Right then, here we go… My new long term MBUK Machine is a Transition TR250. I hate calling it a ‘park’ bike for much the same reasons I hate going out for a ride being referred to as ‘enduro’. Too many terms, most of them rubbish.

Old man grumbling aside, the 180mm Transition is all about entertainment and as always with their bikes offers a finely fettled combination of angles, adjustability and superb finishing kit.

Don’t just take my word for it though, well, do,  rather take my verbal word for it here…

Somethings just fit – this is both a good and a bad thing. Good in that when found, some bits of bike clothing fit your body like (for want of a better analogy) a glove. Bad? Well that’s the finding part…

I’ve used MET helmets for years now. Just as when it comes to picking a new motorbike helmet, riders often describe themselves as having a ‘Shoei’ or an ‘Arai’ head, I most definitely have a ‘MET’ head. The Italian crash hat purveyors seem to have my loaf catered for. I recently realised though that I’ve had more or less the same Kaos UL strapped to my head for a few years now and it’s got more impact marks than the surface of the moon. The time had come to scour the web for a new lid.

Thankfully, I didn’t have to look too far – enter the POC Trabec. Now, unusually for me, the initial decision was more or less made with the colour. I’m not much of a tart when it comes to colourful lids but the Light Blue option is a thing of beauty. The shape is… Different. My missus has even gone as far as to call me ‘Playmobil heed’ but I like it.

Rear coverage is great – ideal for 6in bike thumping, the visor works and the tab adjust helps the Trabec stay in place even through the chattery stuff.

Most importantly though – the hat fits. Straight on, no bother. So is the £139.99 price-tag justified?

Well, you can’t put a price on safety but I reckon if you’re like me and spend a minimum of two hours a day in a helmet then you know the value of the right lid lies more in how you get on with it. The Trabec is one of the best helmets I’ve used in a good while and I’m looking forward to plenty more adventures in mine.

01 Happy Canadians

Canadian DH outfit Team Cycle Neron/Specialized blast dust filled corners and float massive rock gardens in this feel good edit which will have you aching for summer and the music of Eels.

02 Ric’s Morewood

In another of our new MBUK Machines videos, gangly Ulsterman Ric gives you an insight into his Morewood Izimu DH bike. Cheap and simple – like the man himself!

03 High Voltage

Ever wondered just how far you can push a Scott Voltage FR? The Coastal Crew take ‘a quick razz down the woods’ to a whole new level – you’ve been warned!

04 Balls-out backflip

G-Shock watches are notoriously tough, as is Cam Zink. Here he sends one of the biggest flips we’ve ever seen as a million and one alarms, timers and functions merrily bleep away.

05 Trail Terras

Italian helmet maestros, Met, have a new trail-shredding Terra lid on its way in 2012 and they’ve released this natty vid to complement it. Proper French trails in A’Lange getting torn apart – bien!

06 Really Garwy

The Garw Avalanche was a locals race which took place just outside the mighty metropolis of Bridgend. Proof that assemble enough mates, enduro bikes and tins of Carlsberg and you’ll have a good time.

These new FiveTen Hellcat SPD’s landed on my desk late on Friday afternoon and are some of the coolest looking riding shoes I’ve seen in ages.

They’re the same as the new Minnaar signature SPD’s except, well subtler.

Photographers love lairy bike kit and we’re often encouraged to wear brighter and brighter togs. Don’t get me wrong, colour is good, especially in the midst of the dark, dank winter but sometimes it’s nice to just tone things back a bit.

I like the unfussyness (there’s a new word) of plain kit. Call me boring but there’s something deeply appealing about a well thought-out black pair of shoes like these.

As with everything FiveTen, grip is paramount when it comes to the Hellcat SPD’s so you get a hard-wearing leather upper attached to the trademark gooey Stealth Rubber soles only now with a stiff midsole and a cleat cutaway.

When coupled with the likes of a Crank Brothers Mallet platform-style clipless pedal this sounds like a pretty formidable combo. Roll a cleat on the way out of a corner? No problem, loads of grip to keep you stuck to the pedal until you get back up to speed and re-engage. Subtle yet brilliant.

Could this be the greatest all mountain/DH clippy shoe ever made? Full review on it’s way soon…

I confess to being a bit of a hardtail purist, not for any overly zealous reason I should add – I like thrashing the tyres off a good full suspension bike as much as any.

But it’s just that for many riders who’ve been mountain biking for more than 15 years, it will be on hardtails that they cut their biking teeth. And it’s the same for me.

But ask any rider of that era what material was king and the chances are they’ll become all misty-eyed and wax lyrical about steel’s zing, spring and indefinable thing. For many, those years are shrouded in fond memories of dust, endless trails, Mr Whippy skies and steel. They were the halcyon days for True Temper, Tange, and Reynolds tubing. And, no doubt, seen through rose-tinted lenses as progress is, generally, a good thing.

In recent years, however, steel’s fallen out of favour, which is a genuine shame. But although steel may not be a wonder material or in vogue, it’s a thoroughly pragmatic alloy to make bikes from: weldable and fixable simply all around the globe, it usually gives warning by way of a crack – rather than a catastrophic snap – prior to failing. It’s also reasonably light and, with a good tubeset like triple-butted Reynolds 853, gives a uniquely comfortable ride feel.

The new generation of steel hardtails can handle everything from XC through to big hit all-mountain

The good news is steel is now enjoying a resurgence. To highlight this we’ve tested six steel hardtails vying for British riders’ affections and pitches them mano-a-mano in our new issue – What Mountain Bike 113, on-sale now – to see if they can really cut it on today’s trails and for today’s riding styles – not just for self-indulgent pootles down memory lane. Ahem.

That means every bit of kit is used thoroughly for the purpose it was intended and, occasionally, for a few things it wasn’t. As well as the Cycling Plus staffers, we have a trusted team of testers including mile munchers, tech heads and speed freaks like Lowenna Smith, Pete Giddings and Dan Joyce.

How we test

We test every bike and product in the UK on one of our test routes in Bristol and Bath, the Mendips, the North York Moors and the Yorkshire Dales over real-world terrain and conditions that you’ll encounter day in, day out.

Each bike and product tested is ridden as many times as it takes for us to feel 100% at ease with our final judgement by a variety of expert testers and trusted real-world riders.

We combine ride testing with empirical testing and analysis wherever necessary to give you the true picture of how products perform.

We check all claimed facts and measurements after our initial ride tests so that no preconceptions cloud our judgement, and we test the bike as a whole – not merely the sum of its constituent parts.

Our verdicts are the results of hours of debate among C+ testers – not just one journalist’s view – to give the most accurate and considered judgements possible.

We’ll be running full reviews of the winning machine and some of the other contenders here on BikeRadar over the next few weeks.

But what kind of competition was it up against? And what made our testers pick it above the 49 other £1,500-£2,500 machines submitted by dozens of top manufacturers for the test?

Testing times

Every single bike was ridden by as many members of Cycling Plus’s 11-strong BOTY test team as possible, over varying terrain. As more testers – who ranged from sponsored team racers to sportive riders and commuters – rode more bikes, their views were then collated, with the aim of trimming the original list down to a top 10, then a top five and finally an overall winner.

The riders would go out in groups, swap bikes, then ride the same route on new bikes in order to compare them over the same steep climbs and sharp descents. They’d ask themselves – and each other – which was the fastest, the most comfortable, had the best kit, the best wheels, was the lightest, the most stylish…

After many miles, and nearly as much arguing, they finally came to a decision as to which bike they thought would please most Cycling Plus readers. The Cannondale wasn’t necessarily head-and-shoulders above the other bikes that made the top five, but ultimately it appealed to more testers, and it was also hard to ignore the fact that it offers a sublime ride quality at £700 less than its rivals.

Here’s a rundown of all 50 bikes and how they scored. For the full lowdown on all these machines, check out issue 234 of Cycling Plus (you can buy back issues via MyFavouriteMagazines.co.uk).

Traditional wisdom says you should buy your bike at the local bike shop. Apart from the fact that it supports your local economy, your local bike shop will probably offer you a personalised deal and some decent after-sales service.

However, don’t always expect a cut-price deal from a local dealer. Would you ask for a deal on groceries from the corner shop? Local shops work on relatively small profit margins and are often barely surviving compared to the giant retailers. Good local dealers usually only survive if they offer a good service. That might mean offering expert advice or helping you to choose the right bike for your size, riding preferences and local terrain. It might mean swapping a flat bar for a riser bar, changing a saddle or putting you in contact with a local ride group.

Think before you buy. Would you prefer to deal with a real person, a do-everything sales assistant in a superstore, a web page or a voice on the end of a phone? There are pros and cons to each. You’ll know what suits you best, but bear in mind that ‘in stock’ (when you see it in an ad or on a website) might not always mean just that. A phone call is a good back up, but you still can’t see the product in the same way you can in your local shop, and you’re taking more of a gamble on after-sales service. But, websites are good for browsing and you can use Google to search for opinions or reviews on products before you commit. It’s wise to use websites and mail order merchants that come recommended from other riders. There are plenty of good ones.

Bargains
Everyone likes a bargain. You’ll see bargains in bike shops from time to time and you’ll probably see even more in the magazine ads for the mail order specialists. There are all sorts of reasons for reduced prices. One way or another, reduced prices will usually be linked to products being in over-plentiful supply, being unpopular, or both.

Supply and demand sets the price of everything. Over-supply of a product does not necessarily mean there’s anything wrong with it – just as a product being unpopular doesn’t necessarily mean there’s anything wrong with it. Sometimes manufacturers and distributors simply get their projected calculations of product sales wrong. This can boil down to something as simple as colour, or that a suspension fork has a little less travel than the suddenly fashionable norm.

One of the big problems for the average bike dealer is that stock becomes ‘out of date’ – in other words, there is a time of year when bikes are replaced by new versions of the same thing. Inevitably, marketing hype helps to sell product and while we try hard to separate hype from genuine innovation, there’ll be times when we’re as guilty as the marketeers of getting far too excited about new stuff and overlooking the fact that the old stuff was great too.

All change!
The big stock change in bike shops traditionally starts to happen from around September time. Manufacturers normally launch their ‘new year’ budget bikes around about then, followed within the next few months by the higher end models. In some cases, the real top end stuff won’t arrive until about March. It’s a tough time for bike dealers if they’re left with old stock, but buyers can take full advantage of the bargain spree.

Distributors are often left with large amounts of old stock which they have to sell to bike shops at vastly reduced prices and this is when the real bargains occur – shop around and you can get old models at half price. Look in the shop ads in the monthly bike mags, particularly around the year’s end. If the bike is old stock, ask if you’ll get all the usual warranty advantages.

There are plenty of less obvious reasons why bikes and bits end up as sale stock. Every time new sprocketry or shifters arrive, the ‘old’ system is seen by many as being somehow inferior. In the wider scheme of things, it really doesn’t matter. More gears just means more overlapping ratios, and more suspension isn’t always a good thing if it’s not appropriate to the needs of the rider.

Taking stock
There are certainly times when old stock isn’t as good as new, or when bikes are just discounted to a price that reflects their perceived worth. On the whole, suspension (both front and rear) is still improving each year in terms of both function and value for money. Full suspension systems in particular are gaining benefits of hindsight. Some swingarm linkages – once supported by bushings that wore out far too quickly – are now likely to be joined by quality bearings. The bearings of main pivots have become better designed for durability as the years have passed. An average suspension fork has come down in price and become far better controlled in function. In short, suspension still gets better every year, so be wary of old model suspension bikes that haven’t sold well.

On the whole, though, bikes are discounted because someone made or bought too many of them, or because something about the colour isn’t as appealing as the opposition that have sold better. In some cases, one single item of componentry on the bike looks wrong. Perhaps the stem’s too long or low, or you want a riser bar. Such things are easily and cheaply put right.

Suspension set-up and parts choice will come into it, but it’s basic fit and feel that matter most. If a bike feels initially strange, it can often be improved by fine tuning aspects of the ride position, the parts, the suspension, or all three. These are all factors that dictate ride feel and handling more than many riders imagine. Our testers can usually manage to work out why some bikes feel right/wrong.

It’s rare for one thing to dictate, or even dominate, bike feel. Feel is dictated by a combination of several factors, none of them can really be considered in isolation. The recent tendency among frame designers has been to build most frames as compact as possible. Compact triangles make for a stiffer, stronger, lighter structure, all positive factors in these days of suspension doing so much of the donkey work.

Originally, the listed size of a bike was the seat tube length, measured from the centre of the bottom bracket. Some brands still measure their bikes like that, but others measure to the top or centre of the top tube, and some simply prefer to work around small, medium and large sizes.

Most MTBs are built with sloping top tubes for good standover clearance and lots of seat post length so that saddle height adjustments are easy. The aspect of frame sizing that makes the biggest difference to a rider is the reach. This is dictated by a combination of top tube length, stem length and saddle position. But it’s not as simple as it sounds. Because the slope of the top tubes and the frame angles vary between bikes, the top tube measurement that matters is an imaginary horizontal top tube.

Moving geometry
When MTBs all came with rigid forks for fairly steady cross-country (XC) use, the geometry was very similar between brands. The head angles were usually 71 degrees, seat angles were usually 72 or 73, the bottom bracket height was 11.5in and the wheel base (front to rear wheel axle) was usually 42in. There were a few minor fluctuations, most notably in top tube length, but it was often things like stem length and fork rake rather than basic geometry that dictated the ride feel of a bike.

With the advent of suspension, geometry became more confusing because of the differences between static geometry and active geometry: static geometry is the geometry of a frame when a bike is built, the tyres are pumped up but no one is sat on it; active geometry is when the bike is moving and the suspension starts working.

As soon as you sit on a bike, you have to take suspension ‘sag’ into account. Suspension sag is how much suspension sinks when you sit on a bike. On hardtails, fork sag will steepen frame angles by a degree or so, then another degree or two when you start hitting stuff on the trail. On a full suspension bike, front and rear sag may balance out the geometry, but bottom bracket height will be more affected than on a hardtail. As soon as you’re hitting stuff on the trail, the feel of the bike is influenced as the geometry changes as the suspension compresses.

So the way you set up your suspension affects lots more than just comfort and shock absorption. To make matters more complicated, lots of bikes have adjustable suspension travel now. Frame geometry will usually change as you alter the travel, especially if you alter one end but not the other. The skill is to make sure those travel adjustments offer you real advantages. Think before you adjust. Experiment. Usually, full travel at the back works at its best when the fork is set to full travel too. If you reduce fork travel for a climb, you may forget to wind it back up again, leaving you trying to tackle a stretch of gnarly singletrack with nervy steep steering and a bottom bracket height that means you slam your pedals on the ground.

One geometry formula won’t work well all the time. Static geometry for all-rounder bikes, full suss or hardtail, will vary between 68 and 71 degrees at the head and between 71 and 74 degrees at the seat. A steep seat angle sits you forward, so you end up getting better use of the fork than on bikes with slack seat angles that sit you back. Bikes with slack geometry rely on downhill terrain and/or an out of the saddle attacking ride style, to get everything feeling right and working properly.

Bottom bracket height varies enormously these days. Average mid-range hardtails (assuming 80mm travel fork) should have static bottom bracket heights of 12-12.25in. Average hardtails with long travel forks (100-120mm) and average XC full sussers (100mm both ends) should be around 12.75-13.5in, to allow for more suspension compression. For long travel full sussers, expect anything between 13.5 and 16in. A low bottom bracket’s better for stability, worse for ground clearance, and vice versa.

Contact points
As your front and rear suspension compresses, the position of everything on the bike, including yourself, shifts in relation to the contact patches of the tyres on the ground. Think of these constant changes as ‘Rolling Chassis Geometry’– this changes in relation to the ground and in relation to the way the bike responds to your input. A skilled rider reacts instinctively and pre-emptively to terrain variations with weight shifts on the bike, but adjustments of where you sit on the bike and where you hold it are important too. So you need to get the position of the saddle, bars and stem right. It’s the position of these that most dictates how a bike feels over different types of terrain…

Saddle position
Inline seat posts will sit you further forward than laid-back ones. This can be a good thing if your seat angle is slack, not so good if you have a short top tube. Saddles can also be moved a couple of inches backwards or forwards along the rails. However you do it, positioning a saddle further back or further forwards changes the working seat angle of the frame and changes your sat-down weight distribution on the bike.

The height of your saddle will also change the way your seat angle works for you on the bike. As you put your saddle down you shift your gravity centre further forwards over the bottom bracket. At the same time you’re moving your gravity centre lower. If your saddle is too low, you’ll have to stand and hover over the saddle more and shift your weight back and forth more to get the best traction from your tyres and feel from your bike. Of course, this won’t be a problem if you’re riding the sort of steep, technical terrain where you want your saddle to be out of the way.

While all this standing, hovering and weight shifting can go some way towards making up for a poorly positioned saddle, it still makes a lot of sense to set everything up for steady sitting-down trail pedalling, at least until you actually need to put the saddle down for more radical manoeuvres. You need to feel at ease with your ride posture and the bike handling all the time.

Stem position
The way your bike feels through the steering, getting your stem length and height right is almost as important as the manufacturer getting the head angle bang on.

Ten to 15 years ago, the fashion for long stems was trying to compensate for the fashion for short top tubes. Most of the stems were very low too, an attempt to mimic the race posture of roadies. But long and low doesn’t work for many riders. Many of the bikes were lumbered with steering that felt both sluggish and twitchy and many riders ended up so stretched that they couldn’t do those subtle shifts in body weight that help with handling over difficult terrain.

Steering a race-bred MTB was like steering a race-bred rowing boat, the stem being the tiller. Fortunately it’s now been generally accepted that length is better designed into top tubes. Gary Fisher’s ‘long top tube short stem’ Genesis geometry designs effectively brought the inherent stability of downhill bikes to the cross-country market, while at the same time keeping the lively steering of racey cross-country set-ups. Most manufacturers have been influenced. Over the last five years or so, stem length has reduced by 25-40mm and top tube length has increased by about the same.

An overlong stem tips your weight too far forward over the front wheel, particularly if it’s positioned very low too. A shorter and higher stem helps you to sit in what we refer to as ‘the centre’ of the bike. If a bike is the right size for you, you’ll feel well balanced.
Stem height is obviously a very personal thing relating to finding a position on the bike that feels comfortable for your muscle structure. But, as with stem length, stem height also has a lot of influence on how well balanced you feel when you’re controlling the bike on tough terrain.

The combination of saddle and bar position, stem length and height dictates how much body weight you’re supporting with your arms and how much with your arse. A high stem might initially shift you up and back and put more weight on your arse, but it also allows you to bend your elbows more when you want to shift your weight down and forwards. Put simply, a shorter higher stem will allow you to change position and move your weight around more easily.

Handlebar position
Bar width, shape and position is also something that has far more influence on the overall feel and handling of a bike than most riders imagine. The old-school cynics think that riser bars are a fashion, transient design. They may be fashionable, but they’re a lot more besides.

A ‘flat’ classic 22.5in handlebar may have a bit of back-sweep to accommodate your natural wrist and hand position, but it’s essentially just a lightweight adjustment-free rod acting as a steering lever. The riser bar, in its many height, width and sweep guises, offers you a lot more control and adjustment possibilities. Okay, the extra height could be more efficiently accomplished with a higher stem, but the width and sweep can be personally tailored to suit the feel and position you want. Most risers are easy to trim on the ends, and most will move through an adjustment arc that changes the grip position and angle enough for you to notice changes in your ride posture and control. Persevere with back and forth adjustments and get a feel for the way they change your posture before you settle on one position. Like stem height/length, bar position changes your whole weight distribution and body posture on the bike

A – Head angle
Average mountain bikes have working head angles of about 71 degrees. Steeper angles make a bike steer faster, to the point of feeling nervous. Slacker angles make a bike more stable, to a point of the steering feeling slow. Suspension forks change the static angle by enough to change steering characteristics as the fork compresses and extends. It’s crucial that a fork suits a frame. A smaller frame might be built with a slacker head angle, a larger frame a steeper angle. A big bike has a longer wheelbase and often carries a heavier rider, so tends to be inherently more stable.

B – Seat angle
A good custom frame builder will determine your seat angle by taking body dimensions such as inside leg, upper leg and foot length as well as considering what sort of rider you are. An off-the-peg bike manufacturer has to make assumptions about such things. They usually get it right. A typical seat angle on mountain bikes intended for all-round use will be near 72 degrees. As with stem length and head angle, a different seat angle will affect a rider’s weight distribution and change the overall balance and feel of the bike, as well as the efficiency of the suspension.

C – Stem length
As a rule, short stems create a more light and lively steering feel and long stems slow things down. You shouldn’t use stem length as the main way of adjusting bike fit though. Top tube length is more important. All frames have an ideal stem length relating to both top tube length and a combination of head angle and seat position. Rider weight distribution can vary considerably with different stem lengths and saddle positions.

D – Saddle position
If everything about frame size, geometry and stem length is spot on, you’ll probably be looking to have your seat post clamped dead centre on the saddle rails with the saddle top lying flat. Remember, moving your saddle back and forth changes the effective seat angle, worth bearing in mind if an off-the-peg bike isn’t quite right.

In terms of getting the right saddle height (disregarding low saddles on jump or downhill bikes) there are all sorts of formulas. The rule of thumb is to get almost full leg stretch when your foot is at the bottom of the pedal stroke.

E – Top tube
Sloping top tubes make a lot of sense. They result in more standover height, more seat post in use and better absorption of trail vibrations.

Length wise, trends over the last few years have seen a move towards longer top tubes and shorter stems, often with steeper seat angles to place the rider slightly further forward and get the best out of longer travel suspension forks.

F – Chain stays
Longer chain stays make the bike more stable. Shorter stays improve climbing traction, but that has to be considered against the disadvantages of less stability, particularly with longer forks, and less tyre room.

G – Wheelbase
A longer measurement between the front and rear wheel axles results in a more stable bike. A shorter measurement adds agility. However, the wheelbase is simply a result of all the other geometric configurations.

H – Bottom bracket height
Higher bottom brackets keep the pedals clear of the rocks, especially crucial when pedalling through corners, but raises the centre of gravity of the bike and rider. A low bottom bracket is inherently more stable, but you risk ground contact more often, particularly on a plush suspension bike where a sudden compression takes you by surprise.