Are you kidding me?

When staying away from family it’s important to have something good to read. So when I saw the latest edition of MBUK in the shops, I thought, ‘That’s it, I’m in!’ Being in the market for a well-priced hardtail, the cover line ‘Eight of 2020’s hottest bikes on test, from £1,100’ sounded perfect – just my price range. But when I opened the magazine to the relevant section, the first bike cost £9k! A bit misleading, don’t you think? Can you do an edition of £1k-2k hardtails please? Think about folks whose budget is more like £1.5k rather than £9k.

Simon Lovell, via email

Sorry the test wasn’t what you were expecting, Simon, but it did include bikes at a range of prices, including the £1,100 mentioned on the cover. We agree it’s important to test affordable bikes, and that’s why we cover a wide range of price brackets throughout the year. In July we tested £1,000 hardtails, September’s mag focused on £700 bikes and last month we reviewed £500 options. We also did a steel hardtail test in our Summer 2019 issue, in case you’re after something boutique. If you’re tempted by full bounce, we’ve got a test of sub-£1,500 trail bikes coming up in our next issue.

While we think it’s essential to review bikes that most people can afford, there are plenty of riders who are looking to spend a bit more, and we want to help them with their buying decisions too. Also, while some of these top-end bikes cost far more than any of us here at the mag would pay, we feel there’s value for our readers in showing what’s going on at the cutting edge of bike design. Not only due to the aspirational element (our reader surveys and social media stats show that a lot of riders like to know about the latest, greatest gear), but also because the technology on these bikes invariably trickles down to cheaper models over the next few years, where we can all benefit from it.