Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2025 i Mountain Biking UK

A bit of a change from our advertised plans this month – no trail bike test or Mani Lettenbichler feature, I’m afraid (although by the time you read this, the videos should be live on MBUK TV). Instead, there’s first rides of new bikes from Santa Cruz, Spot and Specialized, plus we find out how Tom got on when we sent him for some jump coaching from Red Bull Hardline and World Cup star Bernard Kerr. Bernard’s take-no-prisoners response to seeing Tom ride – “How have you got so much trail speed and yet are so s**t at jumping?!” – made me laugh. Not only because I can imagine Tom’s face when he heard this, but because it rings true for me as well, and likely many of you too.…

RockShox’s latest Reverb AXS wireless dropper post is said to be smoother, easier to maintain and lighter than before, plus it costs less too. The most obvious change is the relocation of the battery and electronics from the saddle clamp to the post’s collar – something already done by rivals Fox on their Transfer Neo. This may look a bit clunky, but should help improve durability. The old air-and-oil internals have been replaced with an air spring, to avoid the previous Reverb’s tendency to sag under your weight after time. But squish the new B1 post into its travel, even by just a few millimetres, and some intentional ride-smoothing suspension is activated. Dubbed ‘ActiveRide’, this feature is designed to reduce how much your body bounces on the saddle on seated…

WHO IS... SCOTTY LAUGHLAND Scotty began his career in bikes as a pro racer, riding for the Cube Action Team on the Enduro World Series circuit. After hanging up his race plate, he became a YouTube presenter, then branched out on his own as an adventure rider and ambassador for Scott Sports. WHO ARE YOU? Scotty Laughland, professional MTBer and content creator. WHAT ARE YOU KNOWN FOR? Nowadays, adventure riding. I’ve come from a background of enduro and downhill, [but now I’m] just going places that people might not necessarily think a bike could take them. WHERE DO YOU CALL HOME? Stirling, in Scotland. WHAT ARE YOU UP TO IN 2025? Riding lots of bikes. Some more adventures – I want to explore some lesser-known parts of Europe and it…

“HOW HAVE YOU GOT SO MUCH TRAIL SPEED AND YET ARE SO S**T AT JUMPING?!” If it weren’t for the cheeky grin on his face, I’d be pretty offended by Bernard Kerr’s opening statement after he watches me hit one of the tabletops in BikePark Wales’s skills area. But he’s not wrong. After 25 years of riding, I’m still horribly uncomfortable hitting jumps. What happens if I go too deep? Or come up too short? How do I generate enough pop to clear a gap? Can you even breathe that high up in the air? As a kid, I wasn’t some fearless shredder, hitting sketchy pallet jumps in the street or flinging myself around the woods on a BMX. I was quiet, careful, and thought that mountain biking was racing…

£2,890 (with power meter) https://zyrofisher.co.uk This is SRAM’s ultra-high-spec, lightweight, wireless, cross-country (XC) racing drivetrain, which is also tough enough for enduro use. It sets the benchmark for longterm-reliable shifting, even when maintenance schedules are far from ideal. However, it’s eye-wateringly expensive, and in order to get the best out of it, I’d suggest spending some extra cash on a bolt-on accessory. Test details This review is based on my experience of using two XX SL Eagle AXS Transmissions. One has been installed on a total of three different longterm bikes – a Merida One-Forty, a Yeti SB120 and a Last Glen – none of which is your traditional XC bike. I started testing it in the autumn of 2023 and finished in March 2025, when I was given the…

Last issue, Ben Plenge, owner and coach at MTB-specific fitness company The Strength Factory, took us through some key strength and conditioning moves to age-proof our body, with options to suit those who prefer to work out in the gym or at home. This month, he focuses on how to get the most out of the time you’re on the bike to boost your cardiovascular fitness. As a dad in his forties, he understands how little time many of us have to dedicate to training, and shares his tips and advice to have us performing at our best, even when everyday life threatens to derail our best intentions to train. PRO-FILE BEN PLENGE JOB Owner and coach at The Strength Factory CREDENTIALS Bristol-based, exercise-mad former army captain and super-keen rider…

1 LOOK WHERE YOU WANT TO GO It’s perhaps the most fundamental off-road skill, but one Tom – not a qualified coach, we should stress (although we reckon he did alright!) – had to remind Liam of, despite his cyclocross-racing experience. Where your eyes point, your bike will follow – especially if you stay loose and allow it to move around under you. Or, in Tom’s not-to-be-taken-literally words: “Disconnect those hips!” 2 LEAN THE BIKE At the beginning of the day, Liam was trying to use the handlebar to turn the bike, when really, cornering on an MTB is all about leaning and pivoting at the hips. “Try to engage those shoulder [tyre] treads!” as Tom reminded him. 3 PUMP FOR SPEED Despite some initial confusion about the idea of…

1 HE’S GOT NEARLY 20 YEARS OF RACING EXPERIENCE “I’ve been racing since I was 15. I got into it through my brother, Phil, who was racing World Cups at the time. I raced downhill for eight years and then transitioned to enduro after knee surgery, which knocked my confidence a bit. It just seemed more fun – being able to spend a lot of time on your bike riding new venues, new tracks, new equipment. The first enduro race I did, in 2011, I was wearing a skateboard lid and some high-ankle Five Ten flat boots, because enduro clothing didn’t really exist. If you were a downhill rider, you just had a DH helmet and a BMX lid for dirt jumping and stuff.” 2 THAT HELPS WHEN IT COMES…

I’ve spent 12 years testing mountain bikes, and over that time, I’ve had to include the words “a geometry flip-chip enables you to alter the bike’s angles...” in an ever-increasing number of reviews. The reality is that, save for being thorough in my testing, I’ve never used a flip-chip after initially setting up a bike. So, why does the cycling industry keep putting these fiddly ovals of metal in its frames? WHAT ARE FLIP-CHIPS? Flip-chips usually take the form of stadium-shaped inserts (that’s the technical term for a rectangle with rounded-off ends, apparently) and are most commonly found in a pivot point or shock mount on a full-suspension frame. The pivot/shock hardware is installed through an offset hole in the flip-chip. This means that, by flipping the orientation of the…

THIS MONTH’S NEW KIT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT Weighing 15.58kg on our scales, in the Pro XT/XTR build (large size, without pedals), the new Pivot Firebird is as light as some trail bikes, but with 165mm of rear-wheel travel and a 170mm fork, is designed for the big hits and high speeds of gravity riding and racing. The chassis is full carbon fibre, with new down tube storage, plus reworked DW-Link suspension kinematics. A Universal Derailleur Hanger driveside dropout means you can run one of SRAM’s latest wireless Transmission drivetrains. Each frame size has been custom tuned for a different rider weight, so a lighter person riding the XS bike should get the same feel as a heavier person on the XL. Geometry is slightly longer, lower and slacker…

I’m both an experienced cycling journalist and a scatterbrain. I receive, read and understand a huge number of tech specs, new developments and freshly introduced ‘standards’ on an alarmingly frequent basis. However, when it comes to sourcing new parts for a bike, I always end up picking incompatible components. After a particularly frustrating morning when I was unable to complete any of the three jobs I had planned for various bikes, I found myself wistfully looking back to my early mountain biking days and remembering those far simpler times. Bottom bracket choices pretty much came down to Shimano’s UN55 or UN72 model in a 68mm or 73mm BB shell width – both of which would probably survive a particularly muddy apocalypse. V-brake arms simply bolted onto your frame and fork,…

EXPERT WORKSHOP ADVICE Electric bikes are expensive, so it’s important to look after your investment. This requires a regime of regular maintenance. On top of all the usual stuff, such as making sure that the brake pads have enough material left and keeping the drivetrain free of dirt and debris, it’s important that the battery is well cared-for and the motor is regularly serviced. Even if you keep the bike scrupulously clean on the outside, dirt will inevitably accumulate on the inside, and eventually ingress into the electrical connections. Cleaning and taking care of your e-bike will keep it running smoothly, efficiently and safely, all of which can contribute to a longer lifespan for the bike and its battery and motor. BURLY BUT NOT BOMBPROOF Many e-MTBs come equipped with…

A new lift-assisted bike park is planned for Scotland – and it’s not in the remote depths of the Highlands, as you might expect. The exciting, multi-million-pound development will see a gondola-style lift and accompanying MTB trails built in Dunoon, on the Cowal peninsula in Argyll and Bute. An hour-and-a-half north-west of Glasgow – by car and ferry – this location is significantly further south than the country’s existing lift-accessed bike parks in Glencoe and at Fort William’s Nevis Range, so should be easier for many to get to. The site will also house a full-service base station with a hotel, a bike shop offering rentals and repairs, other shops and restaurants, plus a top-station cafe with panoramic views. Year-round access is planned, enabling riders, walkers and other outdoor enthusiasts…

YT Industries have launched a new lightweight e-MTB, the Decoy SN 29. This follows the Decoy SN MX, released last year. Both boast a carbon fibre frame with four-bar linkage suspension, and use the same Fazua Ride 60 motor (60Nm max torque, 450w peak power) and 480Wh battery to give a supposedly ‘Super Natural’ ride feel. As you’d expect, the final two letters/digits of the names represent a different wheel size – 29in at both ends on the new bike, 29in front/650b rear on the original – but that’s not the only difference. While the Decoy SN MX was designed with similar intentions to YT’s Capra enduro rig, the SN 29 is more of a Jeffsy trail bike in electrically-assisted clothing. It has 140mm of rear-wheel travel (compared to 165mm…

We’re fortunate in the UK to have a huge network of paths and tracks criss-crossing our landscapes and national parks. But do you know what the difference is between a footpath, bridleway, restricted byway, byway, permissive path and ‘white road’, for instance, and are you familiar with which ones we have a right to ride bikes on? “The rights of way in England and Wales are a bit of a mess, with cycling excluded from nearly 80% of the network,” says a spokesperson for Cycling UK. “This exclusion is largely based on historical use of paths, rather than suitability, which results in footpaths you could drive a 4x4 down and bridleways you’d struggle to cycle up. It’s an archaic system and needs modernising.” Hear, hear – but for now, it’s…

JULIA’S MERIDA EONE-SIXTY SL 8000 £7,500 E-bike curiosity has got the better of our creative design lead Last year, I committed to a full-on enduro bike, but soon realised I didn’t enjoy pedalling that hefty bike in the hills. So, I was ready for a change. I’d previously had a cross-country bike and a trail bike, so I thought I’d opt for an e-bike this year. I only weigh 50kg, so an ‘SL’ option was a no-brainer. If I rode a 25kg ‘full-fat’ e-bike, that’d be the equivalent of an 80kg rider riding a 40kg bike, which I don’t think anyone would be inclined to do! Sadly, I wasn’t spoilt for choice, in my size and travel range. Thankfully, the Merida ticked the boxes with its ‘Xshort’ frame option, plenty…