The past year has proved again that the most expensive products are not necessarily the best, and that true performance can come from the most unexpected of places. At the same time new is not automatically better either – just simply different. Evolved designs, out of favour materials, and less expensive components have proved they can still deliver at a time of change.

The purpose of the Dirt 100 is simple. It’s a compilation of the best bikes and bits that are currently available irrespective of price, method of sale or country of origin. An eyebrow or two will be raised by some of this year’s inclusions but some of those have in fact been some of the easiest shoe-ins we’ve ever made.

It’s about small margins. For most of the past twelve months what makes it and what does not might just come down to a matter of millimetres. These can and do make a difference.

Our bikes this year are divided into downhill bikes and mountainbikes, the latter of which range from 111mm to 170mm with an equal mix of aluminium and carbon, proving it is naïve to make a generalisation that one material is better than the other or that travel is king. We even have a steel single pivot from Bristol built in a garden shed.

These then are the bikes and components that hold all the aces for 2017.

Photos: Laurence Crossman Emms.
Words: Steve Jones, Sean White, James Smurthwaite