Spanish brand Orbea delivers a uniquely designed trail bike that’s tailored to the mile-munchers.

It may be short on travel but Pivot's new 27.5 HC bike proved big on ability.

Breezer built their name making classic steel hardtails and these roots remain apparent in the Thunder Pro.

The Stance promises to deliver truly off-road-worthy dual suspension performance in a very affordable package.

While the Sight is best known as a sleek looking carbon bike, it’s also available in aluminium—we checked out how this more affordable Norco performs.

Made for riders who like to get rough and rowdy, the G-150 is one of the newest offerings from UK brand Whyte Bikes.

GTs new Helion is pitched as an XC bike that provides a balance between fun and efficient pedalling, so is it an XC racer or an all-round trail bike? There was a time, not all that long ago, when bikes with short travel and small wheels dominated the crosscountry race scene.

Back before there was #enduro, dropper posts and tubeless tyres, in an era when rim brakes were king, there once lived some of the most ‘rad’ and ‘badass’ mountain bikers of all time. These pioneering guys and gals rode one bike for everything, uphill or down; they were bike handlers of the first order.

A funny thing happened to me whilst out test-riding the Knolly Warden, and not just once. Every time I rode past an assembly of teenage mountain bikers they cheered, and it wasn’t just the usual ‘nice bike, mate’, but full on whooping, whistling, and yelling.

Set and forget, or don’t forget to set; that is the question. There’s a grubby Spark hanging in the garage but I’m still not sure what the correct answer is, even though it’s my rhetorical question! This bike is uber cool, every bit unique, and it delivers what Scott believes is the ultimate in MTB suspension technology; manually controlled on-the-fly suspension travel adjustment.

In 2014, when Trek turned their Fuel EX range into a 29er-only platform, I was a very sad boy. It’s not that the 29ers were a bad bike, but the outgoing 26-inch wheeled Fuel EX had been a favourite of mine for quite some time. It offered a perfect mix of efficiency and playfulness which, in my eyes at least, had made it one of the most versatile, capable and fun trail bikes of the last five years.

The Edict family pre-dates the arrival and domination of the 29-inch wheel for cross-county riding. We reviewed the original small-wheeled Edict back in 2012, but she’s been retired now in favour the 29-inch model. Felt still make 26-inch and 27.5 inch bikes but the Edict is designed with one thing in mind, and that’s race level cross-country performance.

When South African brand Morewood started out, it was a classic example of necessity being the mother of invention. They were founded by elite downhill racer Patrick Morewood, who struggled to find bikes that could take the abuse of regular DH riding and decided to start making his own.

Lapierre was one of the first companies to really get it right for aggressive trail riders; in particular the Zesty range of bikes has won accolades and garnered praise for many years now, with its ability to both climb and descend with equal measures of ease and self-assurance. In 2013 we saw the advent of the optional ‘E:i’ intelligent electronic shock—as reviewed in Mountain Biking Australia Aug/Sept/Oct 2013. For 2014 the range was further split into two distinct line-ups; the 27.5-inch wheeled Zesty AM with 150mm travel and the 120mm Zesty TR 29er.

Sydney based riders, especially commuters, will be well familiar with Cell Bikes. This savvy retailer has been pumping bikes out of their inner west store for years, apparently over 100,000 units and counting! Cell’s motto is ‘ride more for less’. Their business model bypasses many of the steps in the traditional retail supply chain, selling their own branded bikes direct to the public.

A few years ago when we first reviewed Avanti’s Torrent trail bike we came away with the distinct impression of a very sorted and capable machine that was up for a bit of everything—it had no significant shortcomings. Of course a lot has changed since then, and the fact that it had 26-inch wheels was probably enough to justify a redesign.