Sour riders here are on the Pasta Party model.
The Exceed is the most popular Canyon model.
The bikepacking bags used are similarly dominant this time: Tailfin came out on top here – not without good reason – with 36%. The AeroPack is used by 23%. Apidura comes in 2nd place with 33%.
Finally, some statistics
The average age of the participants this time is 34.4 years, making the race younger after last year’s average age of 37.
In terms of nationality, most participants come from the UK, Belgium, Germany and the USA.
Bikeanalytics HMR 2023
For comparison, you can find the HMR Bikeanalytics data from last year here:
