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These stellar electric, hardtail. cross country, trail, and all-mountain bikes can go anywhere and do almost anything. Electric Hoverboard
In the past year, we’ve ridden and evaluated more than 100 of the top mountain bikes—everything from budget hardtails to do-it-all trail models to bomber downhill race bikes. We found entry-level hardtails that are truly capable for less than $900. And excellent full-suspension bikes for less than $2,500, which was unheard of just a few years ago. And of course, we discovered near-magical options that cost three and four times that.
Our team of experienced testers spent many hours and miles using these mountain bikes for their intended purpose, as well as pushing the bikes’ limits outside of their primary intent. We raced them, rode them on our local trails, and hit the bike park. Often we swapped tires and other components to get a better understanding of each bike. After a lot of sweaty, dirty miles, we considered the full picture weighing not just performance and handling, but also, price, comfort, value, and reliability.
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It’s not often you see a benchmark trail bike stacked with a highlight reel of features on sale for $3,900 off, but that’s exactly what’s happening with the Specialized S-Works Stumpjumper Evo right now.
The Stumpy Evo took home a Bicycling’s Best Bike award in 2022, and over a year later that shine has not faded. This model packs generous travel (150mm rear, 160mm front) which is enough for all but the most ridiculous trails but is crisp enough that the bike still climbs and covers flatter ground well. Plus, multiple adjustments—three head tube angle settings, two BB-height settings, 29 or 27.5 rear wheel compatibility—let the rider customize the bike’s feel and handling for their terrain.
As you’d expect, this S-Works model gets a full suite of high-end parts including Fox Factory suspension, SRAM wireless drivetrain, and wireless dropper post. The drivetrain is SRAM XX1 Eagle AXS electronic shifting: Notably, it is NOT the new Transmission stuff with direct mount rear derailleur. That’s not necessarily a bad thing: While Transmission has its benefits, it is heavier and slower shifting than the Eagle AXS
Fat bikes are great for hitting the trail once the snow starts flying. Several brands exited the fat bike market in recent years, but State Bicycle jumped in with its new well-priced, nicely-equipped 6061 Trail+ fat bike.
The sub-$1,000 6061 Trail+ features an aluminum (hence the 6061 model name) frame and fork and rolls on 4.5-inch wide 26-inch tires. Other component highlights are a Shimano Altus 9-speed drivetrain and mechanical disc brakes. In typical State fashion, the bike packs a ton of value into a low price.
If the bright pink “wildberry” isn’t your style, State also offers the 6061 Trail+ in stone grey.
Specialized’s Turbo-series mountain bikes are some of our best-tested best E-MTBs due to their exceptional mid-drive mounted motor. The brand’s base-level Tero 3.0 electric mountain bike is a great entry point into trail riding. This hardtail model has 29”x2.35” tires, a 110mm travel suspension fork with lockout, and Shimano hydraulic disc brakes. While the fork and component aren’t high-end, they are dirt-worthy. Plus, the parts use standard sizes, which makes upgrades and replacements easy.
Though overshadowed by its legendary Stumpjumper line-mate, the Rockhopper has been a mainstay of Specialized’s product line longer than most mountain bikers have been alive. Specialized offers a bevy of Rockhopper models between $650 and $1,400—We consider the Comp ($950), Elite ($1,150), and Expert ($1,400) models most suited for trail riding use. We recently tested the Elite and found it a well-rounded bike that climbs quickly, is stable on descents and capably handles a variety of trail conditions. It’s a good-looking bike too, and the parts—particularly the fork and forceful hydraulic brakes—are up to par for mountain bike duty. The price might be budget but its performance on the trail is refined.
The biggest surprise of our six-hardtail shootout, Giant’s Talon offers plenty of character from a bike that you might overlook because of its subdued profile. A lot of its standout performance comes from the house brand suspension fork which boasts a list of features not commonly found on bikes priced under $1,000. Those features include an aluminum steerer tube and stanchions weight savings, an easily adjustable air spring that lets riders fine-tune the fork for their weight and riding style, and adjustable rebound damping for refined performance on the trail.
When Specialized debuted its new Epic World Cup in April 2023, a lot of riders rightly pointed out how similar it was to the Trek Supercaliber that debuted in 2019. Four years is a lifetime in the world of top-flight race bikes, but Trek is now ready to battle back against its doppelganger with a heavily revised Supercaliber.
Trek cut the Supercaliber’s frame weight, and added 25mm of rear travel, bringing the total to 80mm, while bumping fork travel up to 110mm. With today’s rowdier cross country courses in mind, geometry was revised as well with Trek adding more wheelbase and a slacker head angle for greater stability. Those courses are also why Supercal models come with a dropper post from the factory.
In testing, we found the new Supercalimber every bit as fast as expected, and reveled in how it flew up hills. It requires precision and care to get the most out of it in rough terrain, but with a deft touch, this light and efficient race bike will fly through terrain on its way to the finish line.
Born from the excellent SB130, Yeti’s new SB140 is a superb example of a modern trail bike. It does everything well: It’s efficient and capable on climbs both long and technical, it can truck tricky technical descents like a bigger bike, and it’s lively and responsive enough that it is an engaging partner in flatter terrain too. It’s also a bike for the long haul. Not only does it have a solid lifetime frame warranty (and a decent crash replacement offer) but it also has a lifetime warranty on the Switch Infinity suspension link. SB140 also has a standard threaded bottom bracket, sensible hose, and housing routing (NOT through the headset) with full-length tunnels that make repair and replacement a breeze, and a short seat tube so many riders can fit a longer travel dropper if they wish.
The second-generation Ryve 115 leaves its roots as an XC bike behind and leans more toward the trail category. Up front is a longer travel, now 130mm, fork, accompanied by a handful of geometry updates: Most notably, a slacker head angle and a longer wheelbase. Expecting riders will push the new Ryve harder than ever, Spot also stiffened the frame and increased the rear suspension’s progression. But while the new Ryve is a different beast than the V1 Ryve, some of the original version’s best traits carry forward. Most notably, the lively suspension and superb pedaling manners.
The winner of our four-bike lightweight e-mountain bike shootout—the Santa Cruz Heckler SL GX Eagle— was not only the least expensive, but it had the most powerful motor and largest battery, the second most range, and was fastest in our timed tests. Emblematic of the lightweight category, the Heckler SL comes in about 10 pounds lighter than a full-power e-bike. That helps the Heckler SL feel almost like an unpowered e-bike: It’s lively, flickable, and easier to ride than heavier and more powerful e-mountain bikes. Though not the cheapest Heckler SL Build—that’s the $7,300 Heckler SL R—the GX Eagle build offers all the performance and most of the features of a top-of-the-line bike
These are short-travel bikes made for racing on XC and marathon courses where you need sharp handling and efficient suspension. Many have head-tube angles near 70 degrees, 29-inch wheels and, if they have rear suspension, 90 to 120mm of travel.
These are the most popular bikes for good reason, designed to handle almost everything from casual XC trails to rowdy downhills. Expect to see head angles between 65 and 68 degrees, slightly longer wheel bases, and travel between 120 and 150mm.
These are mini-downhill models that are good at climbing. They excel on steep descents, bike parks, and anytime you’re going fast. Head angles range from 62 to 66 degrees and reaches are longer to keep your weight farther behind the front wheel.
Made for downhill races and bike parks, these have ultra-long wheel bases, lots of travel (usually 200mm or more), and dual-crown forks that slow handling but help the bike rip downhill in a straight line and hit massive jumps better than anything else.
If you came here looking for a women’s bike—AKA: women’s specific bike, women’s specific design, WSD—we must report that, today, those options are rarer than they once were.
If you scan the offerings from brands that historically produced women’s-specific options—including Trek, Specialized, Cannondale, and many others—you’ll find few, if any, bikes labeled as women’s, especially in upmarket models.
When we’ve asked why brands have reduced or eliminated bikes labeled as women’s specific, we’re typically told ideas about the body proportion differences between genders that were the basis of women’s specific geometries are no longer considered accurate.
Specialized, for example, cites the data collected by its Retül fitting program, “We’ve learned that all riders are unique and that the stereotypes of body shape are largely inaccurate. Body proportions vary as much within a gender as between them. Based on this, all of our bike platforms are designed for all riders.”
This means that instead of a women’s geometry for a 157 cm tall rider, and a different men’s geometry for a 157 cm tall rider, there’s now a geometry for a 157 cm tall human. It also means—we believe— that brands and shops are obligated to offer a higher level of assistance when it comes to optimizing touchpoints—saddle, grips—and dimensions like handlebar width and stem length for every unique customer.
You can’t tell us your big revelation is “every rider is unique” and then punt us out the door with a bike set up the same way as every other rider who buys an identical model.
While there are fewer women’s specific mountain bikes than there used to be, a few still exist.
Liv is a full-line brand that only makes women’s specific bikes. Contrary to what Specialized says, Liv says, “Looking at the average body measurements of men and women […] we see significant anthropometrical differences that will determine the best bike fit.”
Juliana is another women’s-focused brand. However, the frames are shared with sibling brand Santa Cruz—only paint and graphics differ. The Juliana Joplin, for example, uses the same frame as the Santa Cruz Tallboy. However, Juliana’s models often have slightly different components than their Santa Cruz counterparts.
During the past decade or so, mountain bikes have undergone one of the largest evolutions in their history. They include the almost wholesale shift to 29-inch wheels and 1x drivetrains, widespread use of dropper posts and thru axles, and major changes in geometry including steeper seat angles, slacker head angles, longer reaches, and the use of shorter stems and wider handlebars.
Some of that madness has tapered off. Until recently, every model update would include “longer, lower, slacker” geometry. But that progress has lulled and now we’re seeing model updates with minimal geometry changes: Yeti’s SB140 is one example.
29-inch wheels are still the standard—a few brands like Yeti and Pivot still make 27.5 models—but there is a small trend, particularly among gravity bikes and longer travel e-bikes, towards mixed (sometimes called mullet) wheel sizes. These bikes run a 29-inch wheel in front and a smaller 27.5-wheel in the rear. The main advantages claimed are more clearance when hanging off the rear of the bike in steep terrain, and a snappier cornering feel.
When it comes to components and features, the big change here is the almost industry-wide adoption of the UDH (universal derailleur hanger). As the name implies, this is a single derailleur replaceable derailleur hanger standard. Plus, a bike that employs the UDH standard also accepts SRAM’s new Transmission drivetrain with a direct-mount rear derailleur.
If you’ve been following the trends in mountain bikes, no doubt you’ve noticed that “longer” is the most popular word. Reaches are getting longer, which—along with increasingly slack head tube angles—also lengthens the bike’s front center and wheelbase. This additional length centers the rider between the wheels more and makes bikes feel more stable, more secure in steep terrain, and smoother overall. Longer isn’t always better, though, and can make a bike feel less stable at slower speeds and harder to maneuver in tight terrain.
Seat tubes are also much steeper than they’ve been—as steep as 76 degrees or more. This puts most riders in a more favorable seated climbing position. But steeper seat angles also allow frame engineers to move the seat tube out of the way as they try to increase travel, decrease chainstay length, and fit bigger wheels and tires into their frames.
A gear editor for his entire career, Matt’s journey to becoming a leading cycling tech journalist started in 1995, and he’s been at it ever since; likely riding more cycling equipment than anyone on the planet along the way. Previous to his time with Bicycling, Matt worked in bike shops as a service manager, mechanic, and sales person. Based in Durango, Colorado, he enjoys riding and testing any and all kinds of bikes, so you’re just as likely to see him on a road bike dressed in Lycra at a Tuesday night worlds ride as you are to find him dressed in a full face helmet and pads riding a bike park on an enduro bike. He doesn’t race often, but he’s game for anything; having entered road races, criteriums, trials competitions, dual slalom, downhill races, enduros, stage races, short track, time trials, and gran fondos. Next up on his to-do list: a multi day bikepacking trip, and an e-bike race.
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