Mountain bikes are, in many ways, better than ever, but we’re also seeing fewer and fewer bikes that feel like truly specialized tools for a specific job. And for many folks, that’s great — many big Enduro bikes climb pretty well, plenty of more versatile Trail bikes still hold their own in burly terrain quite effectively, and so on.

Being well-rounded is certainly one way for a bike to stand out, but it can also make for a bike that doesn’t truly excel in any specific area. So we got a bunch of our bike reviewers together to talk about — and argue over — the bikes and other gear we were most impressed with from 2024, and talk about what makes them stand out.

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Cannondale Moterra SL (2:41)

Santa Cruz Vala (4:26)

Kavenz VHP16 V7 (9:06)

Deviate Highlander II (13:58)

Privateer 161 V2 (16:23)

Spot Mayhem 140 (21:42)

Specialized Stumpjumper 15 (25:20)

Specialized Epic Evo (28:54)

Trek Top Fuel (32:19)

Yeti ASR (34:15)

Chromag Lowdown (39:42)

Schwalbe Radial Tires (43:45)

Michelin Wild Enduro MS & DH22 (51:15)

Michelin DH16 (56:12)

Manitou Mara Pro PB (58:38)

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When we last sat down with Steve Mathews from Vorsprung, he shared a lot of the high-level details of their then-unreleased Telum shock. But he needed to keep some of the most interesting details under wraps — until now. So we sat back down with Steve to get the full rundown — first and foremost, how the Telum’s novel Rapid Revalve system (which is meant to make re-valving the shock take only a few minutes) works. And Steve shares a lot of good info on the Telum more broadly, his approach to suspension tuning, and a whole lot more.

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TOPICS & TIMES:

Re-introducing the Telum

Damper design (2:10)

The Rapid Revalve system (7:19)

How Rapid Revalve differs from standard adjusters (14:01)

The Tuning Hub (23:24)

Damping curves & what Rapid Revalve can (and can’t) do (31:50)

“Placebo dials” & Steve’s tuning philosophy (35:54)

Hydraulic bottom-out & changing shock stroke (41:00)

Spherical bearings (44:59)

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2024 was an interesting, strange year for the bike industry, with the challenging retail landscape dominating a lot of the news. Thankfully, there has been plenty of good news to discuss, too. Dylan and Simon sat down on New Year's Eve to wrap up the last Reviewing the News for 2024, and they recapped some of the memorable stories from across the whole year, sprinkled in a bit of recent news from December, discussed their picks for best racing moments, and reminisced about their best rides of the year.

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TOPICS & TIMES:

Norco’s 2025 DH Team (3:31)

GT Bikes to Pause Operations (7:09)

Rocky Mountain Restructuring (10:22)

Explore Act Passes Senate (15:38)

Lithium-ion Batteries Still Unregulated (18:29)

2024 Industry News Recap (22:28)

2024 Racing Highlights (34:02)

Favorite Riding Moments of ‘24 (41:13)

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The last time we spoke to Braydon Bringhurst, he’d just wrapped up his hugely ambitious ‘8600FT’ project and put out an excellent film on the effort. He’s now taking on another huge project of a very different sort, so we sat down with him to hear all about his newly founded Hard MTB League.

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TOPICS & TIMES:

What is Hard MTB? (1:16)

Where did the idea come from, and why start it? (2:57)

The courses & varying disciplines (13:48)

October’s testing event (17:27)

The response from riders (19:28)

Timing & other details (24:55)

Who’s likely to excel? (28:12)

Plans for 2025 and beyond (31:25)

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Sometimes a chance encounter can wildly reshape someone’s life, and the series of events that led Ashley King to frame building, and later founding Significant Other Bikes, is a wild one. So we sat down with Ashley to hear her story and get her take on frame building, running a business, and a whole lot more. We also discuss the importance of bringing in outside perspectives and folks with diverse backgrounds — and how that plays into the Significant Other name.

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TOPICS & TIMES:

Ashley’s discovery of the magic of bikes (1:37)

Building hydroponic systems & learning fabrication (4:14)

Ashley’s time as a bike messenger in NYC & what brought it to an end (5:04)

Fixed gear bikes (15:11)

Making the leap to frame building (18:01)

United Bicycle Institute’s frame building class (25:18)

COVID & small builders (30:34)

Founding Significant Other (35:46)

The MADE show (41:15)

Ashley’s intro to mountain biking (45:12)

Significant Other’s frame offerings (47:59)

The custom frame process (53:58)

The Significant Other name (55:31)

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Mountain biking when it’s cold and rainy out might not sound very appealing, but our Pacific Northwest-based bike reviewers have a lot of experience on that front — and having a good time doing it. So we sat down to chat about how to make the most of the less appealing part of the riding season, from layering strategies to glove selection, tire choices and bike setup, and more.

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TOPICS & TIMES:

How to deal with humidity (3:08)

Shoe selection & tradeoffs (8:39)

Glove strategies (14:25)

Jackets & layering (18:54)

Bike setup (34:16)

Brake pads (36:47)

Tire selection (39:51)

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Bike news slowed down a bit in November, allowing Mike and Simon to get into some fun topics, like the history of multitools, and Mike’s fifty-year-old truck project/money pit. But there was still plenty of bike industry conversation, too, thanks to the seemingly limitless discounts that continue to disrupt the retail landscape. They also discuss the not-so-fun topic of bike theft and offer some insight on how to protect your bikes and recover them if they are stolen, and a whole lot more.

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TOPICS & TIMES:

Mike’s Fifty-Year-Old Truck Project (0:50)

The Bike Industry's Global Discounts Continue (6:43)

Deepest Discounts We’ve Ever Seen (8:51)

How Can The Bike Industry Reset (13:37)

De Minimis Reform (23:08)

Bike theft (28:04)

The History of Multitools (43:12)

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Simon Stewart and David Golay are back for their first joint Reviewer Reports episode in a while, to talk about a whole bunch of what they’ve been testing lately. There’s a lot to cover, from three very different Trail bikes to a couple of lightweight eMTBs, the ultra-adjustable Geometron G1, two very different takes on electronically-controlled suspension, and more.

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TOPICS & TIMES:

Nicolai G1 (2:19)

Rocky Mountain Instinct Powerplay SL (13:23)

Canyon Spectral:ONFly (23:42)

K.I.S chat (27:38)

Kona Process 153 (34:49)

Spot Mayhem 140 (39:43)

Forbidden Druid V2 (46:59)

Fox Live Valve Neo vs. RockShox Flight Attendant (58:17)

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Getting more people on bikes, and building better bike infrastructure to facilitate it, is something of a chicken-and-egg problem. People need to feel safe to get out in the first place; getting municipalities to take the issue seriously often takes a demonstrated need for better infrastructure.

PeopleForBikes is doing a lot to advocate for bike riders of all stripes — from casual commuters to dedicated mountain bikers, urban delivery riders to weekend roadies, and everyone in between. So we sat down with their CEO, Jenn Dice, to hear all about what PeopleForBikes does, and why it’s important; chat about what you can do to advocate for better bike infrastructure in your community; how the proliferation of eBikes has changed the landscape; and much more.

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TOPICS & TIMES:

PeopleForBikes & their mission (1:21)

Infrastructure & policy to facilitate bike access (4:04)

City Ratings (7:35)

The Great Bike Infrastructure Map & community engagement (13:21)

E-Bikes and their infrastructure needs (14:45)

E-Bike classifications & regulations (17:59)

MTBs & trail access (29:57)

Managing shared use trails (31:04)

The LA Olympics & car-free goals (36:12)

Tariffs & the bike industry (41:58)

Getting involved with PeopleForBikes (45:21)

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Matthew Fairbrother’s wild effort to bikepack through the entire 2022 EWS season was an incredible accomplishment, and he’s just kept stacking up bonkers feats of endurance on a mountain bike in the years since. So we once again sat down with Matthew to talk about what he’s been up to of late, including winning the NZ Rally despite forgoing all the assisted transfers; kayaking one of them with minimal experience in a kayak; more animal encounters (check out our earlier episode with Matthew for a real all-timer there); how he manages to switch between race mode and getting in the right mindset to just grind out massive miles and elevation; and a whole lot more.

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Matthew’s 2022 EWS Tour (Ep.139)

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TOPICS & TIMES:

Taking on the NZ Rally (2:23)

Transferring by… kayak? (12:35)

Animal encounters (15:56)

Toggling between a focused race mindset and gutting out massive miles and elevation between stages (20:14)

Winning the NZ Rally despite forgoing all the assisted transfers (17:49)

The North Shore Triple Triple Crown (22:50)

The Triple Triple Crown ride (29:28)

Matthew’s bike setup (30:11)

Ranking the difficulty of Matthew’s exploits (38:10)

Food & planning (39:19)

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