Hot on the heels of dishing out our Road Bike of the Year awards last week, it's time to turn our attention off-road and crown our Trail Bike of the Year winner… the Atherton A.130.
This year, we've put eight of the best all-rounders through the wringer to find a winner, with the A.130 shining through as a trail bike that's a comfortable climber, and ridiculously flickable and fun on mellower trails, but a proper hooligan when pointed downhill.
Up against stiff competition from Canyon and Forbidden in our final head-to-head showdown, with bikes from Specialized, Giant, Pivot, Santa Cruz and Yeti also tested and earning highly commended nominations, Atherton's A.130 takes top honours as a trail bike that does it all with aplomb.
My head-to-head feature on the Atherton, Canyon and Forbidden bikes delivers a blow-by-blow account of how these three fare against one another – and explains why the Atherton edges it to take the crown – but, for now, let's dive into more detail on Trail Bike of the Year 2025.
Want to know more about our Road Bike of the Year winners? Head this way – or check out our full Bike of the Year hub.
Bike of the Year is supported by Auto-Trail
Big thanks to sports campervan specialists Auto-Trail for supporting our Bike of the Year 2025 test. Head to auto-trail.co.uk for more details about their range, including the cycling-specific Auto-Trail Expedition 68, which features a purpose-built bike garage.
Our 2025 Trail Bike of the Year podium
What we tested
Highly commended
Runners-up
Winner
How we found our Trail Bike of the Year
For this year's MTB Bike of the Year test, we decided to focus exclusively on the trail bike category – it's an exciting segment that's really developed over the last few years, with bikes now better than ever.
We've got an expert team of testers here and, together with my colleague Alex Evans, and skills coach Luke Marshall, we looked back on the last 10 months of riding to put together our shortlist of the best trail bikes we've tested collectively.
That enabled us to capture a broad range of trail bikes with varying amounts of travel and differing builds, across a wide range of prices.
Once we'd all put our favourites forward, we hit the trails again to determine which bike came out on top. And guess what? It wasn’t easy… not only because these bikes are so good, but because the trail bike category continues to evolve.
What even is a trail bike?
We say it every year, but defining what a trail bike is can be challenging.
During the process of this test, what we’ve discovered is that while the amount of suspension travel is important, it’s certainly not the most important factor when defining a bike.
Suspension travel on the bikes here varies from as little as 130mm at the rear to as much as 160mm up front, and while the amount of squish is important, it’s not the defining factor. How it’s delivered – in terms of leverage rate, anti-rise, anti-squat and other kinematics – is crucial, dictating whether a bike is super-efficient on the climbs or will soak up chunder as effectively as a longer-travel enduro rig.
There’s also been more of an emphasis on adding bigger, more powerful brakes, along with grippier tyres that’ll stave off ride-ruining punctures.
That is largely down to ensuring the bike – even if it’s capable of being ridden all day – should still be able to handle a beasting, no matter what you’ve got it pointed down.
But despite, in some cases, being focused more on going downhill, all the bikes here are more than capable of going up and along, too.
After all, trail riding is such a mix of everything that these bikes need to be the truest of all-rounders. Designing a bike like that isn't easy.
While there’s a need for it to be pedalled out into the hills for hours, maybe even days at a time, it still needs to handle the descents, a trip to the bike park or even just an evening in the woods ripping turns and hitting jumps.
There will always be some level of compromise with trail bikes, but one thing is for sure, not a single bike included here is a dud in any way.
What we were looking for in the winner
Because we’ve hand-picked every bike here based on our testing experience – a big advantage of the way we’ve approached Bike of the Year this time round – each of them is worth considering for your next purchase.
Which one suits you best will depend on what you’re looking for in a bike and how much money you’ve got to spend. For our overall winner, we were looking for an all-rounder that exemplifies the modern trail bike.
It needed to be lively and engaging, fast and efficient, but still capable of soaking up the hits – and with geometry that would ensure we weren’t terrified on steeper, more technical trails.
It’s a big ask, but thankfully, nearly every brand out there now makes something that can meet or, in some cases, exceed these expectations.
However, the Atherton A.130 is the bike that heads off the competition as our 2025 Trail Bike of the Year.
Meet the team behind Trail Bike of the Year
Robin Weaver
As our technical editor-in-chief, Rob has years of racing and testing experience, so knows what makes a good trail bike.
Alex Evans
A hard rider with a habit of breaking bikes, senior technical editor Alex pulls no punches with his reviews.
Luke Marshall
Our former tech writer turned skills coach is rarely off a bike and can quickly expose any kit weaknesses
