VITUS NUCLEUS VR 290

£489.99 Thanks to the Vitus, we’ve rediscovered the love of trails

W e procrastinated for months and months over an army of sub-£500 MTB contenders, before opting for the Vitus Nucleus VR 290 from Chain Reaction Cycles. And we’ve barely spent a day without it since, with it fast becoming our year-round commuting and offroad riding buddy.

As someone who hasn’t seriously ridden off-road for nearly two decades, the wide handlebar, stubby stem and strong front-end are all novice-friendly. The big 29-inch wheels provide a smoother ride than their 26-inch counterparts and, once up to speed, positively hum along in both Bristol’s woodlands and the concrete cobbled commute.

At 14.12kg, it’s surprisingly not too weighty and we’ve yet to suffer a puncture or take a tumble on the supplied Continental Mountain King tyres. Much of that is also down to the Tektro disc brakes, which provide impressive stopping power in all conditions. There aren’t any mounts for mud guards at the rear (you can fit clip-on ones behind the saddle), and the Shimano Altus groupset is functional at best.

But the big star of the show is the Suntour XCR Air Spring suspension forks. They’re a surprising but very welcome addition at this price point, easy to set-up and adjust to the type of terrain and your weight, and have bundles of shock absorption. MB chainreactioncycles.com