Most of the newest and sexiest bikes for 2025 have already been released, with blistering new models in every segment of the market from budget full-suspension right the way through to full-on World Cup DH rigs. Time then, to take a run-down through the hottest bikes that I’m most excited about right now.

The high-flying Calibre Bossnut is not held back by its price point.

In no particular order, I’m going to begin proceedings with two affordable full-suspension bikes. These are the bread and butter of mountain biking, crucial for both hooking new riders to the sport, and giving shred-worthy options to riders on a budget. The dons of this game are Calibre and Voodoo, and both have released fresh versions of their benchmark trail bikes recently. Calibre has launched a new Bossnut, with 2025-ready geometry, suspension, and wheel-sizing, and a badass build that will suit bike park rippers just as much as weekend trail warriors. Voodoo has performed a similar makeover on its Canzo full-suspension bike, with 29in wheels, modern geometry, and uprated travel. Both bikes are in-and-around the £1,500 mark and, having tested them, we can already attest to their talents.

Hot on the Bossnut’s heels is the excellent Voodoo Canzo.

Specialized has also been targeting this end of the market in 2024 with the Chisel FS, a bike that follows in the footsteps of other cut-price cult models such as the Pitch, Camber, and the Status. Only this model serves to lower the bar to entry into the XC race scene, as well as tear down singletrack at top speed. A bike that can rip around your local woods on a Saturday and line up at an XC race on a Sunday.

The learnings from 15 versions of the Stumpjumper have been fed into this latest version.

But that’s not the only bike Specialized has released this year. There’s been a new Epic 8 race bike, Epic 8 Evo down-country shredder, and the 15th iteration of the Stumpjumper FS. Yes, the Stumpjumper is on its 15th incarnation, and MBR’s Bike Test Editor, Alan Muldoon, has tested all of them. So which one does he think is the best? Well, that’s the latest model, thanks largely to its highly-adjustable dual rate Genie air shock.

Cotic ploughs its own furrow with the new Rocket e-bike.

Steel tubing has been making the headlines all year. From its appearance on the World Cup DH circuit, as riders like Amaury Pierron and Neko Mullaly seek out more compliance and less deflection from their frames, to the likes of Cotic revealing its unapologetically steel Rocket e-bike, there seems to have been a ferrous resurgence. And it’s even spread to the very biggest brands, with Trek showing a prototype Pipedream that uses a custom steel front triangle mated to a Top Fuel back end. After spending years and many dollars designing and protecting proprietary technology, the Pipedream abandons all of that – and probably attracted more eyeballs and likes than most Treks with all the cutting-edge tech.

The future of enduro riding? Trek’s Slash+ is one of three new lightweight e-enduro bikes to hit the market this year.

Another Trek that’s got my attention recently is the Slash+ e-bike. At first it was for the bizarre pricing that meant you could buy the version with motor and battery for nearly £1k less than the analogue model. But then I got hold of one to test, and since then I’ve mostly been having a blast riding it. More on that soon, but it’s notable, not only for the high-pivot idler design, but for being the first e-bike with TQ’s new high capacity battery.

Seriously rapid – and that’s not just the speed of the Amflow PL Carbon Pro, as it’s only taken a year to come to market.

Staying with e-bikes, how can I not mention the Amflow PL Carbon with the DJI motor. No one can talk about e-bikes anymore without some kind of reference to the Amflow, such is the hype around this thing. Having ridden it, I can safely say the hype is justified around the power and tune of the motor – it destroys anything else I’ve ridden for power, speed, and acceleration. But that’s only half the story, because the chassis is at the lighter end of the spectrum, and there’s a huge dichotomy between the grunt of the motor and the frame it’s attached to.

That’s not a judgement that can be levelled at the Nicolai Saturn 16 MGU with the Pinion motor and gearbox unit. This absolute unit is as burly as it gets, with a massive (and intricately-machined) alloy frame, along with what could be the most robust and durable drivetrains ever to grace an e-bike. For riders looking to spend more time in the saddle, and less time in the workshop, it could be the panacea.

Modular battery, full power, low weight, even lower centre of gravity – the Whyte ELyte 150 EVO

Just a few more bikes to cover, and none more significant than the Whyte ELyte Evo. An evolution of the bike that’s just won our SL E-Bike of the Year test – the Whyte ELyte 150 RSX – this new model keeps all the bits we love about the RSX, including the amazing suspension, dialled handling, and snake’s belly centre of gravity, and upgrades the rattly, high-revving Bosch SX motor with the full-power, super-smart, Bosch Performance CX unit. All bikes come with the range extender, so you can choose to have a heavier bike with more range, or a more dynamic set-up for shorter blasts.

That’s a good-looking downhill bike – the Pivot Phoenix.

Time for a few downhill bikes, and the Pivot Phoenix has had a very public development process at the hands of Bernard Kerr and co on the World Cup scene (and numerous YouTube vlogs). Some of which was probably not ideal from Pivot’s perspective, such as snapping the head tube clean off at Crankworx. But kudos to Pivot to sticking with the plan, and now the new Phoenix is out (in monocoque form, rather than lugs-and-tubes), I think it looks stunning. Canyon has also been getting a lot of attention (and quite a few podiums) with its as-yet-unreleased Sender V3. Now sporting a high-pivot idler design, I’d expect to see this new bike launched before the start of the 2025 race season. Finally, a brand that has been hiding its new downhill bike is Scott. The updated Gambler has sneaked into a reel posted by Ethan Craik, even if it hasn’t been raced in anger, and the latest frame design hides the shock in the base of the down tube for a sleek look that matches the rest of Scott’s range. Undoubtedly there’s some wild six-bar linkage (at least) in the frame to be able to package everything, but we’ll have to wait and see for the specifics. Once again, I’d expect the new Gambler to surface for time the first round of the World Cup next May in Poland.