Patrol's DH bike, the 871 offers top end parts for mid -range money — Patrol’s DH bike, the 871 offers top end parts for mid -range money

We first spotted Patrol’s bikes at Interbike last fall, where they teased their downhill (871) and enduro (671) bikes. The brand was out at Sea Otter showing essentially the same bikes, but with some tweaks to the component spec. Patrol is an Indonesian company that’s been around since the early 1960s, so while they may be new to the US market, they aren’t new to making bikes. Both the 871 and 671 were looking dialed and offer a lot of value for the money.

While many new entrants into the US market are going the consumer direct route, Patrol is keeping it old school and looking to distribute through brick and mortar bike shops. Their reasoning? Being an unknown brand here, they want riders to be able to touch, feel, and most importantly, ride their bikes before purchasing.

871

The 871 is Patrol’s full-on downhill bike, sporting 215mm of rear wheel travel and 203mm up front. Its geometry is right in line with the current crop of DH bikes such as the Santa Cruz V-10, Specialized Demo, and Giant Glory. As far as the spec goes, only one level is offered, but it’s pretty much the best of the best.

Fox's highest end DHX2 Kashima coated coil shock — Fox’s highest end DHX2 Kashima coated coil shock

Highlights include a Shimano Saint drivetrain, hubs, and brakes, and top drawer suspension from Fox. The complete bike will retail for $5,700, but a frameset is also offered for $2,000 if you want to do a custom build.

A white 871 is also offered — A white 871 is also available

671

Enduro, all-mountain, trail, whatever you want to call it, the 671 looks ready to take on some serious abuse. It’s got 160mm of travel front and rear, damped by a Kashima-coated shock (Float DPS EVOL) and fork (Float 36 FiT4). Based on feedback after Interbike, Patrol went with a 1x Shimano XT drivetrain instead of the 2x they had been speccing previously. Turns out the rest of the world isn’t as hot for the 1x as we seem to be here in the United States.

The Patrol 671 looks to be a rough and tumble kind of trail bike

As for the rest of the build, Magura covers the brakes, there’s a Reverb Stealth dropper, and DT Swiss takes care of the wheels. Patrol does spec their own house brand bar, but it should be plenty wide for most trail riders at 785mm. Really the only thing I would change on the bike is the stock Patrol stem. While they spec a 55mm on the smaller sizes, they bump it up to 75mm for the large and extra large. I personally think it should be 55mm or 50mm across the range.