The Hightower was designed as the Santa Cruz for everyone. Everyone with deep enough pockets, anyway. It’s got 145mm travel, 29er wheels and relaxed but not silly-slack geometry, and the…
Mountain Bike Rider
Wiltshire might seem like an unlikely place for a bike park, but it has two, and one of them – Tidworth – has just reopened after an exciting rebuild
Tidworth bike park, one of the B1KE venues that includes Wind Hill, Rogate, and S4P in Milford, has re-opened after closing for the summer to upgrade several of the park’s…
Where long, low and slack began: Mondraker’s 20th anniversary Foxy Carbon Unlimited bike pays homage to Forward Geometry
Spanish bike brand Mondraker has launched a special 20th anniversary edition of its enduro bike, the Foxy. There will only be 20 Foxy Carbon Unlimited 20th Anniversary bikes manufactured and…
DJI-powered Amflow e-bikes will start from under £6,000, with stock due in October: here’s where to buy, how to demo and which model spec to pick
DJI powered e-bikes will hit UK shores as soon as October, with prices starting from under £6,000 for an entry-level Amflow PL Carbon that dishes out up to 1,000W of…
Underpowered? Canyon’s new Spectral:ONfly gets the super-light TQ motor, but should it have had a Bosch SX?
You know the old saying, wait ages for a bus and then two come along at once. This time it’s not a double decker lumbering into view though, it’s Canyon’s…
The Canyon Spectral:ONFly’s dynamic ride quality left me smitten, but the small battery ran out of energy before I did
This is Canyon’s new Spectral:ONFly Ltd, a lightweight, low-powered e-bike, but one that shares the same geometry and suspension travel as one of MBR’s most highly-rated e-bikes – the Canyon…
Mountain biking groups unite to fight back over planned Welsh trail centre closures, including Coed y Brenin – the birthplace of trail centres
In an unprecedented show of solidarity, over 90 organisations have pulled together to highlight concerns over the fate of several much-loved trail centres due to proposed budget cuts at Natural…
Gee Atherton’s Ridgeline 5: Resistance is another mountain escapade epic, but with an intimate twist
Gee Atherton and his crew have launched the latest episode of their Ridgeline riding series on YouTube, in which Atherton goes beyond what should be possible on a mountain bike…
The Abus HiDrop is a tropical microclimate for your head, and one of the hottest full face helmets I’ve ever tested
Abus is probably best known for making bike locks, but the German brand is well versed when it comes to protecting heads too. Its latest piece of safety equipment is…
Forestal teases long-awaited range extender for its e-bikes, and claims 20% more range from new firmware
Forestal, the Andorra-based e-bike brand known for the sleek Siryon and Cyon models with their Bafang motors and integrated colour touchscreens, is getting close to launching its long-awaited and much…
Bikes with Shimano’s Autoshift are like hen’s teeth, but I found it standard on this Rockrider E-Feel 500 S at Decathlon for £3,999
When Shimano launched its Autoshift system for e-bikes last year, we were intrigued. Paul Burwell went to the launch of the Shimano EP801 motor and Autoshift for MBR and came…
I’m a huge fan of Trek’s high-octane Top Fuel 9, and the latest version is the best yet – but it could be even better
I was a big fan of the previous alloy Top Fuel from Trek, as were Danny and Alan when they tested the last Top Fuel 8, and this latest version…
GoPro launches new Hero 13 Black – here are 5 key upgrades for mountain bikers
GoPro has just released the latest version of its iconic Hero, now in its 13th guise, and while the updates are not exactly ground-breaking, there are some cool new features…
Despite Tom Pidcock’s Olympic mountain bike gold medal, Britain’s 2012 Olympic XC legacy course at Hadleigh Park is in a ‘terrible’ state, according to local riders
Only a month ago we were celebrating Tom Pidcock’s dramatic win in the mountain biking at the Paris 2024 Olympics. An Olympics where GB riders excelled, backing up Pidcock’s gold…
Cube launches 2025 range – 5 key highlights from the new MTB line-up, including three new e-bike models, two XC race hardtails, and a trail bike
These days, most manufacturers like to drop feed their latest bikes through the year, maximising eyeballs and keeping their brand in the mind of consumers as much as possible. Cube,…
This 1991 Boulder Bicycles boasted a 1,320mm wheelbase 20 years before Forward Geometry, Geometron, and Pole
Asked when the trend for longer, lower, slacker geometry started, most of us would say around 2012/2013 when Mondraker introduced prototype DH and enduro models with what turned into Forward…
From resurgent veterans to Juniors beating Elites, here are 6 things we learned from the 2024 downhill World Champs in Andorra
The 2024 UCI Downhill Mountain Bike World Championships took place in Andorra this weekend, on a dry and dusty track that ran even faster than qualifying earlier in the week.…
Puck Pieterse and Alan Hatherly win gold at the 2024 cross-country MTB world championships
Dutchwoman Puck Pieterse put on a dominant display to win the rainbow bands in the Elite Women’s cross-country mountain bike world championship race, while South African Alan Hatherly gained a…
Lizard Skins’ Gradient grips boast a subtle wing for palm support, and improved comfort on my longest rides
Before you even start counting colours, Lizard Skins have 23 different grip designs to try, and I’ve been working my way through a bunch of them recently. The ones that…
Viris might be a new name in eyewear, but the Raptor glasses kit impressed me with its scratch-resistant lens and prescription-compatible frame
Speculating in the biking spectacle space means going up against big, established global brands with massive marketing and ambassador budgets, such as Oakley, Smith, and 100% – the kind of…