What mountain bike brand is considered by enthusiasts as the best?

Answer 1

To be honest, you need to specify what type of riding and what types of conditions you are considering undertaking.

If you want light weight and quickness, you want a "hard tail" which the Trek brands really have a lock on (Gary Fisher, Trek, Klein).
Then you have to take into account how big you are going to go while you are riding... If you want "MAX AIR" then you will need a big hit (3+ inch travel) fork.
If you don't plan on climbing too much, you can go with a "Free Ride" type of bicycle which generally are sort of heavy but offer a LOT of travel (some offer more than 5" of travel front and rear) which makes big hits and downhill runs, and huge air VERY fun, but you lose a lot of energy on climbs with a rear suspension bike, and they tend to be fairly heavy. Some great choices would be the Santa Cruz Blur, Trek Session, or Gary Fisher Fat Possum.
Then there are the "cross country" type of full suspension bikes which tend to be a little lighter, but offer less travel as well. Rides like the Santa Cruz Heckler, Trek Fuel, Gary Fisher Cake are suited to riding in almost all conditions and aren't too heavy to climb with.

As a bicycle mechanic and salesperson for all of the above brands (and Cannondale, Litespeed, Colnago, and several others) I can say with supreme confidence that for the money, the Trek brands offer the best bang for the buck. Cannondale is really flakey as a company and they make a lot of odd looking and not very functional designs, like having suspension built into the head tube, or a 1 sided suspension fork which is ALWAYS leaking or not functional, and they have a history of frames breaking and not honoring warranties, and Litespeed makes some SPECTACULAR bikes, but they are a full order of magnitude more expensive.

Although there are other strong brands out there, no other bicycle company has the market size and development capability that Trek does.

Answer 2

There are so many kinds of mountain bikes that it is hard to determine "best"

For DH racing, Intense is the most trusted name and has seen the most podiums.

For freeriding, Rocky Mountian is the Godfather. Not only is their team amazing but their bikes are absolutely bomb proof. Kona is another very popular freeride bike and Santa Cruz is making huge waves with their VPP bikes.

For trail bikes I don't even know where to start as there are so many great bikes out there. Companies like Specialized, Cannondale, Trek, K2, Rocky Mountain, Santa Cruz, Kona, Ellsworth, Gary Fischer and so many more are awesome.

The best bike is the one that best suits your style of riding and the places you ride.

Answer 3

There is no "best" brand. It's all about what fits each person's needs. There's also no way to definitely rank the quality of each brand. I mean, Seven Cycles or Ellsworth? Salsa or Indy Fab? Porsche or Ferrari? Adidas or Nike?

And bike people are really brand loyal, and very splintered on what they like.

Answer 4

I have three KONA bikes, (Race mountain bike, BMX and commuter bike) but that's because they fit me really well. Geometry is different in all frame categories...The BEST bike is the one that fit's you, feels good (aluminium, steel, carbon fibre or titanium all "feel" different, so do hard tails and soft tails or full susp.) and suits your purpose! (cross country, down hill or free rider?) Cannondale is really advanced in their tech. and the lefty/headshoks are wicked, but they are too big for me, and I'm not keen on aluminum for off road so I'd go with KONA, DeKerf, Deep Cove, Sant Cruz, DeVinci...Just take a TEST RIDE!

Answer 5

Specialized

Answer 6

Bianchi, Sunn, Cube, Storck, Cinelli, Soma, Moots

Answer 7

Specialized M5 HT rules

Answer 8

Cannondale

Answer 9

Schwinn

Answer 10

Kona