"Personally, I've always been a bit averse to longer travel, 29" wheeled bikes with much more than 130mm to 140mm of travel as they've always just felt like "a lot of bike" to me, at least for the riding at home in Santa Cruz, but the Transition Sentinel has me rethinking that. I've never ridden a Horst link bike that climbs so efficiently, never been able to manual a bike with 440mm chainstays so easily, and I've never felt so centered and "in it" on a bike
On my first romp aboard the Sentinel, I was overshooting jumps and drops by bike a bike length or two where I used to kiss the knuckle on my other bikes. It has so much pop and perfectly walks that fine line of freakishly nimble in the tame, yet sure footed in the gnar. The frame is substantially lighter in weight than I had expect from Transition, and the new industrial design is easy on the eyes while still nodding to functionality and smart features. As far as versatility is concerned, it's a nice option to be able to run a shorter 57.5mm stroke shock and 150mm fork if you wanted to err toward more of an all day ride - you could also go the other way and put a coil shock and a 170mm fork on if you really wanted to get gnarly. The increased rate of progression is absolutely dead on and they nailed the kinematics and tune." - MTB-MAG.com- FULL REVIEW HERE
"I kept going back to this feeling that it just excelled everywhere. I really liked pedaling on this bike. Like, a lot. Whether it be technical single-track or endlessly winding fire road"
"The more progressive leverage curve gives the back end a responsive lively personality under foot with a magical bottomless feel towards the end of its travel." - Bike Magazine- FULL REVIEW HERE
"Wow, the Sentinel packs it all into one rig. I've cleaned more techy climbing sections, felt more confident on blind trails, and overall had more fun riding the Sentinel than many previous bikes. If you're looking for a beast of a bike for a mix of trails and terrain that can still hold it's own when it's time to pedal bike to the top, the Sentinel is for sure the bike for you." - MTBR.com- FULL REVIEW HERE
"The new version is no slouch when it comes to straight-line plowing, but now I'd categorize it as more of an aggressive all-rounder rather than a downhill specialist. It's well-suited to my favorite types of rides - big, long adventures with a focus on steep and rough trails that can only be accessed after a sustained uphill grind" - Pinkbike.com- FULL REVIEW HERE
"After a few weeks worth of rides, the new Sentinel is a honkin' beast of a trail bike. Yes, it still feels like a trail bike. Despite the numbers, it doesn't suffer from feeling like too much of a plow - it pops when you want to pop, switches from one side of an s-turn to the other, and provides enough length to move about forward and aft to distribute traction as I need it. Like its predecessor, it falls somewhere between trail bike and all-mountain bike." - NSMB.com- FULL REVIEW HERE
