Our Trail Bike of the Year test is back for 2025, where we find out what the best trail mountain bike on the market is.
This year, we pooled the experiences of our test team – Rob Weaver, Alex Evans and Luke Marshall – to collate the best of the best tested by the team, before Rob spent months riding our eight top contenders.
Rob and Tom then triple-tested the top three to find out which came out on top – phew!
The bikes we tested were:
Atherton A.130
Forbidden Druid 3
Canyon Spectral AL 6
Santa Cruz Hightower CC X0 AXS RSV
Giant Trance X 1
Pivot Trailcat LT Pro X0
Yeti SB140 LR T3
Specialized Stumpjumper 15 Pro
Watch on to find out which was crowned the winner.
Thanks to Auto-Trail for sponsoring our 2025 Bike of the Year content. You can find more about their range of campers, including the Expedition 68 at auto-trail.co.uk
00:00 Introduction
01:55 The top-3 bikes
03:12 Canyon Spectral on the climbs
05:36 Forbidden Druid uphill
07:09 Atherton A.130 climbing performance
08:22 Atherton A.130 on flow trails
10:11 Forbidden Druid crossing mellow terrain
11:15 Canyon Spectral on less-tech tracks
12:10 Forbidden Druid is the DHers trail bike
14:04 Canyon Spectral is amazing down a hill
15:42 Atherton A.130 the true all-rounder
17:55 Top-3 spec details
20:59 Top-3 bikes’ geometry
22:33 Picking our Trail Bike of the Year
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34 Comments
I'm only here for the you didn't test the x y z comments ……
I’m a fan of the stump jumper
An Atherton AM150's my dream bike…One day…ha!
Im a fan of the last gen canyon neuron cf.
The spectral is as generic as a trail bike can be, I tried one and it's also the riding feel. It's not good it's not bad but certainly not outstanding, or top 3 🙄😏
Love this style of video and comparison. Great job.👍
4'15" is that a crack on the canyon??
Trail bikes? Looks like you fellows might be over biked.
Would have been nice to know some info about the bikes that didn’t make it into the final.
Curious as to which bike outside the top 3 was the best?
When is the last time an Atherton bike didn’t win a shootout comp?
Rob said do-do.
with so many new and exciting DH bikes releasing (Orbea, Scott, mondraker is coming and specialized also looks almost ready) i am hoping for a DH bike roundup
Not really a fair comparison.. bikes prices and components are a worlds appart..
Trail centre looks good…..does anyone know where or which one?
I mean quite a few of these I'd say are enduro bikes rather than trail bikes but really nice bikes none the less
I vote for Pivot trail cat LT
My A130 climbing grip is amazing, the decent so plush. The suspension is very active yet doesn't rob energy. If feels like it has much more than 130mm of travel. The A130 feels like it has more travel then my Privateer141, my Knolly Fugitive138…feels almost as much travel as my coil sprung Privateer161. It rides so smooth and sooo quiet.
I'm a ibis rider. Dw never disappoints
The best bike is the one you can afford. Most of these bikes are not for normal people, you’re either super serious about mountain biking or you’re a dentist to drop a few grand for a bike. These best bikes of 2025 are all subjective and no one should just go out and buy the atherton because this video said so.
Just snagged a brand new spectral for £1500. I’m still in shock
When converted into NZ dollars the frame of that A 130 costs more than my brand new Suzuki DR650 cost! that's insane!
Where’s these trails, please?
Ibis Ripley, you left that out???
Great Video! However, I would put my current gen Norco Fluid A1 against any of these 🍁😊
As others have said, why not the Stumpjumper?
As a resident of South Africa, it would also be interesting if there was a selection based on more universally available bike brands.
This final selection wasn't too relevant for me, at least.
Let me guess….Atherton is UK brand.Let me another guess….this channel is british…..Let me another guess …Canyon is not english,Forbidden also…..Let's check global sales from all this bikes .Numbers .Everything is in the numbers
The test is flawed because there was no rocky mountain instinct in the lineup of 8. Also a we are one arrival 152 would have blown out most of these bikes
Stumpy versatility is unmatched–faster than my Ripley in steep mode, more capable than my Ripmo in slack mode. Incredible bike.
Nice to see the 2025 Spectral in your top 3 and up against bikes that are over twice its price. I bought that same 2025 Spectral al6 this summer and absolutely love it and have been surprised that there are not more videos on youtube reviewing or featuring it. THose that I have seen seem to give it less favourable reviews than yours. Great video
Hello, as a daft question. I am looking to start riding again following long term injury and I am looking for a full sus ebike for a heavier rider to help a return to better health. What bikes can handle the heavier person (under 21st and falling) The online information for this is not great and assumes you will be 85kg or less. Even direct websites are selective on what the capacity of the bikes are. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
Did i hear this correctly? Did he say theses 3 bikes beat the yeti sb140 and povit trailcat LT? How?
Merida 140 6000 all the way.
Top spec builds here are too heavy. Spectral is in the 12s in top spec carbon.