Best Bike Under £4500 – Singletrack Reader Awards 2018 Finalists

The Mag

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The Finalists

  • Bird Aeris AM9
  • Canyon Spectral CF 8.0
  • Cotic Solaris MAX XT Cane Creek Helm

Voting instructions are at the end of this article. Read on to learn more about each finalist.

If you’re shopping for a bike at this price point then you have our condolences it’s not an easy job trying to choose just one bike from the 100’s of stellar options on sale today. You are both spoiled for choice and cursed with the longest most difficult cycling decision of your life. With that said, here are 3 bikes which Singletrack readers have nominated for awards which might make things easier.

Bird Aeris AM9

  • Price: £2790
  • From: Bird
bird aeris am9
UK designed, long, low, slack 29er. Will it win?

After rave reviews, and what seems like a million happy customers, Bird Cycleworks finally released a 29er late last year and it sounds like you all love this too! The AM9 is based on the popular Aeris series of full suspension bikes, but tweaked here and there to accept bigger wheels. The Aeris AM9 has 150mm of travel front and rear and even has on trend long, low and slack geometry. Even with a mix of SRAM X01/XX1 the Aeris AM9 still comes in at less than £3000, a bargain for a UK designed full-susser.

Canyon Spectral CF 8.0 

Canyon Spectral 8.0
Stealth!

The Canyon Spectral range covers a broad range of prices, but it’s the £2699 Canyon Spectral CF 8.0 that has received a large number of reader votes, and why not it got our vote when we reviewed it earlier in the year too. The CF 8.0 gets a lightweight carbon front triangle attached to an alloy rear end, 140mm of RockShock sprung travel and a 1×12 SRAM GX Eagle, that would be a decent specification on a bike double the price! Not only is it a great spec it’s a stunning bike to ride! Climbs like an E-bike and pops like a can of Iron Bru. Two thumbs up!

Cotic Solaris MAX XT Cane Creek Helm

  • Price: £2314
  • From: Cotic
This hardcore steel hardtail has stiff competition!

The word is out! Steel is real and nothing is more real than a hardcore hardtail! The Solaris MAX is Cotic’s big wheel flagship hardtail designed to run 29in wheels or chubby 27.5+ wheels (if you’re that way inclined). New for 2018 is the introduction of radical Longshot geometry, so an already long, low and slack bike gets longer! Wil recently tested the Solaris Max and he thinks it’s one of the fastest hardtails on the market, but is it good enough to take the 2018 Readers Awards?

So which bike will win in this “Battle of the Buy Direct Brands” ? Cast your vote now!

How to vote

The voting page opens at midnight Saturday 15th September. Come back after then to..

Cast your vote by clicking this link

Click here to see all our other categories and finalists

Andi is a gadget guru and mountain biker who has lived and ridden bikes in China and Spain before settling down in the Peak District to become Singletrack's social media expert. He is definitely more big travel fun than XC sufferer but his bike collection does include some rare hardtails - He's a collector and curator as well as a rider. Theory and practice in perfect balance with his inner chi, or something. As well as living life based on what he last read in a fortune cookie Andi likes nothing better than riding big travel bikes.

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