Best mountain bike: what to look for in a mountain bike

In this buyers guide we’ll go into what you get for you money at different price points. We’ll also detail the principal variations in mountain bike designs that are out there.

What’s your budget?

Hold your horses. We’re going to go into what you get (and don’t get) for your money further down this page. You can get a perfectly decent mountain bike for under £500. You can also max out you Mastercard and drop over £5k on a mountain bike. Are those bikes 10x better? No, they aren’t. They are better, sometimes significantly so depending on the rider and terrain, but essentially you get less drastic improvements in bike quality the higher you go up the money scale.