S LET TER EDITOR’
Welcome to our special Bike of the Year issue. Our test team, headed by Technical Editor in Chief Rob Weaver and BikeRadar’s Senior Tech Writer Tom Marvin, have been busy throughout the winter and spring months selecting some of the most interesting bikes currently on the market to put in contention for our prestigious awards. This year we’re running two categories – ‘ Trail’, which covers bikes with 110mm to 140mm of travel, and ‘ Enduro’, which pits machines with 150mm to 175mm of travel against each other.
Rob and Tom have been riding these bikes hard in some pretty testing conditions over what’s been a particularly harsh winter. That’s helped them identify exactly where their strengths and weaknesses lie. Regular trips to BikePark Wales and the Forest of Dean have seen them rack up literally hundreds of miles of testing, so you can be sure that you’re getting the complete picture when it comes to which bike performs best. It all culminated in a trip to San Remo, Italy, for some final testing and the photoshoot ( well, they got sick of the mud and the rain. And the cold. And the snow). Finally, they came away with the winners in each category. It was a close- run thing and the debate over each bike’s merits was hotly contested throughout the process. Head to page 61 to find out which
bikes are crowned Bike of the Year!