This weekend the British Mountain Bike Demo Series heads to Margam Park giving you the chance to ride the very shiniest and newest bikes form Specialized, Trek, Giant, Santa Cruz, Genesis, Yeti and Merida.

To whet your appetite, we’ve rustled up a little preview of some of the bikes you’ll be able to swing a leg over, including the all-new Yeti ASR-5, the new Nickel, Butcher and all-carbon Nomad from Santa Cruz, and the latest models from UK brand Genesis.

The best thing about the demo rides is that they are completely free. Just rock up with some ID and you can borrow some of the tastiest bikes currently available, it’s really that easy. There’s even a special demo ride track to put the bikes through their paces.

Yeti

Yeti will have the all-new ASR-5 ready to ride. It’s available with either a full-carbon frame or aluminium/carbon mix and is built for XC riding and all-day epic romps. The frame is based around 120mm of travel via a single pivot and rocker linkage driven rear shock, and it’s light: just 2.2kg (4.8lb) if you opt for the carbon version.

“The front and rear suspension are perfectly tuned,” says Yeti. “We’ve engineered it to ride a bit stiffer in the mid- stroke of the travel. This gives it a similar feel as sport-tuned suspension on a performance car. You can feel the trail so the bike has a lively, aggressive feel on the trail. The low bottom bracket and neutral steering geometry keep the bike controlled and predictable when you bring it up to speed and it carves turns extremely well-due in part to the amazing stiffness of the frame.”

Bikemagic took the carbon version for a first ride earlier this year.

Santa Cruz

Jungle Products (the UK importer of Santa Cruz Bicycles) are pleased to announce that they will have the latest APP bike, Nickel and the Butcher, available to demo this weekend.

The Nickel and Butcher both use the all-new APP suspension platform which combines their proven single pivot location with the shock rate characteristics of their VPP suspension technology. By merging these two systems Santa Cruz has managed to create two new bikes that will tick all the boxes.

And if that isn’t enough the all-singing all-dancing Nomad Carbon has finally made its way to the UK. Jungle will have this latest carnation of the Nomad for demo at Margam which they say they’re “super excited about and I’m sure anyone that throws there leg over one will feel the same.”

Genesis

UK brand Genesis will be bringing its fleet of hardtails along, including the steel Altitude range and the Altitude Ti, bikes which have been designed for UK riding styles and conditions in mind. You can read what we thought of the Altitude Ti when we rode it recently.

Steering away from XC riding a little bit, the Alpitude is a long-forked hardtail designed around a 150mm fork that is built for big terrain, with a go-anywhere attitude. The Core si the company’s aluminium hardtail that is light, fast and accurate. Lastly but not forgetting the Abyss, a bike with a ‘lower and tougher frame with a slacker attitude that takes the proven Core design a step further’.

So what are you waiting for? Head over to www.britishxc.co.uk to find more details and directions to the event at Margam Park – the forecast is looking good presently.