TWELVE ENTRY-LEVEL MTBS ARE HAND-PICKED for a special mission: to carry the novice rider into the hostile environment of off-road and prove themselves as all-rounders in doing so. Will these machines make it, or is this simply a suicide mission?

AHEADSETS MAY HAVE BEEN THE ORIGINAL BREAKTHROUGH UP FRONT, but bike manufacturers have decided that even this design needs a little rejuvenation. Here we test two bikes, from differing ends of the mtb spectrum, which have approached the challenge of reinventing the Aheadset