What Bike & Kit Should You Choose For Your Riding Style?

The Mountain Biking industry can often be a minefield when trying to find the right bike and kit for you, so in this video, Neil Donoghue & Blake Samson run you through a comprehensive range of bikes and cycle clothing to show you some pros & cons, hopefully helping you pick the perfect combo for your riding styles!

⏱ Timestamps ⏱
0:00 - Intro
0:22 - Hardtail bikes
1:17 - XC bikes
2:45 - Trail bikes
4:43 - Dirt Jump & Slopestyle bikes
5:24 - Enduro bikes
6:38 - DH bikes
8:30 - Freeride bikes
9:49 - Fat bikes

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Which MTB genre do you prefer? Share with the GMBN community down below!👇

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[Cosmos.Kiyopon]

When blake's suggestion was the hardtail and Enduro, it gave me more confidence on my hardtail. Thanks blake!

[pituife]

A VERY important point is the shock lockout. I have a trail fully with 120mm, but I love XC Marathon, so I keep the shocks locked most of the time and am just as fast as my previous hardtail. When up the mountain, going down the red trails unlocked is 10 times more fun than the HT.

[KevinT]

I'd like to try Enduro or Trail. I ride a basic XC hardtail I got a decade ago as a rugged commuter bike, then started 'mountain biking' with it 2.5 years ago when I stumbled onto a flowy green trail on a camping trip. The only upgrades so far is proper flat pedals paired with some Five Tens and a dropper post, and I've been loving it. It would be interesting to ride a full-sus bike one day but I want to wear this bike out first. Still a lot of skills I can learn and improve upon with it...

[lewiscaple]

Just did my first downhill race and I think I've found my riding style. Forest of Dean has some great trails for this where you don't need an uplift to get in a lot of runs!

[englishforya]

If you do what you need, you’re surviving. If you do what you want, you’re living.

[mendyviola]

Love my hard tail 26” 2001 Trek 6000. It has done everything I’ve asked it to do for over 20 years and then some. Virtually zero maintenance, even after a few crashes. I am convinced it’s pretty much indestructible.

[winklertribe]

This was a great explanation of the mountain bike continuum! Thanks Neil & Blake!

[kalijasin]

GMBN, there is also freeride, full suspension, gravel, dirt, park, e-bike.

[Seppster]

Great video guys. I went from a hardtail to an XC bike. Lovin' every minute on it.

[markb]

I love riding my hardtail trail bike with 150mm travel. I think it’s perfect for a ride with the family and at home having on the backwood trails and jumps. I would like to try a fat bike but the funds right now don’t support getting one

[Mr.Grave.]

Been on a hardtail for 10 years (taking so much care of the thing I love it). I'm saving up for my first full sus trial bike. I'm pretty tall and singled out the Canyon Spectral 125 for comfortable dimensions and the terrain around my area which is a full mix. I had a pretty gnarly crash doing jumps back in the day and now that I'm getting older I'm just looking for something snappy and fun to rip up local features.

[jcollins]

Great video! I use my fat tire bike for everything, it will go anywhere.

[RBdan]

Just started my new MTB hard tail bike ride. Good info thanks for sharing, now I know my new hard tail bike can be used for 👍🏻

[johnathanbennett]

This has helped with my next choice

Generally it’s just fun riding and doing more trail parks/ bike parks. I do have some cross county challenges in the pipeline. I’m thinking trail bike due to the all round nature

[kevinliang]

I love my fat bike. Solid frame, 4.9" tires, 1x11 drive train. I love how simple it is. No fork to maintain and super simple cockpit. About the only thing I do to it is change the chain once a season. I always get looks and people commenting on it at the local trails.

[jacobus]

I am a XC rider, have a down-country bike now because I love xc so much but love smashing the trails, so the down-country bike fits my needs just perfectly!🚀🚀 Went from a 100mm hardtail to 100mm dual-suspension xc bike to now having a dual-suspension 120mm down-country bike!🚀

[ChrisCapoccia]

top race xc bikes are probably all carbon, but more affordable alloy full sus xc bikes are available and perfectly fine for regular people who don't need the lightest frame

[johnostrum]

I peeped that Garmin watch on your wrist 👀👀👀 one of the best accessories I’ve ever bought. Makes riding/tracking unfamiliar trails so much easier

[nidfnix]

Hardtail for life - more fun, less maintenance. Pfft why should I waste time to clean additional linkages on fullies when I can simply shred on a ht 😜

[rozscyclingadventures]

I have a 29er trail bike with 120mm travel, a 27.5 enduro bike with 160mm travel and going to build up a 29er XC bike with 100mm travel as the trails where I live are not aggressive. Trail and enduro used in bike parks.