Bold Linkin 135 Ultimate Review
The Bold Linkin 135 Ultimate is a bike which for the price point it’s available at, offers an incredible amount of quality, components, design and performance.
The Linkin 135 has a lightweight and well designed carbon fibre frame, sitting within this frame is an integrated shock, a three stage climbing switch - and an inbuilt storage compartment, with a Bold Puncture Repair Kit within it.
If you are thinking that you recognise the sound of an inbuilt shock, you are not wrong - the inbuilt shock was a Bold trademark, which since Scott have acquired Bold in 2015, Scott have used across their range.
At Westbrook, we have always really liked the internal shock design featured on the Linkin range, and on this model - this allows a really clean and premium look and feel - and the 135mm of rear suspension travel is controlled by the well proven TracLoc system, which is a version of Scott’s TwinLoc, but only actuates the rear shock. Up front on the Ultimate is a 140mm fork.
The Bold Linkin 135 Ultimate has a generous storage compartment on the downtube of the bike, and the bike is delivered as standard with a ‘save the day’ kit - including a mini pump, inner tube, tyre lever and a chain tool - there’s also a mini tool which is held in place via magnets.
Features continue, there’s also a sag marker on the bottom bracket - to let you know how much travel you are using and how much travel you have left in the bank. All of the cables on the bike are routed internally, as you would expect - and the frame looks incredibly tidy.
Up front, there’s a Fox 36 Elite Performance fork - providing 140mm of travel - there's a Fox Nude rear shock which provides 135mm of rear travel, and this shock has been specifically designed to work with Bold’s integrated system.
This rear shock has three different modes - open, traction and lockout, so you can choose the mode for the shock to match your riding conditions.
Bold calls upon a Syncros handlebar and stem unit, which is made from carbon fibre - there’s an XT drivetrain and XT four piston brakes, with a 200m rotor on the front and a 180mm rotor at the rear. There’s also a 200mm dropper post fitted to the bike as standard.
Bold Linkin 135 Riding Impressions
The first thing we noticed when riding this bike, is how comfortable it is. Climbing on the bike feels good, and the front wheel remains planted, but we needed to switch the mode of the rear shock to stop bobbing about. Across most climbs, we recommend the Traction setting - which provided a great balance of suspension performance and efficiency.
As you would expect, downhill is where this bike really shines - it’s easy to ride and easy to get to grips with. The rear suspension works really well, providing plenty of grip, if we could summarise the performance of this bike downhill, it would be confidence inspiring Vs playful - providing plenty of grip and confident handling on everything but the highest speed sections.