Mountain Biking UK

There was a point where our big Bike of the Year test looked like it wasn’t going to happen. Unprecedented demand for new bikes meant we had to pull all kinds of strings to get hold of the trail and enduro contenders we wanted, without too big a vari

Spring can be a mixed bag when it comes to weather, but there’s something special about those first few dry spells and warmer days that let you know the seasons are changing. You start to notice the nights are drawing out, and to relish the thought o

Squeezed between France and Spain, Andorra may be small but it has some decent-sized mountains, riddled with trails that demand a healthy amount of commitment. The principality is also home to larger-than-life French downhill and four-cross legend Cé

After a quiet couple of years on the Saracen front, they’ve announced some major changes. The British outfit are the latest to move to an online-only ‘direct sales’ model, which should help keep prices competitive – something also aided by sharing th

We’re thrilled by the boom in mountain biking over the past year or so, but that does come with consequences. Local woodlands and other natural spaces are being accessed by more people than ever before – not just higher numbers of folk on bikes, but

£3,319 Steep and fast or tight and twisty, Pace’s hardtail does it all There aren’t many brands with a history in mountain biking that runs as deep as Pace’s. After making waves with the RC100 hardtail back in 1987, the pioneering Yorkshire company’

Founded 2015 Key personnel Ed Brazier, James Crossland, Andy Donnachie Location Sheffield First product The Edit, a 150mm-travel 650b bike New products We currently have the Fade DJ bike and the fourth-generation Edit. We’re also developing the S

”Developing a new bike takes a huge amount of hard work and commitment, so we need to be fully behind the idea from the start. If the desire is there, we sketch out a brief to get started. Then we move onto kinematics and geometry, to translate that

Many years have passed since bikes were simply sprayed pink, adorned with glitter, bestowed with an oversize saddle and labelled as women’s models. Most of society, including the bike industry, has moved on from such stark stereotypes. However, brand

What if we were to tell you that Scotland has a hidden gem – a lost valley crammed full of some of the sweetest slithers of dirt that our floating lump of rock plonked in the roaring Atlantic has to offer. A valley of endless possibilities, with towe

I won’t lie, I was pretty excited when, a few weeks ago, James – YT Industries’ UK manager – turned the corner of my street wheeling my new bike. That excitement grew further when I saw the bike was matt black, because as anyone who’s ridden with me

NE OF THE BIGGEST SWELLS I’VE SEEN IN YEARS IS PUMMELING BAWDEN ROCKS,  a mile off the coast of St Agnes in Cornwall. Waves are bursting over the tallest of the two, known as the Cow (the other being the Calf) and stretching up 80ft – and the spray i

£TBC Big-money bike for mega mountain missions Already proven in the Enduro World Series, this latest Altitude boasts a carbon fibre frame with 160mm of rear wheel travel. Rocky Mountain’s RIDE-9 system gives you nine shock position options, each of

Bars tend to be narrower than on equivalent men’s/unisex models – usually around 760mm wide. They can be cut down even shorter if required. Some brands fit skinnier grips to cater for female riders with smaller hands. Pretty much all women’s bikes

Two brands dominate the drivetrain market – Shimano and SRAM. Both offer an impressively wide range of MTB-specific options, from budget 10 and 11-speed set-ups to mega-money, electronically-shifting 12-speed systems. That’s assuming you want to run

Q I want to film myself riding. Do I need to spend all that money on a GoPro or are the cheaper alternatives good enough? If I do go for a GoPro, which is the cheapest you’d recommend? Max Fowler, Dartmouth A It depends on your budget and what you

Route summary Just a short route, but it still offers some sweet singletrack and a hill for stunning views. Ideal for a quick blast, or an enticing introduction to MTBing and the area. Start/finish Hillend car park (postcode SA3 1JH, grid ref SS 414

This has been the strangest and toughest Bike of the Year test we’ve ever put together. Our biggest issue was getting hold of bikes. The surge in cycling over the past year, coupled with delays brought about by the global pandemic and Brexit, meant i

Route summary A big, tough, rocky delight of a ride. Steep and challenging throughout, but never too remote and has bail-out options if they’re required. Start/finish Hope car park (postcode S33 6RS, grid ref SK 171/835) 1 Turn right out of the car

Route summary A solid XC route through the beautiful, peaceful Berkshire countryside, with top-quality refreshment stops and opportunities to explore further along the way. Start/finish Yattendon village (free) car park (postcode RG18 0UQ, grid ref

With a geometry chart that could have been pulled from one of the more radical enduro bikes in this test – including a 65-degree head angle and 505mm reach (large) – it’s no surprise that if you point the 130mm-travel Ariel 30 in a straight line down

Nestled on the northern edge of the Lake District, England’s most mountainous National Park, and sandwiched between the towering Grisedale Pike and Skiddaw massif, Whinlatter trail centre is in a prime spot for some exceptional views. Even in poor we

The 150mm-travel Zesty’s floating shock design (where the damper is suspended between the rocker link and chainstay, not attached to the mainframe) gives it an impeccably smooth-feeling rear end, with the back wheel free to track the ground with mini

It was only during repeated back-to-back testing of our top-scoring bikes that the Privateer missed out on a podium spot. We’ll come on to why that is a little bit later in this review, but the 141 highlighted just how good trail bikes are these days

Route summary A fun ride across the moors with some challenging trails and remote sections, but nothing too difficult or dangerous. The tracks stand up well, but are best saved for good weather because you’re exposed and will miss the views. Start/f

As we said at the start of this section, picking a winner this year was a real struggle. The Canyon Spectral 29 CF 7 has arguably the most sorted frame here, while the Saracen Ariel 30 Pro is really good value and we love its geometry, too. Both the

With YT saying that “bike parks are the perfect playground” for the Capra Shred, it may look like an outlier in this enduro test, but its burly build and 180mm of travel make it an absolute beast when pointed down any kind of hill. The bike comes wit

Canyon have built one of the best trail bikes out there. The frame is excellent, with geometry that’s right on the money for this category. That includes a reach that’s long enough (485mm, large) to give confidence on steep terrain, while still letti

The Sommet was always a great-value bike but lacked a little in performance. A full geometry and suspension overhaul means the latest model punches well above its price. The new carbon front triangle (mated to an alloy back end) gives this latest ver

As ever, getting to the point of having just three finalists was a tough, drawn-out process, this year especially. With the restrictions in place, we weren’t able to swap bikes around between testers as much as usual and had to pedal our laps of Bike

Smooth lines and striking graphics, combined with Intense’s undeniable racing heritage, make the Primer Expert 29 turn heads in the car park. This is one of the tidiest frames around, with the carbon fibre front and rear triangles joined by a pair of

Scott’s Ransom offers up 170mm of travel at the front and rear, making it one of the longest-travel frames on test. But unlike on the other bikes, that travel can be easily controlled on the fly, using the brand’s proprietary TwinLoc system. A bar-mo

Cotic have upped the RocketMAX’s rear wheel travel to 160mm and tweaked its leverage ratio and progression rate to offer a plusher suspension feel, delivered via their linkage-actuated single-pivot system. The frame pairs a Reynolds 853 steel front t

It’d be easy to fall into some clichés here, at the sharp end of our Trail Bike of the Year test. Yes, this year’s line-up was the hardest yet to judge. And yes, it was very hard to narrow down the top five to just three. Just as predictably, we only

We’ll be honest, with the changes made to both the Nukeproof and the Whyte, we were expecting it to be one of these two that took the top spot. The Trek really did come in and surprise us. Every lap on the Slash was an eye-opener, and the more we pus

“Do one thing that scares you every day” is what they say, right? Finding a gap to jump is a great way to do just that, especially if it hasn’t been jumped before. There’s that excitement you get when you first spot the gap, then a wave of fear as yo

The Process 153 29 pumps out 153mm of rear travel via a RockShox Super Deluxe Select+ shock and Kona’s ‘Beamer’ suspension configuration, a linkage-actuated single-pivot layout. There’s a longer-travel version, the Process X, with 161mm of travel, bu