Choosing the best mountain bike is hard. There’s loads of them out there. They all look the same. And yet different too. This guide will narrow things down.
What is the best mountain bike?
There is no single best mountain bike. Mountain bikes come in different designs depending on what their intention may be. A mountain bike for racing cross-country is not the same as a mountain bike intended for weekend trail riding.
Our current favorite mountain bikes
Vitus Nucleus VR, £549.99
It’s been our Hardtail of the Year in the sub £500 category four years straight and the way it’s racked up that string of titles makes it a truly exceptional package. Not once was the test decided on points, instead the Nucleus VR always delivered a series of dramatic first-round knockouts.
Make no mistake though, the Nucleus isn’t just a showboating crowd pleaser. It’s the complete package that has systematically out-classed its rivals in every single department. With meaty WTB tyres, a sorted cockpit, powerful hydraulic brakes and a slick-shifting 2x drivetrain, all hanging from a finely sculpted alloy frame, that wouldn’t look out of place on a bike costing double the money, the Vitus really has no shortcomings.
Ideal for a Bivouac Adventure
Ideal for a Bivouac Adventure
It’s light and agile so you can effortlessly bob and weave around tightly spaced trees, but it also packs a mighty punch so it’s just as comfortable blasting down moorland bridleways at breakneck speed. It can roll with the punches too, because it’s the only bike at this price point to come with an air-sprung, hydraulic damped fork. The main advantage of the air-spring being that you can adjust the fork to accurately match the rider’s weight with nothing more than a shock pump.
It’s the bike you want in your corner not matter what challenges you face, because the Nucleus VR will always have your back.
What’s new for 2020?
Incremental progression is what keeps the Vitus Nucleus VR at the cutting edge of development. Last year it was a small change to wider rims to help support the higher volume tyres while offering better tubeless compatibility. This year, Vitus has raised the bar by 15mm; delivering an SR Suntour fork with bolt-thru lowers that simultaneously increase steering precision and wheel security in one fail swoop. Given that Vitus already had a best in class fork, it spells another deathblow to any brand set on challenging this undisputed £500 prize-fighter.
Voodoo Bizango, £650.00
There’s nothing magical about the meteoric success of the Bizango 29. Voodoo didn’t hex the competition, and you won’t find finger-bikes of its rivals with pins sticking out of the tyres if you visit Voodoo’s design HQ.
Instead, Voodoo had been rewarded with multiple test wins for being one of the first brands in the sub £750 category to blend the improved roll over of 29in wheels with trail bike geometry.
It was also an early adopter of lighter and more reliable single-ring drivetrains. The latest Bizango 29 coming with a slick shifting 11-speed SRAM NX transmission, where the narrow/wide tooth profile on the 32t chain ring improves chain retention.
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There is something magical about the ride quality of the Bizango though. It’s fast and direct when you drop the hammer, but the unique blend of aluminium tubing makes it forgiving too, resulting in a ride quality that it is not as jarring on rough technical terrain, so your body takes less of beating.
Like most perennial winners in our Hardtail of the Year test the Voodoo had the best fork in class. The 120mm Suntour Raidon benefiting from an adjustable air spring and proper damping, where both can be fine-tuned to perfectly match rider weight.
Front-end tracking is improved further by a stiff 15mm bolt-thru axle, rather than a spindly 9mm quick release options found on the competition. This, combined with the Maxxis Ardent tyres gives you the ability to navigate the most technical terrain with confidence. And given that riding is just as much about mind-set as rider skill and fitness, the Voodoo Bizango 29 is one bike that won’t mess with your melon.
What’s new for 2020?
One of the key reasons the Bizango 29 is so competitively priced, is that Voodoo operates a two-year model cycle. So rather than updating the specification or colour of the bike every 12 months, Voodoo gets the bike dialled, then passes the saving on to the rider. So the bike you see here is identical in every way to the one that scored a perfect 10 rating back in July.
Canyon Spectral AL 6.0, £2,249
anyon uses a unique numbering system to classify its bikes: 1 is for road bikes, 2 covers commuter bikes, 3 is for hardtails and XC full-suss, 4 covers Trail riding but no bike park action, that’s reserved for the gravity and DH models in category 5. There are even small graphics next to the numbers on the bikes to highlight the gradient of the intended terrain. It’s all very structured and practical even if a little, well…German.
So imagine our surprise when the Spectral broke ranks. By adding a longer stroke shock Canyon upped the travel on the 2019 Spectral by 10mm to 150mm. It also increased the fork travel by the same amount, adding a burly 160mm Fox 36 fork to slackened the head angle by one degree.
To maintain the low BB height needed for railing turns, Canyon also bucked the trend for fatter tyres downsizing from 2.6in to 2.4in.
Taken together, the all of the updates to the Spectral AL 6.0 made it more capable than ever before, but where did it sit in Canyon’s classification system? Canyon initially billed it squarely as enduro but that’s probably because it couldn’t bear the thought of half numbers on the scale. Yes, the extra travel makes the Spectral more capable than before, but it’s more of a hopped-up trail bike than full-blown enduro rig, and it’s all the better for it. Which is why it won the 27.5in class of our 2019 Trail bike of the Year test even though it was by far the cheapest bike in test.
What’s new for 2020?
Shimano had been slow to develop a 12-speed drivetrain, but now that it’s arrived uptake has been rapid – the Spectral AL 6.0 sporting SLX with a wide range 10-51t cassette. A one-stop-shop sees Shimano SLX brakes replace SRAM Guides and the cockpit had been updates too. Out goes Canyon’s G5 bar and stem, in comes a lighter Race Face Aeffect set-up. The final update sees Canyon replace the excellent Minion DHR II rear tyre with a faster rolling Maxxis Aggressor.
information from https://www.mbr.co.uk/
