Electronic Suspension
Initial electronically-controlled suspension offerings didn’t offer our luddite, simplistic selves enough to justify the complexity. However, the recent Fox Live Valve Neo and RockShox Flight Attendant suspension that we’ve tested has presented a compelling case. It isn’t the electronic suspension alone that we are excited about, but the possibilities it offers frame manufacturers, who can design the bike purely for descending performance and utilize the electronics to reinstate the pedaling efficiency.
Pedal Kickback Devices
Following the same goals as the reduced anti squat bike brands trended towards, there was also a lot of buzz around pedal kickback and vibration reduction devices. With DT Swiss and e*thirteen releasing unique hub products, and Rimpact and Ochain attempting to improve performance from the chainring, we’ve loved to see and ride these new technologies. Though they’re not for everyone or beneficial to every riding scenario, we are big fans.
Modular Frames
This year, we saw Orbea and Trek offer excellent new mountain bike models built around a modular frame platform. These not only afford the owner improved versatility with their bikes, but could theoretically lead to reduced prices, too, which we would love to see. So long as manufacturers don’t make things too complicated or heavy, we love the frame modularity movement.
Virginia Tech’s push for safer helmets
Viginia Tech downgraded several helmets as they continuously update and redefine their rankings to push helmet safety further. As big proponents of mountain bike helmet safety, we love what Virginia Tech is doing, and love to see them holding their standards high.
Rattle-free eBikes
We are huge eBike fans, but as mountain bikers first and foremost, we’ve been frustrated by the rattle that many have produced on the way down the hill. It seems that eBike drive unit manufacturers have finally figured out how to prevent the dreaded rattle, and eMTBs are descending better than ever, thanks to the reduced noise and vibration on the descents.
Comfortable Protection
D3O were the pioneers of the flexible protection inserts, but this year, Koroyd and RHEON have joined the party with excellent limb and body protection too. The result is more knee pads that are comfortable enough to wear all day, yet protective enough to keep us safe when crashing hard.
Higher Stack Heights
We’re generally seeing a trend towards increased stack heights to pair with longer reach figures on large bike sizes. While high stack isn’t better for everything, we appreciate the increased confidence a taller front end provides on steeper descents.
Long travel Droppers
Long travel dropper posts are becoming more prevalent across many mountain bikes, and we’re very thankful for it! Longer dropper posts provide more clearance for the descents, giving increased confidence and safety when things get steep and rowdy.
eBike Displays in the top tube
We don’t demand super high-tech eBike displays, but now that eBike drive unit manufacturers are beginning to offer sleek displays that integrate into the top tube, we miss having the data that they offer on a system that doesn’t provide it.
We’re still digging Schwalbe’s Radial tires
As a product award winner for the Best Tire Product 2024 and 2025, we’re still thoroughly impressed by Schwalbe’s Radial tire casing construction. Impressively, across countless tires we’ve only sustained one flat so far, and they offer improvements to comfort and traction that we appreciate in technical terrain.
Things We Didn’t Love
While there were some undeniable high points of 2025, we had numerous frustrations to provide some contrasting lows. Here are the 2025 trends that we struggled with here.
The eMTB Power Race
While increased power can offer increased fun in short bursts, we are not loving the movement towards bigger batteries and heavier eBikes that are necessary to supply the increased power without extreme range anxiety. We would love to see eBike manufacturers focus on reducing weight and price, and increasing reliability, to move towards our dream of full-power electric mountain bikes that barely feel like eBikes at all.
Headset Cable routing
Mountain bike brands, please stop routing your cables through the headset.
Drive Unit Issues
We hoped that 2025 would finally spell the end of drive unit issues, but we still faced a number of problems during our testing this year. Most of these (but not all) were sustained on the Fazua Ride 60 system, and we’re hoping that their efforts to fix these bugs will reward us with excellent performance without reliability concerns.
Brake problems
A more common area of concern this year in the mountain bike testing space came from brakes. We had a total brake failure, luckily not while riding, but much more common were the more frustrating and sketchy issues of inconsistent performance. We suffered with leaks and inconsistency on brakes from Hayes, Shimano, Magura, and spent countless hours performing bleeds and piston massages on over 18 pairs of SRAM Mavens.
Bike shops and brands still struggling
2025 saw many bike brands in trouble, with a few closing their doors (and some coming back…maybe?), and others playing it very safe. We’re hoping that brands, consumers and the greater economy can figure out the issues coming into 2026, and the bike industry can thrive as they continue getting people stoked on riding affordable mountain bikes.
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