Privateer is giving away a Hunt Enduro Wide rear wheel with a Maxxis tyre to anybody buying one of its second generation 141 or 161 bikes, to make trying mullet a no-brainer option.

The Hunt wheel and Maxxis tyre will come setup tubeless to make the process as easy as possible, and Privateer says it’s doing this to let people know switching to a mixed wheel setup on the new Gen 2 141 and 161 bikes is a doddle thanks to its flip-chip system.

The second rear wheel will even come setup tubeless with the tyre in place, so you don’t have to wrestle it on yourself. There’s service for you

It’s good stuff being given away too, we’ve rated the Enduro Wide one of the best mountain bike wheels around, and the Maxxis DHR is handsdown the best rear tyre for mixed conditions.

The freebie is worth something like £350, £269 for the wheel and £80 for the tyre, which is a pretty cool giveaway on a bike costing £4,289, in the case of the 141 trail bike : or £4,379 for the 161 enduro. The 141 will come with an additional DHR2 with Double Down casing, and the 161 with a DHR2 and Downhill casing.

Mullet makes sense if you’re riding aggressively and want your rear wheel to take some big hits

Should you go mullet?

Yes, in a word, if only because it’s fun to mess around with your bike and try new things, particularly if it’s free. You can always sell the unwanted wheel if it doesn’t work for you.

In terms of performance it depends to a great degree on personal preference, but when we back-to-back tested two Intense Tracers to figure out which is the best wheel size, mullet or 29er, the answers were clear. We used identical bikes but for the wheel sizes and found… drum roll… there is no huge chasm in performance between the two, and the gains are small, but nevertheless still there. The mullet bike was marginally easier to turn and offered better bum clearance, while the 29er was faster on the climbs. We’d also argue that a 27.5in wheel on the bike will prove stronger thanks to its smaller size.

Hunt Enduro Wide

The whee in question is Hunt’s Enduro wide, the vital statistics are it weighs around 2,096g and that means its a heavy-duty wheel for all mountain or enduro use. The internal rim with is 31mm which means it’ll form the best profile shape with 2.3-2.6in tyres

Privateer switched the pivot point on its second generation 141 and 161 bikes, we’ll let you know how they ride when we test them this summer

Privateer Gen 2 bikes

Launched back in February, the second generation Privateer 141 and 161 kept the travel exactly the same, and the geometry pretty close to the original bikes too. What changed about the 141 and 161 was the suspension design, Privateer switched to a Horst-link A-L-P Suspension platform that the brand says gives it more tuning options in terms of anti squat and progression.

The bikes use size-specific chainstays, come with Fox Performance Elite suspension and of course feature flip chips to switch between wheel sizes on the rear.