Twenty years ago, purpose built trail centres were the bright new future of mountain biking. But how are they doing today, and are they still…
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When it comes to riding, what’s your ‘why’?
A summer’s evening, a pub with a beer garden and a bunch of bikes stacked up against the wall. It’s a familiar scene for most…
What makes a bike fun to ride? Can you engineer ‘fun’ into a new mountain bike? What even is ‘fun’? Guy Kesteven tries to find an answer
Why is one bike ‘funner’ than any other? Fun is a massively overused word in bike testing because it’s an easy, throwaway comment about any…
Go with the flow: discovering the ‘tech-flow’ of Wharncliffe Crags
Sim Mainey chats with mountain biking polymath Dan Greenwood to learn more about his unique approach to trail building. Standing on the edge of Wharncliffe…
Trailblazers: The unique talents of Joe Barnes
There are certain characters in the world of mountain biking that just seem to define a geographical area. To me, Fort William will always be…
The Trans Savoie: a wild, epic big-mountain race like no other
There’s a mountain bike event in France that’s been going on for ten years now, in which clusters of riders stand around at the end…
The science of fun can make you a better mountain biker
Describe why you ride a mountain bike and you’ll probably not be able to avoid using the word fun. Because it is. The reason we…
What will the mountain bike of tomorrow look like? 8 industry experts gaze into the crystal ball of bike design
In issue one of Mountain Bike Rider magazine waaaaay back 1997 we asked the industry movers and shakers what the best mountain bikes of the…
Move Over, Marin County: mountain biking was born in Paris
We had a birthday recently, mbr turned 25 and it inspired us to look back over the early years… know your roots, and all that.…
Trail Blazers: Ryan and Jason Bullimore, Tirpentwys Trails
A volunteer-built trail centre in South Wales honours its young founder with every pedal stroke and with its quest for recognition.
“I’m a self-confessed retro mountain bike addict!” – One man’s quest to recreate the dream MTBs of his youth
The retro market is booming as riders seek to recreate the dream machines of their youth; mbr pays homage to some iconic designs and wonders…
Vali Höll interviewed by Tracy Moseley: “You can’t be what you can’t see”
Downhill prodigy Vali Höll is blazing a trail for female mountain bikers; former world champ Tracy Moseley gets the inside story.
High-pivot idlers? Check out this Empire Cycles AP1 from 2006
High-pivot idlers? We look back to the mid noughties when the UK's Empire Cycles AP1 offered a unique downhilling machine.
How green is the mountain bike industry?
We take a look at the people, ideas and companies that are seeking to offset and eventually eliminate mountain biking’s hidden environmental impacts.
Aneela McKenna: tireless trailblazer for diversity and inclusion
We hit the trails with one of mountain biking’s most tireless campaigners for diversity and inclusion: Aneela McKenna.
Tech feature: taking a deep dive into mountain bike geometry
A bike's angles and dimensions are the key to the way it rides; understanding how they interact will help you choose the right machine and…
Size matters: why we’re all riding bikes that are too small
Chris Porter explains why he thinks mountain bike designers are getting it all wrong
Why you need to look beyond the geometry charts
To wrap up our series on geometry, we're going to explain why you shouldn’t rely on the manufacturers to get it right, and how to…
“It’s all or nothing” – the story of Atherton Bikes
The Athertons are mountain biking royalty so their eponymous bike brand comes with the ultimate seal of approval; we head to their Dyfi Bike Park…
“We wanted a frame to hang our parts on” – How Hope Technology went from making components to building complete mountain bikes
The Hope HB.130 is the realisation of a dream for Hope's founders. We head to Lancashire in order to find out the story behind this…