What's The BEST Trail Mountain Bike In 2024?

We have been testing the best trail mountain bikes to determine which should be crowned our 2024 Trail Bike of the Year.
The final choice came down to the Marin Rift Zone 29 XR, the Canyon Spectral CF7, and the Whyte T-160 RS but which came out on top?
Let us know what your choice would be in the comments!
#bikeoftheyear #trailbike #cycling
Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:30 The Bikes
01:26 Climbing Performance
03:17 Frame Details & Specs
04:19 Descending Performance
09:24 The Winner Is
Atherton AM.130 Review | 3D-Printed Trail Bike Wrecked & Rated
→ • Atherton AM.130 Review...
Trail Bike Vs. Enduro Bike | Is More Suspension Travel Better?
→ • Trail Bike Vs. Enduro ...
2024 Canyon Spectral CF Review: This Bike Steers Itself?
→ • 2024 Canyon Spectral C...
Top 5 Best-Value Trail Bikes 2024
→ • Top 5 Best-Value Trail...
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[@bikeradar]

What would be your trail bike of the year?

[@rufusswackyworld]

👹

[@mwinner101]

Yeti ARC

[@waynelenderman1115]

Specialized Stumpjumper EVO Comp Alloy. 160 front. 150 rear. Six different geo settings. Mullet capable.

[@honzikhonzik86]

Pivot Switchblade

[@wd99999]

Banshee Phantom

[@shaun1900]

Title should be the best of the bikes we were sent, these are not the best trail bikes available by any stretch of the imagination.

[@TomMarvin1]

Hey @shaun1900 , it's true that these were three of the 8 bikes that mate it into the test, however the initial long-list of bikes we considered contained over 20 bikes. As always with bike of the year, we had price constraints - £3500-£4200 (before Whyte (and Scott) dropped their prices to £2999), and on the longer travel / more aggressive side of things.
Of that 20 there were one or two that weren't available, however I'm pretty confident we collected a range of bikes that fulfilled what we were looking for in TBOTY 2024. Which bikes do you feel were missing? Always happy to receive feedback on our tests, of course :)

[@duffyrides]

@@TomMarvin1hey Tom, I would definitely like to have heard what you thought of the Santa Cruz Hightower or Tall Boy , as well as the Specialized Stumpjumper or Pivot Switchblade. There are quite a few bikes left out that we would have loved your team’s opinions on and how they compare against the Whyte etc.

[@shaun1900]

@@TomMarvin1 so did you ride all those 20 bikes, or only the ones that were supplied by manufacturers / distributors?

[@timjacob991]

My imagination is really tired from stretching, with no success 😔

[@shaun1900]

@@timjacob991 must be hard being so stunted

[@sebastienhakimejdaa9363]

I love the colour of the Whyte.

[@alexmason7103]

For 3k there’s no argument against the Whyte, that’s a hell of a lot of bike for the money

[@jasonstephens2923]

What about the YT Jeffsy

[@niseach]

Santa Cruz Hightower - absolute dream to ride.

[@kovyrshinv]

How come 160/150 is a trail bike? It used to be 130/130. 160/150 used to be enduro few years back and now is all mountain.

[@ivostarmans1199]

130 is xc now😂

[@jaynolajones]

The cannondale habit lt! 💙 best bike I’ve had

[@TomMarvin1]

It was a real contender for the top three!

[@madrapperdave]

"Don't let the 130mm travel decieve you, This is built for fun" - what planet are ppl living on when they think 130mm isn't any fun ???? Gobsmacked.....

[@marksandoval5361]

Looks like Whyte reinvented the Specialized Stumpjumper Evo.

[@Andy-co6pn]

Climbs way better than the sj evo

[@IntoTheWhite04]

The answer is the Orbea Occam. Unlucky

[@chaotictattoo]

Eh..

[@thegriff9425]

Hahaha. What nonsense😂

[@ivostarmans1199]

Yt jeffsy. Trek Fuel ex, Specialized Stumpjumper, Orbea Occam?