BEST OF BRITISH
We get down and dirty with three defiantly British bikes that stick two fingers up at ‘sensible’ suspension and embody a maverick mischievousness
TESTED THIS MONTH
BIKE TEST
What happens when you throw financial caution to the wind and get highend hardtails from three British bike brands? Well, the budget instantly goes out the window, and given the current financial climate it’s probably not what Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis would recommend. But that’s exactly what we’ve done for this month’s test and the results are both insightful and surprising.
We have the latest bikes from Identiti, Nukeproof and Whyte and while all three are UK brands at their very core, none of the bikes in this test are actually manufactured here on UK soil. That’s a direct result of our more servicefocused economy, but it doesn’t mean that these UK brands don’t have a very different spin on what the humble hardtail is capable of.
But what exactly is a UK hardtail? From the outside looking in, American and European brands view the UK hardtail scene as something from another planet. Hardly surprising given that the UK is the birthplace of punk rock. And just as punk started as a rebellion against the establishment, UK hardtails spit in the face of the buttoned down, fitness-focused XC brigade. Bigger-travel forks, slacker geometry, chain guide mounts and lower standover heights, all make the UK hardtail distinct, much in the same way that mohawks, safety pins and Dr Martens boots helped punks differentiate themselves from the mainstream.
Bigger-travel forks, slacker geometry, chain guide mounts and lower standover heights, all make the UK hardtail distinct
In some ways the UK hardtail is kind of a cross between a dirt jump hardtail and a modern full-suspension trail bike, albeit minus the rear suspension. In a nutshell then, it’s a bike designed to ride the type of terrain that most sensible people would probably pick a full-suspension bike for. And with prices ranging from £2.5k for the Nukeproof all the way up to £3.5k for the all-singing, all-dancing Whyte 909 X with SRAM AXS wireless shifting, going fullsus is a genuinely realistic option too.
So we’ve established that these bikes are pretty hardcore then. But just like hardcore music, there’s no single genre. In fact, there isn’t even a preferred wheel size for our UK hardtails. As such, we have almost all of the major wheel sizes represented in this test. In reverse order of size, the Nukeproof Scout 290 has 29in wheels, Whyte uses 27.5in Plus and the Identiti is rolling on regular 27.5in. All that’s missing is an MX bike. And it wasn’t for the lack of trying, as we desperately wanted to plug that gap with the Orange MX Pro, but sadly i
