WELCOME

Giving bikes a thrashing wouldn’ t have been appropriate under lock down and we didn’ t want to deliver a half-arsed test, but as soon as we safely can, we’ ll be back out there

For the first time I can remember, we don’t have a Biketest this month. We haven’t been slacking – on the contrary, we’ve been working flat out on some great features, from our Sam Hill cover story (p52), celebrating a rider who genuinely changed the way many of us ride, to Ed’s peek behind the scenes at RockShox (p63). However, lockdown restrictions were in full force during most of the making of this mag, stopping us from getting out and testing properly. Two-wheeled exercise was still permitted, but giving bikes the thrashing of their lives to find all their shortcomings just wouldn’t have been appropriate, and we didn’t want to deliver a half-arsed test.

The rules are now beginning to be relaxed slightly, and you can rest assured that as soon as we safely can, we’ll be back out there chucking ourselves down the sketchiest trails we can find to push the limits of handling and suspension. In the meantime, we’ve filled the gap with a fun look back at some of our favourite bikes of the past 10 years and the riding adventures that earned them that status (p90).

I hope you enjoy this issue, and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone helping us to get the mag out in these testing times – from the core editorial team you’re probably familiar with and the freelance photographers and writers whose great work regularly appears on our pages, to our valued advertisers, and all the ad sales, subscriptions, marketing, production and countless other staff grafting hard behind the scenes. And, of course, you the reader, for your continued support. We couldn’t do it without you!