For the April issue’s First Rides we’ve thrown legs over the Kona Hei Hei Supreme, Trek’s Lush WSD SL, Rose’s Dr. Z 8 and Starley’s S M1.

If you’re starting out we show you what you can get for £700. A small step up from proper entry-level steeds can get you a truly fun and capable hardtail.

Looking for a new fork? We’ve tested 15 of the best cross-country/trail forks to see what can soak up the trail trauma with ease.

For out Ride Guide, we head into the wild of mid-Wales for our three routes around Llanwrtyd Wells.

We’ve got our usual blend of kit reviews in our Trail Tested section, which includes a chance to meet some of the team’s new long-term bikes. Give you 20 reasons to get back on the trails if you’ve taken a break over winter. We test three-quarter baggy and bib shorts to keep your knees toasty on the trail. We answer your tech questions show you how to service the lower legs on a RockShox Revelation fork. Plus loads more…

The Trek Remedy 9, Ghost AMR Lector 9500 and GT Zaskar Elite 9R get the first ride treatment.

If you want to cram as much singletrack and as many summits into every ride, we test six long-distance, high-speed trail bikes that will do the job.

Short on stopping power? We test 15 of the best disc brakes for 2013

For this month’s ride guide, we’re checking out the manmade trails of Queen Elizabeth Country Park and beyond.

Fi Spotswood ponders the place of women in mountain biking.

Plus a look behind the scenes of Orange Mountain Bikes, the usual mix of news, opinions and in-depth reviews from our team of WMB testers.

The March (145) issue is in the shops now!

First rides: We’re in the saddle of the big-wheeled Scott Genius, Genesis’s first full susser – the Grapil – and Trek’s Cobia to bring you our first impressions

Do materials matter? We consider how what your frame’s made from, whether it’s steel, titanium, aluminium or carbon, affects your ride.

Bike test: We test six 26in-wheeled full sussers that won’t break the bank

Group test: Want to build your own truly custom steed? We test 10 tasty hardtail frames

Ride Guide: We’re discovering the delights of the South Downs on three rides to suit all abilities.

Plus the usual mix of news, reviews, tech advice and loads more… On sale now!

What Mountain Bike is the magazine for all cross-country and trail riders. Written by the most respected team in the business, What Mountain Bike shows readers what to ride, where to ride and how to ride. Packed with inspiring writing and photography, it’s an essential ingredient in any mountain biker’s diet.

Why subscribe?

What Mountain Bike is the magazine for all cross-country and trail riders. Written by the most respected team in the business, What Mountain Bike shows readers what to ride, where to ride and how to ride. Packed with inspiring writing and photography, it’s an essential ingredient in any mountain biker’s diet.

Why subscribe?

It’s been an amazing few weeks for Bradley Wiggins with a historic 2012 Tour De France victory, followed up with gold in the Olympic time trial.  This special collector’s edition magazine contains everything you need to know about the man himself.

Inside our special collector’s edition magazine you will find all of the below:

• Wiggins’ early years – Young Brad’s obsession with all things cycling
• Landmark interviews in the run up to this year’s Tour
• How the Tour was won. Stage-by-stage coverage of Wiggin’s victory
• Olympic medal glory – photos from all three of Wiggins Olympic years

The Bradley Wiggins Special Collectors edition magazine is available to pre-order online now, from just £4.99 including delivery!

You can also find the collector’s edition magazine exclusively at WHSmith High Street and WHSmith Travel stores.

(Ed’s Note: Matt modestly plays his speed and fitness down here, but the 26 year-old bike coach has been riding for fourteen years, and placed first in last year’s Clic24 24-hour solo race. It’s worth bearing that in mind).

Cannondale Scalpel 3

If you read part one you’ll know the Scalpel had already surprised me during a day’s photoshoot at Afan – it’s quick, clever and a whole lot more fun than a serious racer has any right to be. I arranged to borrow the bike from What Mountain Bike and really put it to the test with laps of my home trails. How much quicker would this 23lb carbon racer be than my 28lb, 140mm trail bike?

As a mountain bike skills coach (www.pedalprogression.com), I’m all about technique and I genuinely believe that an improvement in technique will result in an improvement in speed and enjoyment. Skill should always come before fitness. If you’re riding regularly your fitness will develop itself, but fitness without skill is futile. Where am I going with this? Well, while I’m not unfit, I’m no gristly-legged, gel-popping race junkie either. However, a childhood in bicycle trials has gifted me with an arsenal of trail skills. Perhaps this goes some way to explaining why I lapped my local trails over two minutes faster on… the trail bike Zesty over the light and racy Cannondale.

The Zesty weighs in at 12.7kg (28lb) and with 140mm of travel is no XC racer, but it does inspire a confidence the Scalpel lacks. I can throw the Zesty into corners aggressively where the Scalpel begins to wash out. Saying that, the straightline speed of the Scalpel destroys the French lemon in less technical sections, but Ashton Court is a smooth, rock-armoured trail centre of a place. It doesn’t get much less technical than that – it’s interesting that even here, that extra straightline speed doesn’t pay off.

The 100mm Cannondale Lefty fork wasn't too troubled by the trails of Ashton Court

After riding with a RockShox Reverb for the last year, it’s a struggle ride a bike with a fixed post, as a dropper has radically changed the way I ride. A low seat allows greater body movement and helps massively in getting low into corners, as well as over the more technical sections. Adopting the most power-efficient seating position on the Scalpel made the technical sections difficult, but the flat-out singletrack even more rapid. The extra pound or so of a dropper post would almost certainly add real-world speed, rather than lessen it.

My conclusion in this little experiment is that Scalpel is simply too much bike for me to get the best out of right now, and though thoroughly enjoyable to ride, it’s not going to make anyone quicker just because its a race bike. I was slower in the corners on the Scalpel, and in theory should have made that time up on the faster sections, but my body wouldn’t allow me to sprint as I’d have liked! You’d really need fantastic fitness to make up that deficit, as so much of any trail is corner. There’s a lesson here for perhaps the majority of riders.

There’s no doubt the Scalpel is a rapid and fun race bike for the punter who has great bike skills and fitness combined. But until I feel fast enough to wear Lycra suits and obsess about leg hair, I’ll continue to beast the laps on my Zesty.

Matt Legg-Bagg, What Mountain Bike tester and Pedal Progression skills coach

You can see the 2012 Lappiere Zesty and the Cannondale Scalpel in an upcoming issue of What Mountain Bike, where they’ll be tested within an inch of their lives.

(Ed’s Note: Matt modestly plays his speed and fitness down here, but the 26 year-old bike coach has been riding for 14 years, and placed first in last year’s Clic24 24-hour solo race. It’s worth bearing that in mind).

Cannondale Scalpel 3

Having dabbled in cross-country (XC) racing last season I’d considered buying a race bike, but after testing various Scales, Flashes, Epics and Whippets I decided that carbon hardtails were uncomfortable and race bikes were boring! A blanket judgement I’m sure, but whether I’m racing or not I want a bike I can have fun riding, and in these models I hadn’t found one.

Then photographer Seb (Rogers) rocked up with a brace of bikes loaded on the Thule rack and Steve (editor of WMB) in the passenger seat. We were off to Afan to shoot a bike test and magazine cover. I was excited to see a Lapierre Zesty 514 on the back – along with a Ghost AMR and a bizarre-looking Cannondale. I ride a 2011 Zesty 514 and was keen to shred the newly evolved model, but my dream was shattered when Steve announced he’d be riding it, no matter how well my riding kit matched. I ended up with the Cannondale, the one bike I didn’t really want to ride…

It’s a Cannondale Scalpel 3 with a carbon frame, 100mm Lefty fork and DT Swiss wheelset – all specced out with a mixture of high-end SRAM and Shimano kit. One of the Scalpel’s main oddities is its lack of a main pivot. Instead the frame is made from a springy elastic carbon that allows the chainstays to flex, with the support of an 80mm RockShox Monarch shock.

Carbon frame makes for flex in the chainstays

Weighing in at 10.5kg (23lb) with M520 pedals, it’s an amateur XC racers dream. Once I’d got over the head-screw of a frame that bent 80mm as well as having half a fork missing, it occurred to me I was having a really good time. In fact, I was highly stoked! So stoked I decided to nab the bike for the following week to really put it through its paces. Was this the enjoyable, super-quick race bike I’d been looking for? This was now a proper experiment involving my local trails and timing equipment. The results were interesting…

Fast and fun

The day’s riding at Afan had got me buzzing. I felt like a Maths dropout who’d finally ‘got’ algebra; I’d found a race bike that was comfortable, responsive and pinned. Suddenly everything made sense and I couldn’t wait to get it back to Bristol for an Ashton Court loop… or five.

The Scalpel is built with some top kit including XT and X7 mechs, SLX shifters and a SRAM chainset with a big old BB30 bottom bracket. The mixed-make 2×10 shifting actually works a treat.

Although fast, the Schwalbe tyres appear to be made from soggy toilet paper with the rear ripping on my very first thrashing, leaving some kind of inner tube haemorrhoid popping out of the side wall! A quick Park tyre boot later and all was well.  The Lefty fork can pull the bike to one side when locked out, but when in its travel it’s effective and comfortable, and I was surprised at the lack of flex. I expected to get some sort of shudder when braking with just the front brake, but there was nothing. Impressive for such a light and flimsy-looking piece of kit.

While my peers were freaked out by the flexy stays, I was finding the benefits in this very clever technology. The carbon in this part of the bike is super-springy and adds an element of fun I’ve not found in any other bike. Over whoops and flowing corners you can carry speed by pumping the bike and flexing the stays, only for them to spring back, sending the back light and ready to be thrown into the next turn. The Scalpel has amazing agility and feels ready for anything. Surprisingly it also manuals incredibly well – I only wish I’d had time to take it to the pump track!

This is a super-fun and fast bike there’s no doubt, but could I keep it pinned enough to be quicker over a lap of Ashton Court? Check back in a couple of days, when all will be revealed!

 Matt Legg-Bagg, What Mountain Bike tester and Pedal Progression skills coach

As ever What Mountain Bike is packed full of bike and gear reviews to help you make the right buying decisions.

For First Rides we’ve taken the Devinci Atlas RC out for a spin to see how packing 29in wheels into a 26in-style frame works out. Hint: the results look positive. Considering the potential for wheelsize hype, we test the Jamis Dakar 650b Comp to find out if the middle wheelsize (27.5in) is indeed where things should be at. Plus tests on the Stevens Fluent ES and Silverback’s Storm 1.0.

First Rides - Devinci Atlas RC

First Rides - Jamis Dakar 650b Comp

First Rides - Stevens Fluent ES

First Rides - Silverback Storm 1.0

Our bike test concentrates on homegrown big wheelers, pitting five UK cutting edge 29ers against each other – Singular Swift, Cotic Solaris, Kinesis FF29, Pace RC129 and Genesis Fortitude Adventure.

Genesis Fortitude Adventure and Pace RC129 battle it out in our bike test

Our look at the best UK trail centres finds its way to Scotland to bring you our top 10 centres of excellence north of the border.

There are trails to suit all abilities at Glentress

More series continue with the second part of WMB‘s Ultimate Skills Guide -  this month our expert advice shows you how to scrub off speed safely and stop on a dime. Our ‘Brief History of…’ continues with a look back at how mountain bike wheels have evolved over the years.

Expert advice on where and when to haul on the brakes

Fancy a challenge? We show you how to put the mountain back into mountain biking with a ride/push and carry up North Wales’ Cadair Idris and a fun blast back down.

What goes up has fun coming down - descending Cadair Idris, North Wales

If you want adventure, but on a slightly smaller scale, our route guide riders and writers head to Dartmoor to bring you three routes over the moors, taking in the scenery, myths and magic of the area.

Take in the tors as you traverse the terrain of Dartmoor

What Mountain Bike 136 brings you all this plus grouptests on trail helmets, 1×10 chain devices, £1000 women’s hardtails, technical advice and workshop knowhow, and loads more.  On sale now!

First rides: Guy Kesteven hits the trails on Santa Cruz’s Tallboy LTc, a full susser that rewrites the rulebook, plus Cotic Rocket, Vitus Blitz 1 and Jamis Dragon 29

Bike test: Just starting out? Then take a look at our big value hardtail bike test.

Ultimate skills guide: The first in our new series helping you to master the trails with our expert advice.

Ride guide: Head out to Swinley Forest, the M25′s secret biking nirvana.

Handmade heaven: Report from Bespoked Bristol full of amazing hand-built bikes to drool over!

Plus: summer clothing mega tests, how to prep your bike for when/if the sun shines, the top 10 trail centres in Wales and loads more. Pick up your copy today!