Frameset

The Tempo is based around 125mm of rear travel and a 140mm fork, aiming squarely at the short travel trail bike segment. Offered only in Aluminium, the frame stays true to Commencal’s commitment to avoid using carbon fibre, due to concern about its environmental impact.

The Tempo shares the sleek look of the Meta V5. The frame’s lines flow seamlessly from the headtube down to the rear stays. The low-slung top tube gives ample room for a rider to move around the chassis and helps keep the centre of gravity low.

Designers borrowed the Virtual Contact System (VCS) suspension linkage from the Tempo’s big brother, the Meta V5, which I reviewed in a previous issue. While maintaining the same overall function, the VCS is simplified slightly to suit the Tempo’s smaller suspension package. This virtual pivot design suits the TEMPO to a tee, allowing a reasonably supple start to the stroke, while retaining satisfactory pedalling efficiency.

Linkage pivots are all ‘through axle’ style with an expander cap to help keep them tight. They performed admirably and not once did I need to tighten any pivot point. Bearings are all manufactured by ‘Enduro,’ so I’d expect these to last longer than many OEM options. Three months in, I haven’t had any cause for concern, although most of my riding has been in the dry over summer, so time will tell.

At the end of the chainstay is the now obligatory UDH derailleur hangar, making an upgrade to a T-type drivetrain a no-brainer; a worthy upgrade for sure to get rid of one of those headset-routed cables!

There’s no funky, proprietary stuff happening with the Tempo, we find Boost 148mm spacing in the rear, a 31.6mm seatpost, and a BB92 press-fit bottom bracket—all bog standard, in a good way.

Rubber bumpers across the drive side seatstay, chainstay, and on the lower downtube, help mute unwanted noise and protect the frame from nasty chain chips or debris. Just like the Meta V5, the Tempo is surprisingly quiet on the trail, thanks in part to these bumpers.

Geometry

The geometry numbers on the Tempo are modern but not extreme, striking a comfy middle ground between an Enduro bike and a cross country bike. The ‘medium’ size I rode has a middle-of-the-road 450mm reach, a category-topping 628.5mm stack, and an almost vanilla 435mm chainstay (440mm on L and XL bikes), while the seat tube angle is “better than most” at 76.6 degrees steep. The head angle is “steeper than some” at 65.5 degrees, but quite normal for a bike in this travel bracket. All that is to say; much like the Meta V5, the Tempo has a very balanced feel, with rider weight feeling like it sits slightly further back than on the Meta V5 (which has a 10mm longer reach in size medium).

Cockpit

A complete Renthal cockpit features a ‘Fatbar Lite’ 31.8-mm handlebar that is 760mm wide and has 30mm of rise. It’s clamped in place by a Renthal Apex 40mm-long stem. This setup has a nice balance of weight, performance and value, and the fact that they specified a 31.8mm clamp bar gets a big tick in my book. Not to mention my favourite grip: the ODI Longneck.

Wheels & Tyres

The party bus rolls on a set of DT Swiss XM 1700 rims on DT 350 hubs. As I’ve mentioned in other reviews, I’m a big fan of DT Swiss wheels—and these never skipped a beat. They’re not the lightest, at over 1800 grams, but given the price point and intended use, at least a rider won’t need to give their wheels a second thought as they are burly enough to handle some heavy hits. Their 30mm internal width pairs perfectly with the specced Maxxis EXO casing tyres. Up the front, the DHR II 29” x 2.4” WT with soft 3C MaxxGrip rubber compound is a savvy choice, offering exceptional grip across most scenarios. It rolls nicely, considering the level of grip and soft compound, and is an asset to the Tempo when trails get spicy. The Dissector 29” x 2.4” WT 3C MaxxTerra on the rear rolls well and has enough grip to keep things under control in most scenarios. It’s not a fantastic tyre, but it does suit general ‘trail bike’ type riding – although, if I were riding more on loose, rocky trails, I’d be reaching for something with a bit more bite.

Brakes

A tried-and-true pair of Shimano XT M8100 two-piston brakes help slow the Tempo down and, although they’ve proved reliable, the product managers missed a trick by not speccing a pair of lower-end—but more powerful—SLX 4-pot brakes. The M8100 brakes are okay on short descents, thanks to the MT905 Ice-Tech Freeza rotors, but they suffer on long descents, and I found myself having to haul on the levers more than I’d like. Simply changing to some 4-piston callipers would make a huge difference.

Shock

The Fox Float Factory, in its stock format, suited me perfectly, and no tweaking was required from Commencal’s initial recommendations. There’s a lockout lever in easy reach while riding and I used this a lot while climbing on gravel roads or smooth trails. A dial also offers two additional compression levels when the shock is ‘open’. I played a bit with these but found the bike’s overall feel much nicer in the lowest setting. It certainly pedalled better in the second or third setting than when fully open, but the added compression stunted the feel and was only a bonus on smooth trails where I’d throw the lockout anyway.

Fork

Front suspension is handled by a Fox 34 Factory with 140mm travel. There’s all the adjustment one would want, with low and high-speed rebound and compression dials. Interestingly, the spec sheet listed the fork as having a 51mm offset, something that I thought had gone away almost entirely these days in favour of 44mm versions. I initially thought maybe it was a typo but, sure enough, the bike turned up with the 51mm offset fork. Perhaps smaller travel bikes suit the larger offset? Whatever the case, I never gave it a second thought. Once I was out on the trail, it turned out that a bike still handles fine without the much-hyped 44mm offset. Who would have thought?! (I say this in jest!)

I was stoked on this fork; anything less would hamper the bike’s overall performance, and the 34 took everything I could throw at it. I’m 80kg, so not a lightweight, but I didn’t notice any untoward flex and, regardless of the trail, the fork was controlled and felt well damped. They say something works well if you never have to give it any thought, and this fork was proof of that. I backed off one click of highspeed rebound from recommended and called it good.

Drivetrain

The combination of a SRAM GX Eagle derailleur, shifter, cassette and chain takes care of shifting. While this stuff does the job, it wouldn’t be my first port of call for an upgrade on this bike, given the accessibility, accuracy and reliability of electronic derailleurs these days.

The Ride

From early 2024 until I took possession of the Tempo in October ‘24, I’d been getting about on either a 160-170mm travel Enduro bike or a full-gas XC race bike. So, I was keen to get on board a modern, short-travel trail bike, hoping that it would be more suited to how and where I ride most of the time.

As is the norm for me on many brands, I sit between the medium and large recommendations on the Tempo, so I chose to size down rather than up. With the steep seat tube and short reach (450mm), the bike felt short when seated but put me in a nice central position between the wheels, and the ample stack combined with the 30mm rise bar put my hands up relatively high, giving me a distinct feeling of confidence; helping the bike feel like it would handle more than it’s suspension travel numbers would first suggest.

I’d convey the vibe of the bike as “playful”—akin to a big wheeled BMX in many scenarios. It excels when you’re being creative on the trail and allows for a super dynamic riding style; jumps, manuals, Scandi flicks and nose bonks are all in the Tempo’s remit, but it’s equally at home just cruising around in more of a ‘cross country’ mode.

Seated climbing is excellent. The steep seat tube helped put a good amount of weight on the front tyre, helping retain control when threading the needle between obstacles or up steep switchbacks or steps. Climbing steep pitches out of the saddle, the suspension extends nicely, giving a firm platform to push against and a relatively snappy feel. At over 14kg, and with components designed for longevity rather than light weight, it’s unlikely a rider would be getting any climbing KOMs on the Tempo. Still, at least it gets you to the top of the hill efficiently and without feeling like you’re dragging an anchor.

I commented in my Meta V5 review about how easy it was to change directions and drive through turns, and the Tempo retains this feeling. It straight-up rips turns—flat or bermed. I have fond memories of blasting through successive steep berms at the Whangamata MTB park, surprised by how it transitioned from one to the other. The only drawback of short travel like this is that rough and loose corners take a little more finesse to maintain traction; less travel means less sag and, ultimately, less traction.

Snapping out of turns, and under power while coming from a dead stop, the bike gets up to speed well and there’s no excessive loss of energy to the suspension.

Descending on the Tempo is surprising. It’s not the first small-travel bike to ride like it has more travel, but it would be one of the better ones, leaving nothing on the table. With only 125mm of travel, it can’t offer a big bike ‘buttery’ feel as it sits into its sag, but it does a great job of quieting the chatter on the trail. It doesn’t blow through travel to an uncontrolled or harsh bottom out during larger hits or g-outs.

The Tempo is stable at speed, although the nature of its shorter travel means it’s not as planted as the Meta V5 or other similar Enduro bikes, and needs more brains and less brawn to deal with rough terrain. Aboard a bigger bike, one could essentially point and shoot, standing on the pedals and having the bike do all the work—the Tempo isn’t that sort of bike…. it’s true that you can’t have your cake and eat it too.

The 125mm of suspension is enough—until it isn’t. Over my three-month stint with the Tempo, there were a few times I came into a rough section a bit hot and really had to keep my wits about me as I used every millimetre of the travel, then relied on strength, skill and (possibly more so in my case) luck, to keep the ship upright. These situations were few and far between, but it’s worth keeping in mind that there’s not the safety net that a full enduro bike would offer. Although that’s not what anyone riding this bike would be after anyway.

I like a big day in the saddle, under my own steam, and I don’t like to feel like my fun is hampered by my choice of bike – regardless of whether I’m headed up or downhill. Living in the Waikato, the majority of my riding (all within a couple of hours’ drive) is on trails tending more towards the mellow end of the spectrum. Lots of digger-built trails and not so many gnarly, steep, rocky, “heck, I hope I can make this” sort of trails—unless I’m away in Nelson or Queenstown, which is once or twice a year, if I’m lucky. With this in mind, I’ve settled on the fact that a bike like the Tempo is realistically all I need: the ability to cover a decent amount of ground, climb effectively up hills, and be able to bomb back down whatever trail I choose without feeling like I’m being held back by inactive suspension or pucker-inducing handling.

Although I didn’t need to faff with the linkage at all, if I needed to—due to the layout of the VCS linkage and pivots—accessing the bottom shock bolt or pivot bolts can be a bit niggly; needing to remove some pivot bolts to access others. Not impossible, just time-consuming. If something in the back end comes loose while out on the trail, you’ll be holding up your riding buddies for a few minutes while you get it sorted.

The internal headset cable routing is the most polarising feature of the Tempo. Cables for the rear derailleur, dropper post and rear brake all squeeze their way through the headset top cap and down through the top bearing. There’s a bit going on up front. I’m yet to have a review bike long enough to need to replace a headset bearing and, if I had, I’m sure I’d do myself the favour of taking it to a bike shop with a mechanic who has far more patience than I do to complete the procedure. It’s fair to say that simply cracking the headset open, cleaning everything, popping off the bearing seal and re-lubing it once a month or so (depending on riding conditions) would drastically increase its lifespan. Spending 15 minutes doing this periodically is easier than a bearing replacement, which could take upwards of an hour.

Final thoughts

It’s taken some time for manufacturers to get little bikes ‘right’, but it seems they’re finally getting them dialled, bringing a shift in the mountain bike market as people realise a bike with “just” 125mm travel can handle everything they throw at it. Depending on where people ride, they probably don’t need a big travel bike as their daily rig. I’m now one of these people, and I’ve had an absolute blast riding the Tempo over the summer. I still have questions about headset routing and pivot bearing servicing over a longer term and through a winter of riding but, so far, I’m grinning.