If there is anything keeping us honest in the mtb world it's XC bikes. There is no better way to come to the realization that you don’t really need all of that travel and tire tread than ripping your local trails on a short travel race machine. XC bikes in 2025 are fast, both uphill and downhill, and gone are the days where they are reserved strictly for spandex wearing racers. The ARI Signal Peak 3.0 proves this point.
The new ARI Signal Peak has gotten a pretty massive overhaul for 2025. Its head angle is slacker, seat angle is steeper, and reach numbers are longer. It sports 120mm of travel upfront with a 66.5 degree head angle and 110mm of travel in the rear. The new Signal Peak also joins the flex stay XC full suspension competition amongst bikes like the Specialized Epic, Yeti ASR, and Cannondale Scalpel. Essentially flex stay XC bikes are able to mimic the suspension feel of a horst link design while saving weight due to one of the pivot points being a flex stay located in the seat stay (or chainstay in the case of the Cannondale Scalpel).
Aesthetically the new ARI Signal Peak 3.0 looks amazing. The lines are very clean and there is nothing complicated about it. There are no integrated headsets or tricky cable routing. There is room for 2 bottles in the frame and my size XL test bike sports a “Pro Build” with XO Transmission and a full Sid Ultimate and Luxe suspension setup. Arguably one of the coolest things about the Signal Peak 3.0 is that ARI chose to not just spec a 3 position remote lockout on my higher end build, but all of their build kits. Remote lockouts and XC go together like peanut butter and jelly in my opinion, and I think a lot of riders out there will appreciate this.
The Signal Peak also shed almost a full pound of weight this year as well. My XL test bike came in slightly over 26 lbs with XTR pedals and some beefier Rekon tires. ARI specs Rekon Race tires on their builds, however I have found I get a bit more life both out of the tire tread as well as metaphorically for myself from a slightly more aggressive Rekon.
How does it ride?
Climbing
From the moment I hopped on the new Signal Peak 3.0 I knew they nailed the updates. I personally did not get along great with the previous Signal Peak. I have a relatively high saddle height at about 805mm, so seat angles are a bit exaggerated for me with the saddle so high. The previous Signal Peak had a seat angle that was a tad too slack for me and I found on a lot of the prolonged steep climbing I like to do I couldn’t quite get where I wanted when I was seated putting the power down.
The new Signal Peak 3.0’s seat angle is perfect! They went with a 76 degree seat angle, which is about half a degree steeper than some other popular XC bikes and this feels like the sweet spot on the trails. With XC you don’t want to go too steep as lots of racing and riding takes place on flatter or undulating terrain, however the 76 degree seat angle feels like the sweet spot where the Signal can still be used for all day trail riding as well as racing.
The frame also has a very stiff feel to it allowing you to put the power down out of the saddle and not feel like you are wasting any energy. I appreciated the roomy cockpit reach as well as the Rockshox Twist 3 position Lock lockout. Not surprisingly, when XC bikes are locked out they climb very fast, however what I enjoyed most was the middle “pedal” position on the lockout. This middle pedal mode still had an amazing pedaling feel on the Signal but you also noticed more traction on tech style climbs which was much appreciated!
Downhill
Once again, XC bikes keep you honest, and the Signal Peak 3.0 made me realize consistently that I don’t need all that travel. It has such a capable feel to it out on the trails and more than once I had to remind myself that I was on a 110mm XC bike even though I was riding the same trails just days before on with my enduro rig. The roomy front end reach gives you this precise control in steep tech and the suspension design feels very plush when things start getting rowdy. The combination of Rockshox suspension, which already is on the softer side, along with the horst link style suspension design is pretty awesome and compliments each other very well.
The real fun is the short chainstays found on the Signal Peak 3.0 and I constantly found myself whipping the rear end around as well as easily manualing off of drops. Similar to the Pivot Mach 4SL, the ARI Signal Peak has this ability to ride so much more capable in tech situations than its numbers would lead you to believe, and a lot of this is helped by those shorter chainstays. There were so many rides where I would be passing a downhill trail I had no intention of riding, only to find myself on it with a curiosity of how the Signal would handle steeper tech and consistently the Signal Peak blew my expectations away. Its ability to go back and forth between XC race machine and fun everyday trail bike is something that a lot of riders will appreciate.
Things I did not like?
In terms of things I don’t like on the Signal Peak 3.0, there is not much. The short chain stays are amazing in tech and keep the bike very playful, however for me personally on an XL frame it would be interesting to see how the Signal Peak 3.0 would ride with size proportional chainstays. Some riders might also want internal frame storage, although I am slowly becoming one of those on the other side of that argument that prefers when bike’s don't have frame storage. Lastly, while the Rockshox Twist Lock remote lockout is the cleanest option on the market, the twist actuation can feel slightly awkward at times on the wrist but nothing that would cause me to go with a less clean looking lockout cable wise.
Conclusion:
The new Signal Peak 3.0 by ARI is the perfect bike for the racer who still wants to have fun on their bike during the week training for those weekend races and then take the same bike racing! It does an amazing job of blurring the lines between XC efficiency and trail bike fun, and constantly I found myself with a huge smile on my face thinking that there is no way I am going this fast in spandex. XC racers will also appreciate all the small details in the bike such as no integrated headsets and easy maintenance, as well as a 3 position lockout on all models.
When fun meets fast you get the Signal Peak 3.0
Check out the Signal Peak here: https://aribikes.com/products/signal-peak
-Mo Awesome
