winner

canyon torque CF 8.0

as you’ve probably already gathered, this is a truly stellar year for mountain bikes. While it’s the Canyon Torque CF that clinches the win in our enduro/ all-mountain/ long-travel trail bike/whateveryou-want to-call-it category, not one bike here is by any means bad.

As was the case in our trail bike verdict, one giant leap in performance has come courtesy of the rubber that’s now being fitted as standard on these types of bikes. They also all feature dropper posts, unlike last year. But it’s more than just the parts bolted to the frames that make them ride so well. It feels like each and every brand has poured blood, sweat and tears into creating some truly incredible machines with consistently good suspension that’ll handle more than most mere mortals, like us, can throw at it.

Seriously, we were pulling out our hair scrutinising and deliberating over this lot. While the final three are incredibly good, the same is true of the Nukeproof and Mondraker, which still made our top five, both of which you can buy in shops and will blow you away on the trails. The margins have drawn in closer this year, with less and less separating each of the bikes, making our job as testers harder, but things for you, the rider, even better.

What it came down to in the end was that we simply wanted to keep riding the Canyon more than any of the others (and we wanted to ride them a lot too). The lure of the Torque is quietly impressive, and the fun it conjures up makes it well worth the money.

“what it came down to in the end was that we simply wanted to keep riding the canyon more than any of the others”