Silverback's SE Trail 10 Review | Bargain for the beginner?

Silverback is a relative newcomer to the Australian bicycle market with the brand landing in the country amid the Covid bike craze. The brand started in Australia as a great alternative for reasonably priced kids bikes and hardtails, and it has solidified that position comfortably within franchised bike shops and other independent retailers. If you’ve shopped for a kids bike or a young teenager’s hardtail in the last few years, it’s likely you have come across the brand.

Silverback is the love project of Dion Retief, a South African born bicycle wholesaler that immigrated to Germany in the early noughties, who aimed to create a brand with the “mission to do good and show love for humanity” and “to pedal in life with purpose”. Can’t argue with that passion, especially if it means bringing quality bikes into the market at affordable prices, which judging by the range currently available in Australia, seems to be a successful endeavour. The brand has a much wider range of products on display on their international website, with very interesting models across Mountain and Road. 

The bike we have here on test, the Silverback SE Trail 10, is somewhat a unique proposition from Silverback in the Australian market, being the only dual suspension model being offered in the range. It is available in two specs, the Trail 10 which retails at $2499 and the Trail 11 at $2799. The suspension components from SR Suntour on the Trail 10 are upgraded to RockShox on the Trail 11. 

Silverback SE Trail 10 specs

The Silverback SE Trail 10 retails at $2,499.00, with a weight of 16.5kg (as tested) and is available in small, medium (tested), large, extra large from pedalgroup.com.

This pricepoint is quite a rarity in ever increasing bike costs, however we’d place the Silverback amongst other great options in the market that you’d likely consider if looking for a new trail bike, such as the Merida 140 400, Marin Rift Zone 1and Polygon Siskiu T7. 

Silverback claims the SE Trail 10 is a bike designed for trail enthusiasts, looking for a well balanced and durable bike that provides stability and performance in rough and technical terrain.

The Silverback SE Trail is a full 29” frame exclusively (no mullet parties out the back, sorry), with the exception of the small that runs 27.5” hoops front and back to better suit smaller riders.

One special feature on the Australian version of this bike is the R Suntour Durolux 36 fork on the SE Trail 10. This suspension choice really elevates the riding quality of this bike, which I’ll dig into more below.

If you shop around, you’ll find the Trail 10 is easily one of the best value for money trail bikes on the market at the moment.

Initial Impressions

We must admit that the Silverback SE Trail 10 looks better in person than in photos. The single pivot linkage and shock mount are focal points of the bike that look somewhat interesting when you first look at the SE Trail, however very quickly blend with the rest of the simple aesthetic of the package. 

The frame is well built, robust enough to inspire confidence that it won’t behave like a cooked noodle on the trail, while maintaining simple lines that most definitely contribute to the low price tag. The single piece rear triangle is well made and the lack of pivots only mean that there’s less flex point and less maintenance to worry about in the future. A win-win for me when looking at a no frills, easy to maintain mountain bike. 

Although it houses two water bottle mounts, it’s not without their caveats – the mount inside the front triangle will only house the smallest of bottles, roughly 600ml depending on the mount used and the second mount is on the bottom part of the downtube – a perfect recipe for a muddy and dusty mouth piece and all the nasties that come with it. I ended up running a side release bottle mount with a 600ml bottle on the inside of the frame and a tool strap on the downtube, which I believe is the perfect use for both. If you do feel you need more water capacity, perhaps a backpack or waistbag is the best option. 

The componentry is what you’d expect at the price point, and that’s a good thing – you want reliability, ease of use and low replacement costs if something does go wrong. 

The drivetrain is a combination of different levels of Shimano Cues 10 speed components, making for an intuitive and easy to use gearing – the 10 speed wide range cassette is something I wish existed many years ago and worked perfectly for the trails the Silverback SE and I shared together. 

One aspect of the drivetrain that needs to be called out is the bottom bracket. Shimano’s response to value on this Cues 10s drivetrain was to offer a square type bottom bracket – something I personally have not seen on any full suspension mountain bike with off-road ambitions for a very long time. 

The main disadvantage will come in the way of stiffness if planning on being rough with the bike and the smaller bearings will likely wear quicker. The advantage, though, is the inexpensive nature of the square bottom brackets, they’re easy to both source and replace. Is it a deal breaker? No, but something to take into account and will be interesting to see how it performs in the long run. 

The brakes are Shimano’s MT200 which are so popular you’ll see them being used on all sorts of bikes these days, from mountain bikes to cargo bikes – so spare pads are always easy to find, and most mechanics are very familiar with them when it comes to servicing.

The bike came to me already set up and ready to ride, so it was only a matter of replacing the stock aluminum platform pedals with my preferred clip-in pedals, set the bar height to my desired stack height (plenty of room in the steering tube) and hit the trails. 

On The Trail

At 173cm, the SE Trail in size medium fitted me like a glove, with a geometry that felt familiar, comfortable and confidence inducing. The seat position is very comfortable, thanks to the 79º seat tube angle and 450mm of reach, which made climbing an absolute breeze, as well as general trail riding when the seat was up. 

Although we don’t have numbers for the chainstay length, they are definitely long which give the SE Trail a very stable and centered feel when descending which combined with the sturdy Suntour Durolux 36 fork made the bike behave very well when I asked more of it than initially anticipated – perhaps a consequence of the relatively slack 65º head angle which made me have more fun on the bike than I expected. 

The ergonomics match what you’d expect from the bike of this value, nothing premium but solid components from Silverback’s own line of accessories called Surface. The saddle is comfortable enough, the grips soft and the bars and stem a good balance between reach and height. The Surface dropper post worked a treat the entire time, although it would have been great to take full advantage of the straight seat tube and have the SE Trail be specced with a dropper post longer than 125mm. It is 2025 after all. 

The overall handling of the bike, as mentioned, is natural and intuitive which will suit a new rider coming into the sport at any age, or a seasoned rider wanting to try a full suspension bike without breaking the bank. It corners exceptionally well thanks to its long wheelbase, with the Maxxis Reckon tyres being the first to warn you when you’re asking for more than what they can deliver. 

The rear suspension is very active through rough and technical trails thanks to the plush nature of a single pivot design, which means flicking the compression switch to pedal platform is a must-do if you want a stable and solid platform while climbing or riding sealed roads. 

The bottom bracket didn’t skip a beat during the testing period, however, the less rigid nature of the spindles could have been a contributing factor to me breaking the chain when pulling load onto the cranks on a climb – not something that is unheard of at the pricepoint, but remains to be seen if it’s something that will happen often. 

Our Take

How did the Silverback SE Trail 10 perform? She gets a tick of approval from me. I love a good value bike that gets new people excited about riding mountain bikes and that will be a source of happiness and not a pit of despair from broken parts that are hard to replace. Even though Silverback is a somewhat unknown brand down under, having the support of the largest bicycle retailer behind it should put you at ease when it comes to potential issues or maintenance. 

To me the real strengths of the SE Trail 10 come from the well thought out geometry, feeling well proportionate and stable on the trails, as well as the fantastic front fork for the price. Having that 36mm Suntour Durolux in the front really adds to the strengths of the bike. 

The extra oomph of the fork does ask questions of the rear shock that it struggles to answer at times, quickly feeling like it needs added compression and air to deal with repeated impacts and rougher terrain. 

Although our time together was great, there’s no hiding that some components will likely let you down in time, being the bottom bracket which I spoke of at length, the chain that did fail during our test, or the light casing tyres that will probably not cope with how the bike inspires you to ride. 

The Silverback SE Trail 10 will be a great purchase for a family getting a teenager their first full suspension, to a new rider wanting to buy a decent bike but can’t invest the $4000 now needed for a more well-known brand’s entry level bike. If you’re a seasoned rider that really pushes their bikes and wants something strong and dependable, with a more tuned suspension, there are better options in the market, but those options sit around the $3500 mark. 

Although the lack of a known brand name and quirky suspension layout might make potential buyers, few bikes in the market currently will offer better value for money and the Silverback SE Trail 10 is certainly worth a look.