We’ve been fans of the Saracen Mantra for a while and we rode this new 2016 version until its wheels fell off.
Okay, we're not being totally accurate there – it wasn’t the wheel that fell off. Instead, it was the bolted rear dropout, which we should have checked for tightness before tackling our toughest local trails. That’s not going to be an issue if you buy the bike yourself though, because any shop worth its salt will check all the fixtures before firing you onto the trails.
Related: Best mountain bikes under £750
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It does highlight the fact that this is an extremely upgradeable frame (as well as being naturally playful, accurate and authoritative, but we'll get to that in a moment), with retrofit 142x12mm thru-axle dropouts an unheard of option at this price. The real beauty of the Mantra, though, is that price never comes into the equation when you’re actually riding it.
An appetite for hard riding
The 68-degree head angle is standard issue for 27.5in wheeled hardtails in this category, and the 720mm bar is adequate rather than amazing in terms of power steering leverage. But somehow the sloped-top tube Saracen always goaded us into going a lot harder into sections than when riding other similarly specced bikes.
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