25 years and counting! As you can see, we’ve started wearing helmets now!
Mountain Bike Rider – MBR.co.uk
From November 2023, Mountain Bike Rider will exist entirely online, through mbr.co.uk, social media, and regular video content on our YouTube channel.
To contact our editorial team, please email mbr@futurenet.com and direct it for the attention of one of the people below.
For subscriptions queries and address changes, please email help@magazinesdirect.com
Editor – Danny Milner
Bike test editor – Alan Muldoon
Deputy Digital editor – Jamie Darlow
Danny Milner sampling the Surrey Hills spring air.
Danny Milner, editor
Danny heads the MBR editorial team both online and in print as well writing content and and appearing in video content on the website and on the MBR Youtube channel. Danny bought his first mountain bike – a Muddy Fox Pathfinder – back in 1989 with money earned washing cars up and down his street. Starting out in the early years means that Danny has made all the mistakes – such as fitting drop bars to his mountain bike, drilling holes in components to save weight, and racing with home made disc wheels – so you don’t have to! Since then he’s been hooked on mountain biking and fell into his dream job, writing about bikes, in the early ’90s. He’s worked for MBR magazine since 2002 and lost count of the number of bikes he’s tested.
Although he rarely races now, it was a big part of his life during his early years riding. Best results include 3rd place at the Garbanzo DH race at Whistler’s Crankworx in 2009 and 3rd place in the EWS Masters at Tweedlove in 2014.
His favourite places to ride are Wye Valley, Torridon, Davos, La Thuile, Whistler and his local stomping ground, the Surrey Hills.
Alan Muldoon digging out that ’80s BMX steez on a bike test shoot.
Alan Muldoon, Bike Test Editor
Al raced BMX for years before picking up a mountain bike in the early ’90s. After a brief stint racing XC, he switched to DH and 4X, competing at an elite level in the UK on one of the first Intense M1s in the country. He’s worked for MBR magazine since 2001 and and tested, on average, 50 bikes a year since then. Which means he’s reviewed somewhere in the region of 1,000 mountain bikes – no mean feat.
Extremely well respected in the industry, he has an in-depth knowledge of the market and a forensic ability to assess a bike’s handling and performance.
Jamie Darlow, axle deep in loam. It’s a tough gig.
Jamie Darlow, front section editor
Writer and tester for mbr magazine. Jamie writes features for the magazine, and tests everything from helmets to tyres. He also edits the front section of mbr, Buzz, and contributes to the website. Lives in the South Downs, loves all-day rides. Married with four children, he loves travelling with work – if mainly for the extra sleep and chance of some peace and quiet.
PB, typically stoked to out riding!
Paul Burwell
Another stalwart of the team, PB has been involved with MBR since the late nineties. He has been mountain biking from the very start, and now undertakes many of our big comparative group tests. Not always as grumpy as he looks.
Mick mid huck-to-flat test on a Merida e-bike.
Mick Kirkman
‘Crusher’ Kirkman raced DH and 4X during the early ’00s at an elite level, but despite retiring, he still can’t resist going flat out down the gnarliest tracks around. He’s a regular contributor to MBR bike tests and product tests and has built an extensive knowledge and experience of bikes and products over the years.
Rebecca about to set out on her first marathon MTB race on a stinking Yorkshire day – you don’t want to see the after photo!
Rebecca Bland
Rebecca’s one of our freelance news writers, and she has been riding (and falling off) bikes since she was old enough to whip her stabilisers off and hurtle into a rose bush straight off the bat. She’s never raced mountain bikes (yet) but dabbled in road and time trialling for a bit before realising she prefers rides with cake stops. Although she’s been riding them for decades, she’s only been writing about bikes for four years, for publications like Move Electric, Ebiketips, BikeBiz and others. After discovering the joy of electric bikes, she’s been reviewing them and using them as a way to explore hilly Yorkshire. Terrified of drops over 10cm in height, you’ll likely find her psyching herself up to hurtle down Hully Gully at Gisburn or trekking over the North Yorkshire Moors trying to teach her border collie the tricks of the trail dog trade.
Guy sharpens up his elbows and eyes up potting the black in the top corner pocket.
Guy Kesteven
Guy Kesteven is MBR’s newest oldest contributor, since he worked for the magazine originally when it launched – although under a pseudonym as he was technically employed elsewhere! In the intervening quarter-of-a-century he’s tested more bikes than most of us have had hot dinners, building up an unrivalled encyclopedia of knowledge and experience. Also the hardest working man in mountain biking, Guy can rattle off the equivalent of a thesis before breakfast, leaving time to film three YouTube videos, fix the leaking washing machine, and knock out a 100km gravel ride before tea. technical editor-at-large. To really make sure he rarely sleeps and to fund his custom tandem habit, he’s also penned a handful of bike-related books and he reviews MTBs over on his YouTube channel – GuyKesTV.
Andy Barlow is a master of the art of skills coaching, even if he occasionally forgets his bike.
Andy Barlow
Want to improve your riding? Andy Barlow is the man to help. As a qualified British Cycling Level 3 mountain bike skills coach, he’s also a partner and coach at Dirt School, the famed MTB skills coaching company based in the Tweed Valley in Scotland. Through that, he’s coached some of the best mountain bikers in the world, and is great at sharing pro technique with everyday riders.
His own accomplishments are impressive too. He was the 2009 Scottish and GB cross country mountain bike champion, winner of the 2007 Trans Scotland race in the solo category, and Scottish Junior Downhill mountain bike champion in 1997.
He’s also a qualified BASP (British Association of Ski Patrollers) Emergency Outdoor first aider, and a qualified MBLA (Mountain Bike Leadership Awards) Mountain Bike Leader. Handy, if mountain adventures on bikes are your thing!
Jonny Thompson having just spotted a mouse.
Jonny Thompson
Jonny is head coach and fitness expert for Fit4Racing, an online fitness and coaching programme for everyday to pro athletes around the world. He has over a decade of experience coaching athletes from paralympians to world number one enduro racers, and has trained the likes of Adam Brayton, Kate Weatherly, Danny Hart, Elliot Heap and Junior Downhill World Champion Oisin O’Callaghan. From the Fit4Racing base in the Lake District, UK, he sends tailored digital programmes to hundreds of riders in over 50 countries, many of whom races the UCI MTB Downhill World Cup and Enduro World Series professionally.
Videographers: Andrew Daley, Edward Westrop
How we test – Your trust is important to us
And we work hard to earn it. All the latest bikes and products are comprehensively reviewed by some of the most experienced testers in the business, most of which have been doing this for at least 20 years. If we don’t think a product is worthy of our hard-earned, we won’t tell you to part with yours for it. That’s the promise we make with our bike and equipment tests. For all our tests we guarantee that:
- They’re conducted by some of the most experienced and knowledgeable riders in the business.
- Ratings are awarded only after a thorough testing process on a variety of terrain and benchmarked against the best options on the market.
- Tests are independent, and in no way influenced by our advertisers.
In most cases, we fit control tyres to our test bikes to ensure a level playing field and to highlight differences in handling. Tyre pressures are equalised to keep grip levels identical. We also weigh the bikes and measure all the geometry and travel ourselves, because this data doesn’t always tally with the manufacturer’s official figures. The numbers you read in the tests are the actual angles and measurements.
Our rating system
Our ratings are awarded out of 10, with 10/10 being the top mark.
- 1-4 Means something’s wrong. Possibly a design flaw or a major weakness.
- 5-6 OK – one or two faults but has potential
- 7 Worth considering
- 8 Very good – for the money, we’d buy it
- 9 Excellent – a slight mod or two and it might be perfect
- 10 Simply the best!
Social media
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Advertising
If you would like to advertise with us, we’d love to hear from you. To find out more about ad rates and deadlines please visit our advertising page and contact one of the relevant people.
Our ownership
MBR is proudly owned by Future PLC, one of the UK’s most successful publishing companies. Future PLC is the home to some of the UK’s best known media brands. Find out more about Future PLC by clicking here.
Our policies
MBR is a member of the IPSO (Independent Press Standards Organisation) which regulates the UK print and digital news industry.
We abide by the Editors’ Code of Practice and are committed to upholding the highest standards of journalism. If you think that we have not met those standards and want to make a complaint, please contact legal@futurenet.com
If we are unable to resolve your complaint, or if you would like more information about IPSO or the Editors’ Code, contact IPSO on 0300 123 2220 or visit www.ipso.co.uk
Affiliate and advertising disclosure
One of the ways MBR’s content is funded, in order to keep it free to read and view, is through an affiliate linking programme. In our reviews, products and deals round-ups our editorial team will often include a ‘Buy Now’ link, or links will be automatically displayed, to a retail partner. If a reader clicks the link and buys a product, MBR will earn a small fee. This doesn’t affect the amount you pay.
We always try to find the best deals on products that we know and trust from reputable retailers to give to our readers. Our affiliate and advertising relationships don’t affect our reviews or recommendations.
Occasionally we may run advertorials (paid-for editorial content) on the site. These are always clearly marked as sponsored or promoted, to make sure you can tell which articles have been paid for. Future PLC is our parent company and has an in-depth terms and conditions page with a lot more information that you can read right here.
Editorial Complaints
If you have a complaint about our editorial content, you can email us at complaints@futurenet.com or write to Complaints Manager, Future PLC, 3rd floor, 161 Marsh Wall, London, UK, E14 9AP. Please provide details of the material you are complaining about and explain your complaint by reference to the Editors’ Code.