Tested: 2007 Gary Fisher HiFi Pro

Gary Fisher HiFi Pro /// $2,800
920-478-2191; fisherbikes.com

It’d be nice to have it all, but compromise is a fact of life. You can have a fuel-efficient car, but your mates and all their bikes aren’t going to fit. You can find a beer that’s less filling, but it probably won’t taste great.

Gary Fisher’s Genesis geometry has received high marks for its climbing prowess and stable descending, but its Achilles heel has been flat, tortuous terrain—something the developers of G2, the first significant change to Fisher’s classic Genesis geometry, set out to change with the HiFi, a new all-mountain platform.

For those who missed the first incarnation, Genesis combines short chainstays and a long toptube to put the rider’s weight further behind the front wheel for descending, and more squarely above the rear wheel for climbing.

To improve slow-speed handling, Fisher worked with Manitou to develop a custom fork-crown offset, which Fisher has incorporated into the HiFi line. For those of us who slept through Frame Geometry 101, Fisher’s web site offers a narrated Flash animation that is part Power Point and part Monty Python.

In a nutshell, the fork legs on G2 bikes are shrugged forward almost 10 millimeters more than a traditional fork. This allows for a slightly shorter toptube without shortening the wheelbase. It also creates a shorter trail—the area between the center of the contact patch of the front tire and the spot the steering axis points to. A shorter trail makes slower speeds more manageable, and because the wheelbase remains the same, highspeed descending isn’t compromised.

With a 5-inch fork and 4.5-inch rear end, the HiFi lands squarely in the lightweight all-mountain category. Even without exotic components, the surprisingly stiff HiFi Pro weighs in at barely 26 pounds without pedals. Excited by the prospect of a rig with near 5 inches of travel, actual metal parts, and a weight that rivals that of my hardtail, I almost forgot about the unique geometry.

The G2 retains Genesis’ signature short chainstays, which make for flawless traction and power uphill. Out-of-the-saddle steeps as well as long, gradual climbs come easier when tires stick to the ground like month-old roadkill.

The new front end stays true to its mission of taming flat, technical trails. Though flat is a hard feature to find in Southern California, technical rocky climbs and curvaceous canyon mazes felt natural even on the bike’s maiden voyage. Claiming that slack headtube angles are prone to understeer, and steep ones prone to oversteer, Fisher uses an exacting 69.7-degree headtube angle to put you comfortably in the middle.

The bike felt at home on moderate speed, steep-as-hell trails, but when the trails really opened up, the bike became a little temperamental. However slight, G2 does have a steeper headtube angle than Genesis (by about 0.5 degrees), and all the revolutionary engineering in the world can’t defy physics. The generous travel, however, kept the bike from feeling too racy and it performed like a capable all-rounder. —Travis Engel