Frequently asked questions

One lifelong mountain biker, not a shop, a brand, or a media company. I write every word here myself, but I don't think in a vacuum - before picks go up they get run past the riders I trust: friends I ride with, mechanics who fix what breaks, and people who work in the industry. It exists because friends kept asking which bike to buy, and answering honestly took twenty minutes every time. This is that answer, written down and turned into something you can use yourself.

No, and they structurally cannot. The engine that ranks bikes has no access to which links earn money - that information is not part of the data it scores on. A bike with no affiliate program at all can and regularly does out-rank one that would pay us.

Some retailer links are affiliate links, which pay a small commission at no extra cost to you, and there is a tip jar for anyone who wants to buy us a trail beer. That is the entire business model: no sponsorships, no paid placement, no display ads, no selling your data. The affiliate disclosure page has the full detail.

We run a full analysis of the bike database about once a month. It goes brand by brand: check the current lineup, verify every price against the manufacturer or a major retailer, add new models, correct anything that has drifted, and write down what changed and how confident we are in it. Prices move constantly, so treat everything here as a recent snapshot rather than a live feed, and confirm on the brand’s own site before you buy.

Because you can check them, and because they get argued over before they get published. Every bike we rank is listed publicly with its price and spec, we say plainly when we are unsure about a number, and nobody can buy a better position. On top of that, I run my takes past the riders I trust - mechanics, industry friends, people who log more trail days than I do - and they are quick to tell me when I have one wrong. That is not the same as being right about everything, but it does mean nothing here is hidden from you.

It asks 14 questions about how and where you actually ride: your terrain, your riding style, how you feel about climbing versus descending, your budget and your height. Then it scores every build in the database against those answers and returns the five that fit best, with the reasoning shown for each one.

About two minutes. There is no sign-up, no account and no email required to see your results.

It is a scoring engine rather than a chatbot. Every answer shifts the weighting across suspension travel, geometry, category, spec-for-the-money and each bike’s character. It is deliberately deterministic: the same answers always produce the same five bikes, which matters if you want to share your results and have someone else see exactly what you saw.

Yes. Your results live in the page URL, so you can send that link to a friend or a shop and they will see the same five bikes and the same reasoning.

Usually not. The engine scores spec-per-dollar and fit rather than brand prestige, so a cheaper bike with better parts will beat a famous one, and a shorter-travel bike often wins if your answers say your trails are mellow. If a result looks genuinely wrong, the quiz is worth re-taking honestly rather than aspirationally.

There are 704 individual builds across 39 brands, covering shop brands and online-direct brands alike. You can browse all of them, unfiltered, on the bikes page.

Most likely one of four reasons: it is not sold new in the US, it is only available as a frameset, it is a discipline we do not cover (gravel, dirt jump, fat bikes and kids’ bikes are all out of scope), or we simply have not reached that brand yet. We track complete bikes with a published US price.

They are US MSRP as of the most recent monthly pass, not a live feed. We deliberately record list prices rather than sale prices, because sales disappear and would make the database misleading a week later. Always confirm the current price on the brand’s own site before you buy.

Yes, both full-power and lightweight e-MTBs, and the quiz asks whether you want one so they never get pushed on you. There is a dedicated e-MTB guide if you are weighing it up.

The database itself is new-bike MSRP, which is exactly the number you need to judge whether a used listing is a good deal. The used buying guide covers the inspection checklist, where to shop and the red flags worth walking away from.

We keep them. A bike that stopped being sold last year is still the bike thousands of people are shopping for secondhand, and its original price is the anchor for judging a used listing. Removing it would delete the most useful thing we know about it.

We count page views with a cookieless, privacy-respecting analytics service. No personal data, no cross-site tracking, no advertising networks, and no cookie banner because there are no cookies to consent to. The privacy policy spells out exactly what is and is not collected.

You get one welcome email, then occasional updates when there is something genuinely worth sending. Your address is never sold, never shared, and one click unsubscribes you for good.

No. The quiz is completely free and requires nothing from you. The newsletter is offered after your results and is entirely optional.