The bike industry is in pretty bad shape, every week we hear about another brand struggling to sell its bikes or bits. Most recently it was the turn of GasGas and Husqvarna, which will disappear from most of Europe after flogging off as many bikes as it can at discount. But from the perspective of a rider, outside the nitty gritty industry of making and selling bikes, mountain biking is actually booming…

1. Mountain biking is more popular now than ever

You’ve only got to look outside and see how busy the trails and carparks are right now, or further afield at booked-up destinations and events like BikePark Wales, to know the truth of this. The figures back it up too, market analysis agency Mintel has estimated there 6% of the UK population regularly rides a mountain bike off-road, which equates to a massive 4.1 million riders.

Queues aren’t exactly great to see on the trails, but they’re symptomatic of a boom time for biking

There are more of us every year too, another research firm Market Research Future (MRFR) reckons the global mountain bike market will grow at around 10% annually until 2027, with XC competition increasing particularly.

And perhaps most importantly, mountain bikes themselves are the dominant cycling variant. 33% of bike owners in the UK own an MTB, making us the biggest user group on two wheels, according to the 2022 UK Cycling Market Report.

Cairngorm Mountain Bike Trails opened last year, with a ski uplift and berms for days

2. There are more places to ride your bike, and they’re better too

There are more places to ride than ever, despite serious problems like the closure of Coed y Brenin’s visitors centre and falling public spending on trails. Scotland now has over 5,000km of singletrack according to the UK Trail Project’s new report on trail access, and specific areas of England and Wales are seeing trail building booms right now, according to the UKTP trails report, sponsored by SRAM and organised by Developing Mountain Bike in Scotland. Meanwhile commercial bike parks like BikePark Wales, Dyfi, Revolution Bike Park, B1ke B1keparks, Burlish Bike Park and more are in the ascendancy, capitalising on the demand for more trails, and better built ones at that. Check out our Trail News pages for the latest updates on new trails in 2025.

The eight UK MTB Trail Alliance trustees who’re helping to push for better trail access and rights

3. Mountain bikers finally have a voice in the UK

Wait ages for an uplift bus and two come along at once, goes the old saying. Sort of. It’s true in the world of trail advocacy too, where mountain bikers have been shouting into the wind for as long as the sport’s been in existence. Now though we have the UK MTB Trail Alliance and the UK Trails Project, both of which are lobbying, cajoling and convincing riders and landowners to work more closely together to protect our trail networks. They’re also in the business of putting pressure on governments and local authorities to allow mountain bikers better access. Who knows, we might even see open access for Wales finally come to pass.

We’re also hoping this pressure of numbers will lead to England, Wales and Northern Ireland following Scotland’s lead with a unified approach to promoting mountain biking. Last year we reported how England and Wales have been left behind in the race for trail access.

4. Budget bikes are back

The Calibre Bossnut is back for 2025, now in its fourth iteration it’s now a 29in trail bike with properly aggressive geometry, 135mm of RockShox suspension and a price tag of just £1,500. That in itself is really great news, but the bike is really a talisman of the entry-level bike’s return to favour in 2025.

During the lockdowns plenty of brands quietly dropped their entry level bikes in favour of those with bigger margins. And why wouldn’t they, five years ago those Covid bikes would sell out before the cargo ships even docked. But with thousands of full price bikes seeing huge markdowns, the power is very much in the hands of buyers, who can pick and choose from the oversupply of bikes. This means budget models are back in shops and online.

Boardman’s new MTR 8.9 also impressed us, light enough for singletrack riding at 15kg and the latest RockShox Psylo fork on the front is perfect for soaking up bigger hits. And Voodoo Canzo from Halfords is equally impressive, it’s for riders who want speed and confidence, comes with a super-smooth coil sprung fork and you even get a dropper post.

5. Disrupters are causing havoc with e-bikes… and that’s great for riders

E-biking is one of the fastest growing sports in the world, according to Garmin data, growing mountain biking as e-bikes draw more riders into the sport. Just as importantly, bikes are improving at an incredible rate thanks to the disruptive influencers of new players like Amflow, with its DJI Avinox-powered Carbon Pro bike. This in turn makes more established brands sit up and adapt, like Whyte’s new full power ELyte Evo with the latest Bosch CX motor. You can expect a bunch of existing brands to develop new and more powerful bikes in response to this, and latch onto the DJI motor as Forbidden seems to be doing with its rumoured eDreadnought. 

What we get then is a race to better bikes, with increasing power, lighter batteries, more range, and better integration, all of which is brilliant if you’re into mountain bike tech.

Ronan Dunne lit up the World Cup last year, here’s got some pretty hot competition in 2025 though / Bartek Wolinski / Red Bull Content Pool

6. World Cup downhill scene is really exciting in 2025

I was going to tell you how exciting the World Cup downhill and XC racing will be this season – and it really will – but you’ll have to pay £30.99 a month just to watch it live. That’s because Eurosport is closing its coverage in the UK and the Republic of Ireland, a subscription that used to cost just £3.99 a month. Now you’ll need to get a TNT package, which is pricey because other premium sports like football, crickets and rugby are also included.

So, why will the racing be better in 2025? At least on paper, it looks like the UCI has done a good thing by abolishing the semi-finals, which most riders seemed to hate, replacing them with a two-stage qualifying process for elites. After first qualies the top 20 fastest men and 10 fastest women go through to the final. Then the rest of the field gets another shot at the final, where the top 10 fastest men and five women make it through. It’s actually a pretty clever way of adding in more drama, but without exhausting the front runners mentally or physically, which is what they seemed to dislike about the semis.

More of this raw emotion please, in 2025 – Vali Höll wins the Worlds | Picture by Javier Martínez/SWpix.com

There’s more racing to watch in 2025 too, with 10 downhill races on the calendar, up from just seven last year. Yes, Fort William misses out, but with Les Gets, Andorra and Val di Sole on the calendar I don’t think the racing is going to lack any excitement. And in case you were wondering, it looks like this…

• May 16-18: Enduro Trails – Bielsko-Biała, Poland (UCI Downhill World Cup)
• May 30-June 1: Loudenvielle-Peyragudes, France (UCI Downhill World Cup)
• June 5-8: Saalfelden Leogang – Salzburgerland, Austria (UCI Downhill World Cup)
• June 20-22: Val di Sole – Trentino, Italy (UCI Downhill World Cup)
• July 3-6: La Thuile – Valle d’Aosta, Italy (UCI Downhill World Cup)
• July 9-13: Pal Arinsal – Andorra (UCI Downhill World Cup)
• August 21-31: Haute-Savoie, France (UCI Downhill World Cup)
• September 18-21: Bike Kingdom – Lenzerheide, Switzerland (UCI Downhill World Cup)
• October 3-5: Lake Placid Olympic Region, New York, USA (UCI Downhill World Cup)
• October 9-12: Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada (UCI Downhill World Cup)

The Atherton A.200G gearbox downhill bike is an unknown for 2025, which makes it really bloomin exciting

Honestly I’m loving the look of the DH Wiorld Cup Team and Rider rosters for this upcoming race season. Reece Wilson has formed a new team called AON Racing, using the Gamux gearbox bike with Pinion and Gates belt drive, while Atherton Racing, Atherton Racing, MS-Racing, and Intense Factory Racing will also use Gates’ carbon belt drive this season. How that’ll go down is anyone’s guess, but I can’t wait to find out.

Then there are a host of other changes, with Loris Vergier and Reece Wilson gone from Trek, the addition of Matt Walker, Lachlan Stevens-McNab, Chris Hauser, Ollie Davis, Sacha Earnest, and Ella Swegby looks properly powerful. Meanwhile Andreas Kolb joins the YT Mob, Benoit Coulanges heads to Scott DH Factory Team, Norco Race Division now includes Danny Hart, and FMD Racing and Tahnee Seagrave will be on Orbeas for 2025. Quite the changes then.

Asa Vermette recieves helmet at Red Bull Rampage in Virgin, Utah / Paris Gore / Red Bull Content Pool

7. Latest gen rides are amazing

If anyone was worried this new, more professionalised World Cup was going to hurt the next generation of riders and throttle development, it hasn’t happened yet. We’re not saying it won’t, but the UCI has taken some steps to help up and comers work up the ranks, last year it launched a new World Cup feeder series as it looks to grow the sport globally. 

The latest crop of young riders don’t hang around though, Asa Vermette is certainly one to watch, he took the 2024 junior Worlds. While Luke Wayman and Daniel Parfitt came second and third in the World Cup respectively and look incredibly fast. Dane Jewett formerly of Pivot has now moved to Giant too, and anyone familiar with Bernard Kerr’s YouTube channel will know how hard he can ride.

And in the women’s, Sacha Earnest joins the elites this year, after coming top three at five World Cups and the Worlds in 2024, and Erice Van Leuven defended her World Champs title last year, the first Junior since Vali Höll to do so. The future is bright.