It’s late September in Utah’s northeastern Wasatch range, and Eric Jackson is crouched on a sage-tangled hillside, bow at his feet, listening to the shrill whistle of bugling bull elk. Though Jackson is a pro snowboarder known for and backcountry descents, he’s come to the mountains this time in hopes of shooting an elk to fill his freezer with meat. He places a pocket-size reed in his mouth and lets loose a guttural call indistinguishable from the real thing, to help him home in on elk. Within seconds, a bull replies from a few hundred yards downhill.

Normally, a hunter would spring into a stalk. But Jackson sits back on his heels and swallows a belly laugh. It’s his first time calling elk during the rut, when animals are breeding and at their most receptive, and he’s bemused to get a response. “So funny! So cool!” he beams. “Honestly, I don’t care if I get an animal on this trip. I’m here to learn.” After a few back-and-forth calls, the bull moves off and downslope, likely chasing cows. JacksonÌęcontinues following bugles and picking his way through crackling brush oak till dusk.

Jackson was just one of a record number of neophyte American hunters in the woods in 2022. After a in participation since the early 1980s, hunting license sales nationwide increased five percent between 2019 and 2020, according to a recent by Southwick Associates, a market research firm specializing in hunting and the outdoors. That included a 25 percent increase in new hunter applications. In the seasons since, those numbers have held steady above pre-pandemic levels.

New hunters have boosted business, with sales during the pandemic booming at the premium hunting apparel brand Sitka. “Our forecasts were already up, and we made some purchasing decisions early that allowed us to meet demand when other companies were struggling with supply chains and inventory,” says John Barklow, senior product manager at Sitka, who is in Utah hunting with Jackson. “It was big.”

The growth has been industry-wide. That includes MeatEater Inc., the umbrella company that operates the eponymous Netflix series that has brought hunting as a lifestyle into the American living room, as well as the apparel brand First Lite. “Plenty of public information shows the spike in 2020. And that was a reality for us,” says Bridget Noonan, VP of Global Marketing at MeatEater, describing pandemic-time expansion across the company’s brands. “We were already on a growth track, but we definitely saw a surge, both audience and customers, who were looking to get outside, connect with the outdoors, and put meat on their table.”

Pandemic reverberations—spare time, concerns over food security, extra cash from government stimulus—drove more people, like Jackson, to try and harvest their own meat. “The pandemic was a reminder to a lot of people that the outdoors give us so much solace, whether that’s hiking, skiing, hunting, or whatever. That led to the growth,” says Land Tawney, president of the conservation and advocacy group Backcountry Hunters and Anglers (BHA). “We’ve seen a spike of interest, driven by ‘adult-onset’ hunters and other first-timers.”

Jackson, the pro snowboarder, highlights the trend. For years, he has craved a lifestyle built around self sufficiency and the outdoors. “All I’ve wanted for a while is a little land with my own water source where I can grow food and have chickens,” he says. “And hunt. That desire to be outside and get away and be self sufficient, which was really underlined during the pandemic, is what led me to hunting.”

Jackson’s visibility as a professional snowboarder helped him land an ambassador deal with Sitka, despite his limited big game hunting experience. He was brought on in part to help promote Sitka’s expanding lifestyle wear. But the partnership is also what has presented him the opportunity for this fall 2022 hunt at Deseret Ranch in the Wasatch, one of the most prestigious elk properties in the U.S.

Perhaps the first lesson of bow hunting: it’s not easy. Jackson is a preternaturally talented outdoorsman who has spent his whole life exploring far-out wilderness, including extensive fly fishing expeditions in Canada and Alaska and plenty of duck hunting with his retrievers, Whisky and Rye. For this hunt, he has prepared meticulously, building his own arrows, and then shooting daily for a year to becomeÌęconfident out to 60 yards—though he’s resolved to shoot no more than half that distance here in Utah to make sure he gets a clean, deadly shot. Having guided hunts before, I can attest to the high quality of his elk calls. He even killed an elk on his first-ever hunt, in 2021, when Montana native Johnny Burford, a well-known hunter he met through connections with friends at , guided him to public-land success with his bow.

And yet here at Deseret, where the elk feel as profuse as ticks in the Pennsylvania woods, it doesn’t come easy.

Night one closes with no opportunities for a shot. Days two and three play out the same: elk bugling all around, flashes of brown fur through the flicker of dying aspen leaves, but nothing close enough to merit drawing back an arrow. Jackson bumbles around a corner one morning and startles a huge bull lounging in a mud wallow 20 yards away. The next day, he calls a pair of animals to a watering hole, one after the other, but neither will come inside 80 yards. “I’m loving this. But I won’t lie. It’s so hard,” Jackson confesses.

On evening four, it seems the stars have aligned. Jackson and crew lure a giant, old bull and a small harem of cows upslope from a dark drainage toward their setupÌęin a filtered stand of pines. One calf passes so close—three yards!—that Jackson could tackle it. The bull stops broadside at 20 yards, but there’s a branch in the way. No shot, and the animal eventually loses interest and returns the way he came.

For those who have never hunted, it’s tempting to think that modern weaponry and technology make it as easy as backcountry grocery shopping. The truth is, hunting, especially with a bow, requires so many elements to line up—the wind, the shooting lanes, the animal behavior—that it’s much more common to go home empty handed than to harvest. Fewer than of hunters who draw elk tags bring home meat.

“I know I’m a beginner, and I need to check my expectations,” Jackson says the evening after the very close call. “But the longer a hunt goes on, the more difficult it is to stay positive, focused. It’s so mental.”

The challenge is part of the appeal, but it’s also a big barrier to entry. “It’s great to see so many new faces,” says Sitka’s Barklow. “But how long will that last after a season or two walking around without seeing an elk?” A recent by the Council to Advance Hunting and the Shooting Sports, a not-for-profit aimed at recruiting and retaining hunters, found that though hunting license sales remained above pre-pandemic levels in 2021, they decreased 1.9 percent from the high-waterÌęmark in 2020.

Simply obtaining a hunting license is difficult.ÌęIn Colorado, which has the largest elk herd in the world (280,000 head) and is widely considered to offer the for hunters in the U.S. to get a permit for elk, less than of applicants in 2022 received a license. Many western states offer far lower odds. Colorado also sells over-the-counter elk licenses, allowing any hunter the chance to pursue the animals in limited areas, though the quantities and availability of these tags have also been dramatically reduced in recent years due to increased demand and the effect it has had on .

These hurdles have spurred a conversation in the hunting industry about how to retain those who discovered hunting amid the pandemic.Ìę“The pandemic brought a lot of people through the door. Now it’s our job to get them to stay,” says Barklow. Organizations including Backcountry Hunters and Anglers and The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation have upped their outreach aimed at participation. Hunter education programs, such as , , and , are cropping up to help newcomers build skills and community, which BHA’s Tawney considers vital to ensuring newcomers stick around. Another approach is to try and convert enthusiasm for elk, which are sought-after but hard to pull tags for and even harder to shoot, into excitement about easier-to-draw and higher success species such as small game and waterfowl.

Sitka sees ambassadors such as Eric Jackson and , a retired professional surfer and Patagonia designer who also recently joined the company, as part of its outreach. Not only do these guys have crossover to outdoor markets that the hunting world has a difficult time reaching,Ìęsuch as skiers, surfers, climbers, and paddlers, their appeal as new hunters is also aspirational. In bringing on Jackson, Sitka partnered with Black Diamond, another of Jackson’s primary sponsors, to create a that features its Optifade camo pattern outside the hunting industry for the first time ever. They also produced a short film, , about Jackson’s initiation into hunting elk, which looks tailor-made for the Telluride Mountainfilm Festival. The organic food-eating, Rivian-driving, REI-shopping crowd will likely be more receptive to hunting (which has a bad reputation in some circles), if it comes from laid-back, familiar athletes who share their passions—or so the thinking seems to go.

This crossover has been a long time coming. In 2005, Sitka’s founders Jonathan Hart and Jason Hairston started the company after suffering through an Idaho elk hunt while wearing cheap cotton apparel that was then the staple of the industry.ÌęThe original product development team included designers from Mountain Hardwear and Arc’teryx. Then in 2010, W.L.Gore & Associates—the company behind Gore-Tex—acquired Sitka, bringing the brand more tech and marketing firepower. Sitka sells almost as hard as its own gear, which is a win-win-win: good for business, the sport of hunting, and the planet.

One looming question is whether hunting, as a pursuit with built-in scarcity, should be chasing growth at all. Part of the push is because hunting has been waning for decades, and hunters don’t want to see the knowledge and opportunity disappear forever. Part of it is also a question of driving industry growth and profits, which is simply the capitalist American way.

“You’re going to see more people at the trailheads, you’re going to have to go farther and hunt smarter to be successful,” says Noonan. “But the tradeoff, and we see it as a valuable one worth making, is that we are bringing more people into a community that cares for the land and is vested in conservation.”

Back in Utah, the only scarcity Jackson is worried about is his dearth of opportunities. After five days, the six other hunters in his party have shot elk, but he has come up empty. “It’s hard to be the only one who hasn’t tagged out,” he says. But he’s circumspect. “The two most important things are being in the mountains and being a good steward for this community.”

It’s Friday night, and Jackson’s hunt officially ends at 10 A.M. Saturday morning. Though he was scheduled to leave in the morning, he changes his flight home and goes back out at dawn. The morning passes like the rest of the hunt: close encounters, but no elk within shooting distance. Around 9, he and his crew begin trudging out of the canyon with empty packs. On the 800-vertical-foot climb out, a bull bugles a few hundred yards away in the trees. Jackson and team set up and begin calling, and, almost like magic, the bull beelines for them. At 20 yards, Jackson unleashes an arrow. Minutes later, the elk collapses and it’s over.

“Surreal. I thought I was going home empty-handed. So I was so grateful to walk away from that hunt having filled my freezer,” he recalls later.

Jackson left with 200 pounds of meat and picked up another 3,500 followers in the weeks following his post about the hunt. When Black Diamond about Jackson’s hunt and the Sitka collab, the response was as enthusiastic. Wrote one user, “Yes! Hunting and adventure athletes can coexist.”

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Northwave Himalaya Shoes ($280)

Surprisingly toasty despite the trim silhouette, the Himalaya has a lining of 400-gram Thinsulate combined with a thermal insole that blocks the cold and reflects body heat. We loved the speed-lace slider, which allowed for one-handed tightening and loosening, even in bulky mittens. The lugged, Michelin-rubber sole provided excellent grip on slick ground and flat pedals (though there’s a recessed cleat mount if that’s how you roll).

Gore M Wind­stopper Insulated Beanie and Gloves ($50 and $100)

The PrimaLoft Gold insulation in Gore’s windproof, water-­repellent beanie and gloves is low-profile yet warm enough for riding even in Arctic conditions. On milder winter days, we keep them tucked in a frame bag for rest breaks and emergency stops.

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Bontrager Velocis Soft Shell and Bibs ($149 and $169)

The chest, shoulders, and arms on the shell are wind- and water-resistant, taking the sting out of nasty weather, while lighter back and underarm panels add stretch and breathability. The matching bibs have the same weather resistance in the front and high-output material in the rear, with thin straps to reduce bulk and a squishy pad for comfort.

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Enve M685 Wheels ($2,550)

Not only are the M685s the sexiest fat hoops you can buy, but the 85-­millimeter internal rim width helps spread tires for a grippy footprint. The V-shaped profile sloughs snow better than any other wheel we’ve tried.

Terrene Cake Eater Light Tires ($120)

We paired the Enves with these 4.6-inch tires. Their low-profile, siped center knobs and meaty external lugs provide as much grip and float as any cyclist can reasonably hope for.

Knog PWR Mountain Kit and Bigger Cobber Light ($230 and $90)

Twist-front operation and 2,000 lumens make the Mountain Kit (with included extension and helmet mounts) one of the most covetable lights we’ve used. The Bigger Cobber provides a floodlight of red out back.

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Revelate Designs Ranger Frame Bag ($150)

This bag is a cut above, with connection points on all three sides for easy installation and a ballistic-nylon shell that’s virtually impenetrable.

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Why Cycles Big Iron ($7,489 as tested)

Think all fat bikes are ponderous and slow? Think again. Why Cycles’ Big Iron makes it clear that oversize tires aren’t just for snow anymore. Taking cues from more aggressive geometries in the trail-bike realm, the Big Iron gets a slack-for-the-category head tube (68.7 degrees), a slightly lower bottom bracket, and a long top tube paired to a short 35-millimeter stem. Add in a dropper post, a rarity on snow machines because of their tendency to lock out in the cold, and you’ve got the shreddiest fat bike you’ve ever piloted. Our Big Iron was spendy, owing to a lightweight SRAM X0 drivetrain and Enve M685 wheels, but we wouldn’t trade those hoops for anything; the combination of wide carbon rims and titanium frame and bars made for a silky ride. However, you can get a lower-tier model for under $4,000, fulfilling Why’s goal of making titanium accessible to more riders. Livery notwithstanding, this bike was so deft and versatile—tearing up everything from foot-deep freshies to rubbled desert singletrack—that we were plenty excited to keep riding it even after the spring thaw.

Fatback Rhino FLT ($2,999 as tested)

The Fatback Rhino FLT proves you don’t have to spend a fortune for a great winter ride. Because the frame is aluminum, it won’t break the budget. Still, the geom­etry feels tight and responsive, and the spec (SRAM GX Eagle, carbon bars, and Fatback’s surprisingly light and sturdy Big Su wheels) is high value. With the 100-­millimeter Manitou Mastodon suspension fork, it even holds its own on dry trails.

Salsa Mukluk Carbon NX Eagle ($3,149 as tested)

Already boasting stable handling, with clearance for some of the widest tires on the market, the Salsa Mukluk Carbon NX Eagle gets sweet new 4.6-inch 45Nrth Dillinger Five tires, a 1×12 drivetrain with 11-50-tooth cassette, and sick graphics. Our only niggle: the NX Eagle gears and SRAM Guide T brakes felt a little cheap.

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Though a vocal segment of cyclists still decry e-bikes as lazy, demand continues to swell. That’s partly because the technologies are improving so rapidly: motor systems are becoming seamlessly smooth, lithium-ion batteries continue to shrink in size while providing more range, and designs are so refined that it’s sometimes impossible to tell an electric model from an analog one. “They are game changers in so many ways, making cycling more accessible and practical,” says Larry Pizzi, who chairs the e-bike committee for the Bicycle Products Suppliers Association. “They have become a genuine car alternative, enabling bike commuting over distances and terrain that might otherwise be impractical.”

Yuba Spicy Curry Bosch ($4,500)

The Ìęis the veritable minivan of e-bikes. The ten-speed, 250-watt Bosch motor isn’t the biggest around, but it still provides plenty of torque for hauling. And the 400-watt-hour battery yields up to 40 miles of range. With a 26-inch front wheel and a 20-inch rear, the Spicy Curry looks a little odd, but that squat back end keeps the center of gravity low for easy handling. Yuba also offers a wide range of accessories, including bamboo decking and sideboards for cargo, bags for grocery runs, and seating options for kids. The frame can handle it all, too, with a capacity of 300 pounds. In other words, it leaves you almost no excuse for driving.

Emery OneÌę($5,500)

The first 3-D-printed e-­commuter, has an aerospace-grade carbon-fiber frame mated to a Bosch motor and a fully integrated 500-watt-hour battery. The flat bars and outsize 47-­millimeter tires on 650b rims provide lots of comfort for city riding.

This item is currently out of stock.Ìę

Pinarello Dyodo ($8,000)

With a SRAM Force drivetrain, Mavic wheels, and Pinarello’s lithe carbon fiber, could pass for a race bike. The 250-watt ebikemotion motor hidden in the hub and the 250-watt-hour battery concealed in the down tube ensure you’ll never get dropped on group rides or in traffic.

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Every year around șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű’s annual bike test, people ask me the same question: “What new bike should I buy?” That’s an almost impossible query to answer. AÌębike purchase must take into account riding style, local terrain, and personal preferences. Instead, I often try to respond with more holistic insights about the state of the industry and overarching trends. I’ve been test-riding bikes and writing about them for long over a decade, which means I’ve seen a lot of fads, problems, and developments. In the midst of testing this year, I began jotting down notes about changes in design and the broader market. Here are a few impressions.

Bikes, on the Whole, Are Better Than Ever

I’ve had to find new ways to phrase this almost every year since 2005, but it’s true. In those early years of testing, there were good bikes and bad ones as companies experimented with geometries, frame materials, early suspensions, components—everything. It was easy to throw handfuls of bikes out of contention for coverage back then because they didn’t measure up. These days, it’s difficult to find a bad bike. Sure, there are models we prefer and models we don’t, but a lot of that is about nuance. Terrain and riding style depending, I can’t think of a single bike in the test that I wouldn’t be happy on. Manufacturers are constantly trying to improve their products, and for the most part, it’s working.

Advances Come at a Cost

The least expensive bike we tested this year was the ($1,700),Ìęthe most expensive was the Ìę($12,000), and the average price was $6,600. Though there are less expensive builds and specs for most of the models we ride, we tend toward the higher end of the market because 1) that’s generally where development takes place, and 2) that’s the simplest way to ensure parity, since it’s less likely for a bike to be excluded because of inferior parts or a heavy build. Still, it doesn’t escape me that a decade ago I would tell people to expect to spend around $2,500 to get a good mountain bike, whereas today it’s more like $5,000. Of course, inflation is a factor, and today’s bikes, built with space-age materials and super-refined suspensions and electronics, are a far cry from the simple steel bikes of a decade ago. Still, it’s hard to escape the feeling that prices are outpacing what the average person wants (or can afford) to pay.

Still, Fun on a Bike Doesn’t Have to Be Determined by How Much You Spend

One of the hands-down favorites in the test was the , a $2,000 drop-bar steel monster cross machine that earned the adoring monikerÌę“Chunky.” At 28.6 pounds and with 2.4-inch tires, this bike should have been easy for testers to malign. And yet, time and again, I saw people go out for laps skeptical and return beaming. All City nailed this ride with stability, comfortable geometry, solid spec, and a clear sense of how to deliver fun. The lesson: you don’t always have to spend a lot to get a great bike—and certainly not to enjoy riding. The ($2,300), ($2,650), ($3,500), ($3,000), and ($2,100) are other great examples of bikes that deliver a lot for less.

Frame Material Is Now Less Important

I love carbon fiber, but riding styles are morphing, suspensions are improving, and companies are continuing to refine aluminum, steel, and titanium shapes. Don’t get me wrong: 90 percent of bikes in the test were built from carbon. And yet,Ìęseveral of my top picks were metal: the aforementioned Gorilla Monsoon, the , the , and a forthcoming drop-bar design from Moots. In particular, the gravel market is driving the resurgence of metal, because titanium and steel can help mitigate rough roads and don’t necessarily weigh more than carbon fiber. Take the , a titanium gravel and adventure touring machine that tipped the scales at 17.5 pounds (less than many of the carbon wonder bikes) and was a crowd favorite for its buttery smooth ride.

Gravel Bikes Continue to Mature

We had as many all-road rides this year as straight pavement rigs, and most testers seemed more eager for the dirt road day than asphalt. Meanwhile, the gravel segment seems to be splitting into two branches: the race- and speed-oriented models with aggressive fits, quicker geometries, and narrower tires (35c and under), such as the and ,Ìęand the more adventure-ready models that can fit two wheel sizes and fatter tiresÌęand are made to get rowdy, like the and the . I think the growth of gravel is partly a response to the dangers of riding on the highways, but also because lifetime roadies are discovering that their pastime can take them to new places. If biking is supposed to be fun, gravel has a corner on the market.

This Is the Year of the E-bike

We tested three extremely refined road machines with the Ebikemotion motor and battery system—the Orbea Gain, , and —and testers loved them all. The fact that these look and feel just like regular road bikes while adding some motor assist promises to open cycling to a broader audience than ever, which is exciting stuff. We also had five new eMTBs, which, like the roadies, are lighter andÌęmore refinedÌęand have longer-lasting batteries than ever. If you hate e-bikes, please do yourself a favor and try one. I’ve yet to see a person climb on a pedal-assist model and not come away as happy as a kid.

Rim Brakes Are Dead

For the first time ever, there wasn’t a single rim brake in the test—on mountain, gravel, or road bikes. And I say good riddance. Every tester praised the development, even ex-pro road racers. That’s because the weight of discs has dropped to level with their counterparts, while the performance is incontrovertibly better. On the big mountain day in Colorado National Monument, I heard numerous testers exclaim how much more confident they felt on these disc bikes than on their personal rim-brake-equipped models.

Electronic Shifting Is Superior to Mechanical

But it’s not so superior that it has predominated—at least not yet. Electronic shiftingÌęcertainly has become more popular on the road side: almost half of the drop-bar bikes we tested this year were equipped with e-shifting, for the most part , which hits the sweet spot between performance and price. Meanwhile, not a single mountain bike had Di2. Maybe skepticism means it will just take time to catch on, as disc brakes did on the road.

The Debate Over 29 Versus 27.5 Has Subsided

At least in our test group, big wheels are the big winners. I probably heard someone grouse over the way 27.5ers hung up on rocks and didn’t roll as quickly as often as I changed pedals for a new test bike. Part of that is down to the terrain we were riding: the trails around Grand Junction, Colorado, are technical, with big ledges, lots of bedded rock, and largely open country, all of which favors 29ers. Manufacturers seem to be onboard with bigger wheels, too, as long-travel 29ers were the single biggest growth category this year. Bikes like the , the , and the all have more than 150 millimeters of travel. Look, I’m not trying to say that 29 is better than 27.5; in fact, the most impressive and techiest riding I witnessed was by a male tester aboard the women’s 27.5 . Riding style and personal preference still outweighs everything, and, going back to the top, bikes are just all-around great.

Tire Technology Keeps Improving

We were riding in a seriously unforgiving place again, with lots of sharp rocks and vegetation, and we still had only six flat tires in two weeks of testing. On the mountain side, where Maxxis pretty much rules, there’s a tread pattern and rubber durometer for everyone, casings are tougher than ever, and tire weights are coming down. Gravel bikes are following suit, with tubeless now the standard and lots of great semi-slick options that are fast rolling but still secure (try the ). And it’s nice to see tubeless finally catching on for road. Trail bikes have settled around 2.5Ìęand 2.6 inches as the new standard, 40c for all-road, and 28c on the pavement except for the raciest aero bikes. This new wider sensibility is good since that extra rubber equals a comfier ride.

Companies Are Trying Unique and Wacky Ideas

And I’m happy to see it. No fewer than three road bikes sported rear suspension, including the unlikely and . And the leaf-spring fork on the gravel bike might look a bit unwieldy, but it delivered the softest ride in the test. We also saw the arrival of the Fox Live Valve, which could be the first electronic suspension system to gain widespread appeal. The wildest design came on the in the form of its CP07 cockpit, which completely rethinks drop handlebar design to add more hand positions and vibration damping. And though it didn’t come stock on any bike, we managed to get ahold of the new linkage mountain bike fork. The jury is still out on whether this is the future of suspension or just gimmickry, but it’s certainly groundbreaking.

Boost Hub Spacing Is Catching On

Every mountain bike in the test used it, which made switching wheels and components a snap—a rare thing in the cycling world. The wayÌęSRAM has dominated the mountain bike drivetrain market also helps. Of 25 bikes, 21 were equipped with the company’s 1x system, though Shimano’s new 12-speed XTR might finally help the Japanese manufacturer catch up—we rode it on one bike, the and it was flat-out excellent. Meanwhile, thru-axles have finally supplanted quick release on road and gravel bikes once and for all, with only one or two exceptions. Hub standards might sound esoteric, but it is refreshing for the industry to finally agree on something.

Proprietary Setups and Designs Are Still Incredibly Frustrating

We encountered multiple sizes and configurations on stems, handlebars, seat posts, saddle rails, chains, bottom brackets, derailleur hangers, brake mounts, and even handlebar grips. And don’t get us started about proprietary aero stem and seat post shapes. All of these varied configurations and setups meant that, more than once, when something broke on one bike, we couldn’t find a single part from any of the 49 others to fix it. More than just a frustration for us, this speaks to how the industry is making it difficult for consumers to figure out what they needÌęand for bike shops to keep those parts in stock. We’re all for true technological advancements, but exclusive designs that simply complicate are annoying and silly.

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Long considered too big and cumbersome by the enduro and downhill markets, 29ers conquered the fast and steep this year in our testing.

Intense Sniper Trail Pro Build ($5,899)

Best For: Long rides

It used to be that if you wanted a bike fast and light enough to race, you had to sacrifice trail ability and handling. But with 120 millimeters of front and rear travel epitomizes a new breed of “down-country” models that blend the snappiness of a cross-country rig with the confidence of a downhiller. The bottom bracket is lower and the head angle slacker (a surprising 66.5 degrees), yielding the planted feel of a bike with much longer travel. The addition of 780-­millimeter riser handlebars, a dropper seatpost, and meaty but still quick 2.35-inch Maxxis Forekaster tires add to the go-anywhere feel, yet the Sniper Trail tips the scale at a feathery 24.6 pounds. (And the 100-millimeter version is almost two pounds lighter.) Time and again, testers expected the harsh, unmanageable ride of a race whip and came back impressed with how easily the bike rolled over big, nasty terrain.

GT Sensor Carbon ProÌę($5,000)

Best For: Daily driving

After years of building full-suspension bikes around solid but convoluted shock designs, GT revamped its proven four-bar linkage to deliver , one of the finest machines the company has ever crafted. It feels more assertive and adventurous, thanks in part to the slack front end and the combination of a stubby stem and 800-millimeter bars. Though its travel is hardly long by today’s standards, we were surprised by how hard we could push the bike around corners and through rock gardens. Our only niggle was with the spec, a mixed bag of smart picks (1×12 SRAM X01 Eagle drivetrain, 29-inch Stan’s NoTubes Flow rims for a wide contact patch, and the reliable KS Lev Ci dropper) and slight misses (underpowered Level TL brakes and paper-thin Nobby Nic tires). Still, it’s great to see GT back with such a sturdy and nuanced trail bike.

YT Capra 29 CF Pro RaceÌę($5,499)

Best For: Bike parks and downhill runs

Bikes like , which has a whopping 170 millimeters of travel mated with big hoops, played a large part in the 29er renaissance. This bike leveled the gnarliest trails we threw it down, with the large wheels skipping over obstacles and the fat, sticky E Thirteen LG1 tires clinging like flypaper. And YT’s direct-to-consumer model brings the cost of the top-shelf version—including Shimano XTR drivetrain, SRAM Code brakes, and carbon wheels, bars, and crank—to the level of most companies’ midgrade offerings. At 29.7 pounds, the Capra is hardly light and not exactly built for techy pedaling (the grippy tires gave the feel of plowing through molasses when pointed uphill), but it holds its own in the category. And when gravity kicked in, no other bike could keep pace.

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I’ve said it for years, but the single best upgrade you can make to a bicycle is to get better wheels and tires. A pound of weight in the wheels, especially in the rims, makes a far bigger impact on inertia and how a bike feels than the same amount of weight in the frame. Pleasantly stiff wheels can improve steering, tracking, and cornering, while noodly ones make a bike feel listless and unmanageable. And rim widths and shapes, along with well-honed materials, can go a long way to smoothing out the ride. Similarly, quality tires with supple casings also blunt road noise and add traction and confidence. There are a lot of complicated factors and interplay between them, some of which I’ve written about. But suffice it to say that good wheels and tires are probably the easiest way to palpably boost your bike’s performance.

This truism has implications for our annual test—held in Grand Junction, Colorado, in 2018—during which we rode more than 50 of the latest bicycles one after the other to suss out their strengths and weaknesses and determine our favorites. If wheels and tires make such a big difference, then the best way to level the playing field and really compare bikes would be to ride all of them with the same hoops and rubber. We’ve known this for a long time (bikes have been eliminated from the test in the past simply because they felt terrible due to cheap and fragile stock setups), but the explosion of hub, brake, and wheel standards always made it impossible to change like setups between bikes. This year, though, thanks to consolidation in the market that has seen disc brakes become the norm on road bikesÌęand Boost spacing with single-chainringÌędrivetrains saturatingÌęthe mountain market, we were finally able to test every bike in the lineup with the same wheels, tires, and pressures. We still rode the bikes as they came, of course, but I had my own set of wheels to sub in and out in order to hopefully isolate the benefits and drawbacks of frame design and suspension.

This was no easy undertaking, given the variety of drivetrains, wheel sizes, and bike styles we test. I settled on Enve as the wheel supplier. The Utah-based company makes some of the highest-quality hoops on the market, and, ergo, they’re expensive. But the strength to weight is superior to most, the workmanship impeccable, the ride quality and durabilityÌęconsistent across every model, and its customer service (including warranty and crash-replacement programs) isÌęexcellent. I also appreciate that EnveÌęwheels are made in Ogden. Most importantly, the company offered a wide enough breadth of models to meet our needs.

It turned out to be quite an order: for road,Ìę (700c) and (650b) for gravel,Ìę29-inch for cross-country,Ìę in 29 and 27.5 inches for trail and enduro, and in 29 and 27.5 inches for plus bikes. Since I needed doubles of pretty much everything in order to accommodate SRAM and Shimano specs (the two predominant drivetrains), that brought the final tally to 11 wheel sets, which we returned to Enve after the test.

For tires, Maxxis was the natural choice, partly because over years of testing, I’ve found its rubber to be the most durable across the board for our harsh Southwest-desert environment. But also, it has one of the most diverse offerings of tires, as well as the fullest size range in each style. Road was easy: semi-slick 28c . For gravel I went with the high-volume, low-tread . All of the mountain wheels got one of my favorite aggressive tire setups, a muscly, large-block / combo. The cross-countryÌęhoops got low-profile, faster-rolling tires—Ìęin the front and Ìęin the rear—since the bigger setup would have been too much. All tires were set up tubeless with , and I ran uniform tire pressures.

Thanks to Maxxis and Enve for supplying the big parts for this trial. Both Shimano and SRAM were also crucial, providing a range of cassettes and rotors to keep switch times minimal.

Before I get to comparative reflections, it’s worth dwelling on these productsÌęfor a minute. There are many great wheels out there, but Enve’s provide an incredibly refined ride consistently across the product line. The 3.4’s feel blazing fast, smooth, and solid; the G Series provides a very forgiving ride on rough terrain; and the M Series is exceptionally light and strong, with wide internals for large tire-contact patches. I was just as impressed with the Maxxis range, most notably the Re-Fuse gravel offering, which provided excellent traction and cut resistance, despite the low-volume tread, as well as a soft, supple feel. And the Minion DHF/DHRII combo provides some of the best grab and hook-up on rocky, loose terrain of anything I’ve ever ridden. The ultimate testament: in nearly three months of riding these setups last year, I never got a single flat tire.

The best illustration of why comparison testing like this is important came on day one. As an experiment, I rode two gravel bikes—the Fuji Jari Carbon 1.1 and the —on two laps each, first in their stock configurations, then with my custom wheels. With the stock WTB i23 wheels wrapped in 43c Panaracer GravelKing tires, the Fuji felt quick but a little slippery on the loose stuffÌęand a touch harsh overall. It wasn’t my favorite. The Donnelly, on the other hand, came with house-brand Ushuiaia wheels and 40c X’Plor MSO tires. And though the bike had nice compliance, the ride was a little muted, soggy even. I probably would have said I preferred the Fuji over the Donnelly. After putting on the Enves mounted with Re-Fuse tires, though, my impressions changed. The Fuji still felt sharp, though not as much, while the Donnelly remained supercomfortable but was far sprightlier. Basically, by eliminating the wheel and tire variance, I realized that I preferred the Donnelly for its suppler ride.

Another example happenedÌęa week or so later, when I was riding the Specialized Stumpjumper. I did a lap on Mack Ridge, at Loma, aboard the stock Roval wheels and Specialized’s Butcher/Purgatory tire combo. It’s a rocky, techy, fast descent, and though I loved it, I definitely felt the tires skating in hard corners. The next lap was aboard the same bike with Enve 635’s and the 2.6-inchÌęMaxxis DHF/2.5-inchÌęDHR II combo, and not only did I feel locked in and far more confident, I was more than 20 seconds faster on the five-minute downhill. The wheel and tire choice made me like the bike more than I would have otherwise.

From the outside, this might seem like a lot of process for little return, but I was pretty amazed by what we found. For one thing, it’s heartening that, after so many years of varied standards, it’s possible to so quickly and easily change wheels between bikes. Of the more than 50 bikes we tested, only a few (think: belt drive, Pinion gearbox, etc.) wouldn’t accept the wheels. And I feel like my impressions of this year’s bikes are more accurate than they have ever been. Of course, we took into account stock builds for our end reviews, as that’s the way many people will purchase bikes. But being able to isolate impressions on the frames and suspension systems really allowed us to hone into the nuanced differences between bikes. Perhaps most importantly for the end consumer, switching between average stock wheels and tires and superior ones underscored their importance. If you are after the best ride you can get, put your money into quality wheels and tires above all else.

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Orbea Gain M20i Ltd ($6,800)

In 2018, gravel bikes were the fastest-growing segment of the bike industry. This year, drop-bar models continue their steady roll away from pavement toward variable surfaces and quieter escapes. Even on blacktop-only bikes, disc brakes are now standard, tire clearance is increasing, and geometries favor stability and comfort over whip-crack race handling.

The Gain M20i Ltd has all of the above, with a twist: a pedal-assist motor. Yeah, yeah, we can already hear the objections, but this is the most forward-looking road bike we’ve seen in years. While it’s all but visually indistinguishable from most performance roadies—lithe carbon frame, precise Shimano Ultegra Di2 shifting and disc brakes, springy Mavic Cosmic Pro carbon wheels—it hides a 250-watt Ebikemotion motor in the rear hub and a 250-watt-hour battery in the down tube. When you pedal, and only when you pedal, the system delivers assistance in three increments that feel akin to riding with varying degrees of tailwind. Controlled by a button on the top tube, the power can be completely turned off; at 25.6 pounds, the Gain is still totally manageable. And while several brands released models that incorporate the Ebikemotion system this year, the Orbea stands out for its 40c tire clearance.

You can think of it as a bridge between bikes with other skill sets or as a rehab tool, but the appeal is obvious to anyone who wants greater range and a faster ride. On a day when they’d already put in three 25-mile laps, the Gain allowed testers a fourth trip over the mountain that they otherwise wouldn’t have taken. More riding, more speed, more fun—what’s not to like?

Fuji Supreme 1.1 ($7,500)

Best Women’s Race Bike

With the new Supreme, Fuji has done something that no brand before it ever did: it built its flagship road-racing bike for women only. It’s a nod to the company’s most prominent team, Tibco-SVB, the longest-running and most successful women’s cycling squad in North America. The Supreme is a torpedo, with wind-slicing Kammtail tubes and Oval Concepts 50-millimeter-deep rims for even more aero capability. Despite that extra carbon, our test bike came in at just 16 pounds, approaching the weight of many climbing machines. Fuji says the bike is faster than its full-aero ride, the Transonic, and testers concurred. The Supreme was so fleet, it almost felt like riding an e-bike. This is the only model we tested this year that came with SRAM Red eTap, and it’s still the most intuitive shifting setup we’ve used. All that had male testers feeling a bit envious.

Viathon R.1 Dura-Ace ($5,850)

Best Men’s Race Bike

With an online-only sales model that forgoes retail markup and overhead, this new Arkansas-based brand has managed to build arguably the fastest bike you can buy for the money. The strapping, disc-equipped frame tips the scales at just 1.9 pounds, which puts it among the lightest on the market, and once built, it yielded a sub-16-pound bike. With deep-section Knight Composite carbon wheels and a Shimano Dura-Ace drivetrain, there are really no improvements to be made here. Handling is brisk, and road feel is surprisingly muted for such a sharp bike, thanks in part to the slender drop seat stays. Given the low cost—nearly half that of the competition—the R.1 is like getting a Tesla Model S for the price of a Mazda Miata. (And the base-level, 105-equipped spec, built on an identical frame, is the deal of the year at $2,300.)

Moots Routt YBB ($10,200)

Best șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Bike

The growing all-road trend has spurred a resurgence in tita­nium, which is lightweight and forgiving but has been overshadowed by carbon. There’s no finer use of the material than in the Routt YBB. Moots has been building the finest titanium bikes at its shop in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, since 1981. Hence the Routt’s stunning craftsmanship and dialed feel, with slack, stable geometry, a tall stack height to get weight off your hands, and stock 45c tires. But what sets the Routt apart is the YBB pivotless softail, which provides 20 milli­meters of rear suspension to dampen harsh washboard and rocky fire roads. Our test model came with internally routed Shi­mano Ultegra Di2 shifting, a clutch-style derailleur that stops chain slap, and wide-profile Mavic Allroad Pro wheels, which stretched the WTB Riddler tires for stable traction.

Salsa Warbird Carbon Ultegra Di2 700 ($5,399)

Best Gravel Racer

Built with long-haul endurance races in mind, the Warbird is the antithesis of a road machine, with a head angle milder than some XC mountain bikes, compact Ultegra Di2 cranks and a wide 11-32 cassette, and a tuned carbon layup that provided one of the most forgiving rides we’ve experienced. It’s so smooth, in fact, that even after racing the Warbird on the Dirty Kanza’s notoriously rugged 200 miles of gravel, we were amazed at how fresh we felt. Everything about this bike is off-road optimized, including the massive front triangle (for extra hauling space), flared Woodchipper bars (for control), 40c Maxxis Rambler tires (no flats in six months), and braze-ons for racks, cargo cages, feed bags, and anything else you’d want to carry. Salsa even left room for 2.1-inch tires on 650b wheels, expanding the range.

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Ibis Ripmo ($8,200)

This is the year of the long-travel 29er. While big wheels have long dominated the XC and trail categories (the 29er was the top-selling bike last year), they’ve had a harder time catching on with downhillers, because of the added weight and the challenge of building a frame that doesn’t feel bulky. Brands nailed the equation this year with tighter geometries and lighter components. In our test, it was mostly long-travel 29ers that took the honors.

Case in point: the Ibis Ripmo, a carbon all-mountain 29er with 145 millimeters of rear travel and a stout 160-millimeter Fox 36 fork. Despite its aggressive stance and slack front end, this is a dumbfoundingly quick and agile ride. It’s also reasonably light at 28.6 pounds. The super-steep seat angle made techy uphills a cinch, as did the soft tune on the DW-Link suspen­sion. On downhills the grip got even better, courtesy of Ibis’s wide 942 carbon rims and the meaty Maxxis tire combi­nation—a 2.5-inch Minion DHF and a 2.5-inch Aggressor. The low-slung seat tube allows for the longest-possible dropper post, letting us bring our center of gravity down for better man­euverability. We threw ourselves at the steepest rock- and ledge-littered trails and were amazed at how nonchalant the Ripmo felt. “Like pedaling a cloud,” one tester commented. It’s tempting to label the Ripmo a trail ride and an enduro sled wrapped in one, but to us it’s simply the all-around mountain bike we always wanted.

Juliana Furtado ($8,999)

Best for Women

The sister bike to the Santa Cruz 5010, the Furtado is a carbon trail steed with milder suspension and contact points tweaked for women (think shaped saddle and narrower 760-millimeter bars). Time and again, testers said the bike felt supple and easy to maneuver. The Furtado has an easygoing 66.5-degree head angle, 130 millimeters of travel front and rear, and 27.5-inch hoops. (Smaller wheels still seem to be the norm on women’s models, though half our riders said they’d prefer this bike with 29s.) The Juliana felt especially springy. Reserve carbon wheels add stiffness for steering confidence and help spread the 2.3-inch Maxxis Minion tires for grab. It’s a well-mannered bike that, at 27.6 pounds, is light enough to ride all day. We weren’t crazy about the color, though.

Scott Ransom 900 Tuned ($7,600)

Best Enduro

Smaller wheels (27.5 and even 26 inches) have long ruled among enduro racers, who run timed segments down breakneck descents. But the carbon Scott Ransom 900 and bikes like it are changing that. It’s as light as a trail machine, at 29.2 pounds, but nearly as slack (64.5 degrees) and long (170 millimeters) as a full-on downhiller. Thanks to Scott’s TwinLoc, which has one lever to set front and rear shock volume and sag (choose from three modes: Lockout, Traction Control, and Descend), the bike climbs astonishingly well for such an aggressive machine. Still, when you point this rig down, the easygoing angles and beefy 2.6-inch Maxxis Minion tires gobble up drops and jumps. And yes, the 29-inch Ransom was verifiably faster and easier to handle than similarly appointed 27.5s in the test.

Lenz Behemoth 29+ ($8,300)

Best All Mountain

This Colorado-based brand has accomplished what no company before it was able to do: pack 29-plus wheels into a lightweight (28.2 pounds), quick-handling, full-suspension package. The trick is the geometry, with road-bike-short 424-millimeter chainstays, a moderate 68-degree head angle, and a short reach for XC-whip-level handling. The Behemoth’s light weight is even more impressive given that the frame is alloy. Yet the combination of big hoops and mid-travel suspension (140-millimeter fork, 125-millimeter frame) makes for incredible rollover on loose rock and second-to-none climbing on step-ups. The whole package made for a squishy, forgiving all-mountain crusher. But unlike many 29-plus models, which plow over obstacles, the Behemoth glances over them like a rock skipping on water.

Specialized Stumpjumper ST Expert 29 ($5,000)

Best Trail Bike

In its standard configuration, the Stumpjumper is an all-mountain ride that keeps up with the Ibis Ripmo. But it’s the short-travel (ST) model that won our hearts, with its nimbler handling and lighter weight (26 pounds). A progressive shock tune ramps up at the end of the travel, and there’s a stout RockShox Pike fork—both help the bike feels more capable than its midsize measurements suggest (130 millimeters up front, 120 in the rear). For most riding in most places, this size is the op­timal blend of proficiency on technical terrain and pedaling ease. Specialized equipped it perfectly, with a full-length (160 millimeters) house-brand Command Post that makes it trivial to find the right height, wide 780-millimeter bars for control, and broad Roval Traverse carbon rims to spread the 2.3-inch tires.

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Henty Enduro 2.0 Pack ($129)

Call this a waist pack on steroids. The Enduro has a horizontal compartment low on the lumbar to keep the weight on your hips and a pared-down mesh upper that ensures stability without causing clamminess.

LEM Flow Helmet ($80)

The Flow proved a hit at this year’s test. It has all the hallmarks of a helmet twice the price: a dial-fit system, lie-flat straps for comfort, cushy padding, and an adjustable visor.

Shimano AM7 Shoes ($140)

Even though the AM7s elicited jokes about their “orthopedic” looks, we couldn’t resist the comfortable fit of these low-cut lace-ups. The midsole is plenty stiff for a few hours of riding, and a neoprene cuff keeps out sand and grit.

Mission Workshop Traverse Shorts ($165)

If you own just one pair of baggies, make it these. The long, trim legs provide coverage, and two rear-quad pockets carry sundries without you noticing the weight.

Giro Aether MIPS Helmet ($350)

Giro gracefully integrated MIPS technology, which absorbs rotational forces during a crash, into the Aether. The EPS foam shell looks like your stan­dard lid, while the liner—attached by unseen rub­berized strings—takes the hit on angled impacts.

Rapha Explore Technical T-shirt ($75)

The mavens of understated road style take to the dirt with the Explore Technical, an airy polyester micromesh tee that’s intended for gravel and dries in a flash in the sun.

Ashmei KoM Jersey and Bib Shorts ($179 and $319)

Ashmei’s KoM jersey is made from a merino-polyester blend that’s soft on the skin and stays dry. The shorts’ woven microfiber has a stretchy yet compressive fit.

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ASSOS Trail Cargo Shorts ($149)

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Fizik Infinito R1 Knit Shoe ($450)

Thanks to the upper’s slight give and ventilation, we loved these shoes on long days. The dual Boa closure made micro-adjustments a breeze, while Microtex in the tongue and buckle held the shoe’s structure.

100 Percent S2 Sunglasses ($195)

Upstart 100 Percent injects some flare and competition into the eyewear market with this mirrored wraparound. It doesn’t fog despite fitting snugly and won’t obstruct your view, thanks to a rimless design.

Garmin Edge 520 Plus Computer ($280)

The 520 Plus packs a ton of features—including uploads and sharing (via your phone), navigation, color maps, and Strava and Trailforks compatibility—into a device the size of an XTR pedal.

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