With the New Year rapidly approaching, Pete picks his best of people, product and places that stood out in another breathless twelve months of mountain biking.
Pete gives us his top picks from the Bikes, eBikes, Components, Soft Goods, Protection, Service, Tech, Outstanding Performance and Athlete.
Bikes
A fair few more bikes than previous years occupy the shortlist for my favourite bike, each one having its unique character but offering that grin-inducing ride that is the reason why we ride.
In no particular order, my bikes of choice for this shortlist are: Hope HB.916, Auckland Cycleworks Reiver, Merida One-Forty 6000, Atherton S.150.2 and the venerable Saracen Ariel 60 Elite. You can’t buy the Reiver yet, and bar the HB.916, al the other bikes offer a serious amount of bang for your buck.
For the fact that it’s made by hand in the UK, is well-priced and specced whilst being seriously fast, the Atherton S.150.2 takes it.
eBikes
Three ebikes have stood out as being excellent in 2025. Firstly, the Merida eOne-Sixty SL 8000 made me forget that I was on an ebike and only reminded me when the Bosch SX motor demanded that slightly-higher-than-natural cadence to get peak power. Controversially, the other two ebikes are both by YT Industries, who are doing their utmost to unblot their copybook. These being the YT Decoy Core 4 and the YT Decoy SN 29 Core 4.
For the sheer abandon that it allowed me to ride with, I am going to give it to the YT Decoy Core 4. Not since I rode the Nukeproof Megawatt Carbon has a bike offered as little impediment as possible to foolhardy speed in all situations like the Decoy does.
Components
Like last year, OneUp Components take this gong with pretty much nothing else coming close.
Their V2 carbon handlebar is a delight, and finally us wee folk can enjoy a twangy handlebar that doesn’t come with the loss of twang that comes with chopping a wider bar down. Simply the best bars we’ve ridden and we have several sets for good reason.
Soft Goods
A two-way fight for best soft goods broke out between the Endura MT500 Polartec Jacket and the Fox Ranger Pants. Both are excellent and have been worn as ‘regular’ clothing on more than one occasion. Extra points to both for the size small fitting me.
The prize goes to the Fox Ranger Pants though as when I first tested them, I thought to myself, “these need more stretch and a DWR coating and they’ll be perfect”. Fox heeded my call and that’s exactly what they now have, making them my go-to for pretty much every ride.
Protection
There simply isn’t a lid that fits our man Pete’s head as well as the Fox Speedframe Pro and does everything else you’d want a modern enduro open face to do. It’s the standard by which everything else is judged against and has been so for a few years now.
Service
Support your local bike shop folks.
For me, that’s Keith and the team at Country Cycles in Killearn, just north of Glasgow.
Tech
Thirteen years ago, I paid my own money for an Exposure Diablo MkV. It continues to produce light as intended despite having been through the washing machine accidentally three times. This is the quality that Exposure offer. They’re not cheap but you will only have to buy them once.
The updated Zenith and Sixpack have been stalwarts for any outing into the darkness, and the updated versions are being tested currently. They’re even better than before. Think of Exposure lights as an investment. The Zenith and Sixpack combo is hard to beat.
Race
Pete actually managed two whole races this year, both of which were three-day events within a month of each other. Enduro2 in Meribel was first out of the gate on Pete’s month away, with The Ex rounding off the trip.
Simply for the fact that The Ex has taken this title in the last few years due to it being the only race Pete entered, we’ll give this one to Enduro2. You just can’t turn your nose up at 10 vertical kilometres of descending in three days.
Event
The next three categories are all interchangeable really, but we’ll kick this off with Red Bull Hardline Wales as our pal Lou Ferguson made history by being the first woman to qualify for Red Bull Hardline Wales.
On a meteoric rise regardless of what happened in Dinas Mawddwy, the laid back Scot cemented herself in the history books with a smooth cruise down the hill to a well-earned rapture from the crowd.
In a near-as-makes-no-difference second place was the women at Red Bull Rampage. Heroes every one of them.
Outstanding Performance
Isla Short takes this one for the amount that she made me weep happy tears at Leogang, then almost gave me an aneurysm when she took the holeshot in Andorra. 2025 saw the flame-haired wee Scot back on her own programme and took it to the heavy-hitters on multi-million dollar teams. Elite British XCM and XCO champ is nothing to sniff at either, the latter involved getting the jump on none other than Evie Richards. Look out 2026…
Honorable mentions go to Louise Ferguson for being herself and Nina Hoffman for that run in La Thuile.
Athlete
Sammie Maxwell embodies grit and determination with a healthy dollop of that World view that only Kiwis can produce. Her win in Andorra, with crashes and mechanicals was a true champions ride, and you simply can’t predict what she’ll say in her post-race interviews.
