Specialized’s Butcher has been around for well over a decade, but is now a very different beast to the first generation. It started life with an all-round tread much like…
Mick Kirkman
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I tested the original Giant Trance 20 years ago: the latest Trance X has the same peppy feel and it’s one of the smoothest and fastest trail bikes around
For almost as long as I’ve been testing bikes – quite a while, as my aching bones regularly remind me – the Trance has been Giant’s go-to trail bike. It…
After 20 years testing, Yeti’s SB140 Silverfish is the one bike I’d actually buy… and with cheaper models in the range you don’t HAVE to spend £9,000
Colorado-based Yeti is one of the true OG American bike brands, having been around since George Michael and Wham were Careless Whispering in 1985. It’s not overstating anything to say…
Every packless rider should know about Topeak’s Nano shock pump: it’s cheap, pocket sized, and perfect for suspension tweaks
If you’re anything like me, you’ll have long ago ditched carrying a pack, and now I’m even at the point of ditching the hip belt, if I can help it.…
The most supple Öhlins RXF fork I’ve ever tested: the latest M3 update is a true rival for RockShox and Fox
The Öhlins RXF 36 is the Swedish brand’s mountain bike suspension fork with, you guessed it, 36mm stanchions. It gets 140mm, 150mm or 160mm travel (170mm with a 27.5in wheel)…
I rode down an active volcano to test the new Ghost Poacha freeride bike, and one thing really surprised me
Ghost’s new Poacha is a freeride and bike park bike, it gets 180mm travel and is the launch vehicle for the German brands more gravity-focussed attitude. The Poacha is a…
The new Santa Cruz Bullit made me feel cocky enough to try chasing Steve Peat, but I’m worried the small battery won’t keep me satisfied for long enough
Wind the clock back to last year and one of the biggest stories in mountain biking was Santa Cruz throwing out its own rulebook and a 20-year history by ditching…
The Race Face Era carbon bar is my pick for riders over 80kg, it’s well damped without being flexy, and has the perfect natural shape
The fashion for low or high bars swings to and fro as frequently as the trend for skinny or flared jeans, and right now we’re squarely in high bar country,…
SRAM’s new Motive brakes have great lever feel and looks, but I’ll miss the raw power of Codes
Motive is the second new brake from SRAM in 12 months, following on from the seriously impressive SRAM Maven Ultimate we reviewed back in 2024. The idea is to slim…
Hope’s new trail bike stem is a masterpiece of engineering: stiff, strong, light and beautifully machined… it’s not cheap though
Hope’s been making CNC’d stems from its Lancashire base for years. Its previous generation AM stem felt less solid to me than some competitors when back-to-back testing, but the brand…
Reynolds Blacklabel wheels are so tough they’ll probably outlive me, which makes them my pick for heavier riders or proper pinners
Reynolds is a carbon wheel specialist offering high-end road and MTB wheels. Part of the cycling group making Manitou suspension, Answer bars and Hayes brakes, I was just about to…
RockShox Flight Attendant figured out my riding with machine learning, it boosted my pedalling performance but the price is sky high
RockShox Flight Attendant is smarter now than ever before. Not content with monitoring the bike’s behaviour, the new update learns how you ride and adjusts the suspension damping automatically. It’s…
Free speed isn’t cheap: I raced Merida’s Flight Attendant bike at the Ex and won! But at £9k it’s definitely a luxury
The Merida One-Sixty 10K is a high-end pedal bike priced close to £10,000. While its premium components really do make it the best of everything, in today’s market it may…
“It’s next level good” – I tested RockShox’ new Super Deluxe Ultimate shock and it transformed the ride quality of my bike
RockShox’s Super Deluxe rear shock has looked pretty much the same since its current form launched in 2023. It’s black, it has a piggyback reservoir, and because it comes as…
I’ve spent over ten years testing flat pedals, and the new Race Face Turbine is the grippiest I’ve ever used. But it’s too much for my tastes
Race Face’s new Turbine flat pedal has one major goal; delivering maximum grip. With an all-new shape and bigger platform, this is a platform pedal for those craving a locked-on…
I’ve been testing e-bikes for over a decade, but “vaping, portable speaker wielding” riders and trail erosion are making me wish they’d never been invented
E-bikes are pretty amazing, aren’t they? Amazing for all those extra descents you can cram into precious ride time and the fact that you can blast up climbs while barely…
Rapha’s Explore Down Jacket is exceptionally snug and warm for riding, and still packs small enough for downtube storage
Part of Rapha’s Adventure line-up, this Explore Down piece targets bikepacking and gravel riding more than the enduro or e-biking I get up to. But don’t let that put you…
The new Maxxis High Roller 3 tyre is consistent, predictable and insanely grippy, but it’s painfully slow rolling if you don’t have the gradient
To say the Maxxis High Roller is a classic mountain bike tyre is a bit like saying Coca Cola is a popular soft drink. The High Roller is pretty much…
Stylish, breezy and well-protected, Smith’s Payroll is now my go-to open face helmet
The Payroll is available with or without a crash sensor called Aleck, which uses bluetooth to connect to an app on your phone and costs £45 more. I’m testing the…
Burgtec’s B-Rage Penthouse Flats are utterly bombproof, and even grippier than the originals, and great for big feet, but I think they’re overkill for most riders
Penthouse Flat pedals were the first product Burgtec ever made. Originally a massive chunk of alloy, designed to be pretty much unbreakable, over the years they became a lot thinner…