Innehållsförteckning för December 2025 från Mountain Biking UK

Brought to you by LOUISE FERGUSON Just three years on from her first World Cup race, Lou has had an incredible season, becoming the first female winner of Red Bull Hardline Wales as well as the UK national downhill champion “I actually feel like I’m not much of a risk-taker,” says Louise Ferguson. These are unexpected words coming from the first woman to complete a top-to-bottom race run through the treacherous rocks, off the huge drops and over the 90ft jumps of the infamous Red Bull Hardline Wales course. “It’s really hard for me to turn my brain off, throw care to the wind and be like, ‘Here we go!’,” she explains. “I really struggle to do that, so have to fully grasp all the emotions and accept the consequences…

When SRAM launched their wireless Eagle AXS Transmissions, they were lauded as the best-shifting, most reliable and most durable drivetrains on the market. However, they rely on electrical power to shift up and down the cassette, and use rigidly defined timing gates to ensure every gear change is as smooth as possible. Some riders found the relatively slow shifting a frustration (although that’s now been sped up by a firmware update) while others wanted a digital-free ride or couldn’t afford to go wireless, with the entry-level GX Eagle AXS Transmission costing £1,180. This year, SRAM launched two new mechanical options – Eagle 90 and Eagle 70 (the latter primarily for brands to spec on complete bikes). These Transmissions use the same Full Mount connection – bolting directly to the frame…

LOUISE FERGUSON PIONEERING EXPAT Has our cover star beaten her rivals in the Rider of the Year public vote – or faltered at the final huck across the line? All is revealed on p27 TOM MARVIN MBUK TV HOST “It’s like riding on Mars!” says our YouTube presenter of his trip to Iceland for an epic five-day stage race. Find out how he fared on p40 TOM ISTED KERNOW’S FREERIDE KING Cornwall’s hottest MTB talent returns to Red Bull Rampage to settle a score, after his 2024 run didn’t end how he’d hoped – p56 WILL SOFFE OUR MAN ON THE TOOLS A quiet bike is a fast bike, or so they say, so MBUK’s workshop manager brings you his top tips for silencing your ride – p92…

YOUR MAIL, PHOTOS, IDEAS & RANTS Write to: MBUK Send it! Eagle House, Bristol, BS1 4STEmail: mbuk@ourmedia.co.ukVisit: www.mbuk.com STAR LETTER WINS... Stan’s NoTubes Tubeless Kit, Tubeless Sealant Injector and Tubeless Sealant (1l) worth £100 THAT’S GOTTA HURT WINS... ABUS MoDrop do-it-all trail helmet worth £90 SHOT OF THE MONTH WINS... DMR V11 pedals, DMR Stage 2 saddle and DMR Deathgrips worth £107 INSTA-BANGERS WINS... Complete Motul bike care range worth £97.50 STAR LETTER BLAST FROM THE PAST Your article on Jason McRoy and the Dirt video (MBUK 450) sparked memories of mountain biking in my teenage years, when life was simple and riding was effortless! It was also around that time that I entered (via postcard!) an MBUK competition and won the star prize – a Saracen Tufftrax [see right].…

NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR 2025 WHO IS DAISY CRAIG? I’m 13 years old and live in Derbyshire. I really like riding my trials bike and motorbike. HOW DID YOU GET INTO BIKES? I grew up around bikes because my dad has always ridden. I started on balance bikes, then progressed to an Early Rider, before riding mountain bikes and trials bikes. WHAT DOES THE SPORT MEAN TO YOU? It gives me the chance to challenge myself at different venues and meet people from around the world. WHERE ARE YOUR FAVOURITE PLACES TO RIDE? Derbyshire Biketrial Centre, Bike Trial Academy UK and Elvaston Castle Trials Park. I like going to Barcelona too, where there are lots of good trials parks, including Trial Evolution, Level and Trial Sport, where I won my…

When Keegan Swenson crossed the finish line to win the gruelling Leadville Trail 100 MTB race in a time of five hours and 45 minutes, as soon as the celebrations died down, it was his Santa Cruz Blur bike that everyone was fixated on. Not just because he was running a drop handlebar with road shifters on a mountain bike frame, but also because of the aero fairings on the rear of his RockShox SID Ultimate suspension fork. And he wasn’t alone, with other RockShox-supported riders, including gravel-racing star Sofía Gómez Villafañe, also using the prototype attachments. Elsewhere, Kate Courtney, the Red Bull rider who not only won the women’s race but also set a new course record, put two of SRAM’s wireless gear-shifting ‘blips’ on her fork crown. This…

CANYON SENDER CFR TEAM £5,677.98 (inc. shipping & tax) Sender by name, sender by nature After success as a prototype under the likes of Troy Brosnan, Tahnée Seagrave and Luca Shaw, Canyon finally released their new Sender downhill bike earlier this year. The move to a high-pivot suspension design helps deliver stability at speed and means the bike won’t have you wincing as you batter through the rough stuff. Plus, the frame offers up masses of adjustment. What’s more, this Team edition comes fitted with some killer kit, making it a true consideration for any privateer racer looking to save a bit of cash without scrimping on performance. THE FRAME The latest Sender CFR is a 200mm-travel, carbon fibre bike built for outright speed rather than minimal weight. Both the…

JAMES COSTLEY-WHITE GROUP EDITOR Fed up with tame local rides, I rediscovered my MTB mojo amid some steep linked turns in the Forest of Dean JULIA BROUSSIER CREATIVE DESIGN LEAD Weekends spent DIYing robbed me of the last of the drier early-autumn weather and now I’m dreading getting stuck in the mud WILL SOFFE WORKSHOP MGR/WRITER I’ve been dashing about the Welsh hills on a bike with a motor, belt drive and automatic gearbox. The future is here ROBIN WEAVER TECH EDITOR IN CHIEF After months of lapping expensive e-bikes, I’m about to get back to basics with a hardtail head-to-head test – I can’t wait! ALEX EVANS SENIOR TECH EDITOR I’m embracing the rubbish wintry conditions – sloppy, muddy trails are excellent fun to ride and a fresh challenge…

Brake covers are nothing new – the iconic 1998 Cannondale Fulcrum DH was partly defined by them – but they’ve been largely forgotten-about since then. So, why have the Intense Factory Racing Team and J-Tech Suspension brought them back with these co-developed 3D-printed guards? In wet and mucky conditions, water can cool your rotors and dirt can reduce friction, affecting stopping power. Brake covers are designed to address this, and while the gains may be marginal, that can make a big difference in downhill racing, where riders are separated by fractions of a second. “Our brief from the Intense Factory Race Team was primarily to keep contaminants off the rotor and calliper,” says Jim Williams of J-Tech. “We wanted to get rid of the reduction in braking performance after riding…

The biggest name ever in UK mountain biking, Steve Peat simply had to win this award sooner or later, and it seemed apt that it should be this year, when the next generation of downhill talent has come to the fore under his tutelage, in the form of 2025 world champ Jackson Goldstone. Not only that, but since our last Rider of the Year vote, Peaty has released his second book, Forged by Speed: The Making of a Mountain Bike World Champion (co-authored by Tim March), looking back over his incredible career. Most readers will be more than familiar with what the big man from Sheffield has achieved – he’s been a mainstay of these pages since the mid-’90s, after all, and even rode for Team MBUK back in the…

ALEX’S ORBEA WILD M-TEAM £8,699 (CUSTOMISED SPEC) Christmas comes early for MBUK’s senior technical editor As if it was meant to be, I finally managed to get my hands on the parts and tools needed to upgrade the cranks and chainring on my Wild. After some flurried Googling and general expert-bothering, I worked out exactly what I needed to get the cranks off the ISIS bottom bracket spindle and remove the chainring from the Bosch motor’s output shaft. Cue a quick browse on Freewheel.co.uk (the consumer-facing website of UK distributors Madison) and I’d added my new tools to my basket. Park’s CCP-44 Crank Puller (£21.99) worked like a charm, pulling the crank arms away from the shaft smoothly and easily. It’s one of those tools you don’t need frequently, with many…

EXPERT WORKSHOP ADVICE FEELING FLAT My 12-year-old son spent the summer mountain biking and loves it, but he’s been plagued by punctures – sometimes every single ride. I’ve taught him how to fix them properly, but it keeps happening. He rode various different bikes this summer, including hire bikes on holiday, and still got punctures. At this point I think it must be his riding style or how he’s inflating his tyres. He jumps off kerbs, rides down steps and is obsessed with wheelies and bunnyhops. I rarely get punctures, so the common denominator seems to be him. Being 12 years old, my son naturally knows everything and won’t listen to me, but he reads MBUK voraciously so I’m hoping that he might listen to you! Ellie Hughes, via email…