Pick your 3 favorite MTB brands?

Those might be incongruent choices. The brands I would pick to run/stock a shop and the brands that I like or connect with most aren’t the same. Especially depending on location or target market.

Transition would be a company I like and would consider bringing into a shop.

Devinci and Knolly are companies I like, but would NOT bring into an American based shop outside of Washington and maybe the upper N.E.

Specialized is a company I’m not always high on, but depending on shop location, might be a reasonable main line to run.

Other contenders might be Yeti and Ibis?

Kona or Norco

Santa Cruz

Giant

Sorry in advanced for not directly answering the question: I second the idea that the answer is more specific to YOUR business' needs and not just what is cool to an internet forum. As a small or new shop my goal would be to choose a primary brand that is stable (hah, current times) and isn't going to compete against you (ie sell bikes online for less than your cost, or ship direct to your local client base). Primary brands also fill a store for less capital and sell to majority of your customer base regardless of brand name. "Cool" brand(s) sells to "cool guy" for more money but minimal bottom line increase (usually longer build times, higher cost w/ lower margins, potential longer floor time). Cool Brand does bring in core riders for service and upgrades all while building culture though. Building a relation ship with your customers and sales reps I think is more important than what it says on the downtube. Some brands operate different regionally so hard to pick for anyone. default choose Giant and pick another brand that you or a partner truly believes in that you can sell with enthusiasm.

Running a mtb focused shop:

Marin

Santa cruz

One location based brand: decent XC/adventure/marathon crowd then Allied, steep techy region then RAAW or Forbidden, QC then Devinci.

Personal favorite brand:

Santa Cruz

RAAW

Frameworks (both)

I just spent a summer looking for a frame with the following characteristics- durable, easy to service, well priced and UK or at least European company. I bought the cotic but came across some other cool companies.

Cotic- the company is seven dudes in Sheffield, amazingly helpful team making products well suited to local conditions. I got to test their bikes for size and chuck one on the car and take it for a test ride. Ended up buying one of their frames from eBay that needed some love. They hooked me up with a local paint shop and told me a nice new shock as part of a referb package. Super cool to get a personalised service and end up with exactly the bike I wanted. It's rocket max gen 4, weighs 17.5kg with my components and rides like a dream on the steep tech I built the bike for. Beau iful bike, planted, confidence inspiring and begs to be pushed at speed in the steeps. The frames tubes are forged in my local city (Reynolds tubes), welded up in Scotland and assembled by guys I've chatted with in Sheffield. This all really matters to me.

Privateer- I was very close to pulling the trigger on one of these. Got to try friends gen 1 161 and it was an absolute monster truck. Probably felt like a bit bit too much bike for the local spots that I'm riding during the week, but at the same time it's extremely confidence and inspiring. If budget was slightly more of a priority, the privateer would have been a definite- perhaps 141 though as they were doing full bikes UK £ 2500. They do durable well specked out bikes for good money. A lot to like about this company.

Bird- didn't get to test one of these but everything I've heard of the company gives me a lot to like. Another British company making metal bikes well suited for the UK slop. 

Deviate- these cars make carbon bikes and and are rather more boutique in the market than some of the other bikes I was looking at, but from what I can see everything they're doing places a premium on maintainability which I love. They have greece ports which I didn't see on other manufacturers.

Also see- starling, raaw (German), Stanton. Can't not mention Atherton, holy shit what a cool company! If money were no object... Probably loads more too. Basically, with local companies like these why would I ever need to go to bike megacorp? They make fantastic product.

Excuse typos, voice typing due to injury 

Banshee

transition 

santa cruz

Hello, here's my take:

I'd do Polygon, as a value brand that offers a lot of bike for comparable little money.
Then I find Norco interesting and on the rise and a brand that covers a lot of bases. I wouldn't have considered Norco 10 years ago, but their bikes intrigue me now, especially in the last couple of years.
The third brand is Orbea, a brand with excellent bikes and with a rising image in the entire world, now with the added visibility of World Cup downhill. Bikes are excellent, people who own them love them, and their customization program looks amazing.

I'd normally think of a value brand, a brand that covers all bases and a high end one, but I think Norco and Orbea cover the high end of the spectrum pretty well.

Another brand I'd like to slide in there is Rocky Mountain, as something of excellent quality and somewhat underrated, but not in the bright lights of some other brands. I am biased here, as an owner of now five Rocky's (will be 3 in the future, I promise), but the truth is I wouldn't have them if the first one was anything else but awesome. I feel that Rocky is a brand that you learn to love and their attention to detail is very good. It doesn't have the bells and whistles of, say, Santa Cruz, but the quality of the product and the ride quality are definitely there. Rocky feels like a bit of a sleeper to me. Please take into consideration that this is my perception as a European, maybe with the emphasis on Eastern European, and this very likely doesn't apply to the US and definitely not to British Columbia, where Rocky's are as common as Chevy's in Michigan in the 80's.

Cheers,
Mx

Commencal - History, development, race pedigree 

Transition - Relaxed coolness, rad models

Amflow - Next Gen tech, awesome value, seriously capable bikes

Santa Cruz - quality, Warranty, free bearings for "life". My Hightower v3 is probably hands down the best quality made bike ive ever owned. 

Transition - Warranty, customer service is like no other. super fun and playful bikes.

Norco - Canadian brand, I am biased. grew up riding norcos. 

Forbidden for mountain bikes...

Landyachtz for Gravel / Adventure riding..

..and Giant for roadbikes.

Hmm I think I'd have to go. with;

Orbea

Merida for the workhorse & price point bikes.

The 3rd brand is tricky?
I think it would come down to either Marin or Norco?

If I were to hypothetically own a shop, would definately want to go down the bosch route for ebikes and then not having shithousery for the rest of the bike (looking at you Scott, Giant).

Santa Cruz - Built well, excellent customer service

Whyte - Built well, excellent customer service, cheaper than a santacruz

Third option? Tricky one, want something to bring the money in, states mtb brands, but would be putting a good road brand in there if there wasn't a shop locally. Bigger catchment so less reliant on one group of customers.

Forbidden for sure, there's a reason they have a cult following. Also they have great customer service

Transition is just great to deal with and their bikes are solid. I'd probably ride them if I wasn't such a forbidden fanboy. 

Ibis/Pivot seems to end up having loyal followers who love to buy bilgy high margin bikes. They also are great bikes for the folks who like to mountain bike, but maybe are doing something else with their life besides looking at Vital and arguing the nature of crab links. 

Transition  -  big fan of bikes and company.  

Trek - my preference of the big 3.

Probably just carry limited numbers of USA made frames beyond that.  Basically cool stuff for bike enthusiasts to look at while they wait for the service counter.

Would have very few floor models.  Just a bit of whatever is new and some sizes for fitting purposes.  Most the shop space would be geared towards parts, accessories, and clothes.  Loads of shoes in diffirent colors and sizes.  Same with pads and helmets.  Wall of grips, seats, handlebars, etc.  store credit trade ins where we will sell your lightly used gear and offer you store credit towards new stuff.  

Focus on service and having a “candy store” where it’s hard to walk in and not buy something.  Whether it’s $20 of goods off the clearance rack or someone fully dialing out a couple teens every year.  I’m always surprised how many times I’ve walked into a bike shop to check it out and walked around and never wanted to buy something.  Or the one thing that caught my eye was not in size or way out the budget.  

NS Bikes , just love their dirt jumpers and steel frame bikes. 
Marin , great value for the price but the seem to be looked down on. 
The last would be between YT and Canyon , a few others I really like too but too many to choose from. 

I'm confused are people suggesting Polygon and Commencal for a 3rd party that wants to open a store? Is this pure hypothetical or maybe for a rental fleet lol

In an ideal world, for a well-rounded shop, you would want a value brand, a popular mid range brand, and then a high end brand.

Any mix n match of that will honestly do well, the only complication that can arise are weird situations where the popular mid range brand wants to like... 'buy out' your store and have you sell only their bikes. We all know who I'm talking about. Not sure if that's still being done post-covid. Probably/hopefully not.

So for high end, I would probably go with Santa Cruz. For popular mid-range, it's tough because I'd love to go Specialized if I knew they weren't going to play games with my shop... If I feared they would do so, I may go for something like Transition. And for value I'd almost certainly go Norco. Utilizing their Fluid FS and Charger hardtail to get budget buyers in the store and away from D2C brands.

And again, you can mix n match various brands to build the same load out for your store, serving all 'tiers' of customers. Maybe Pivot or Yeti instead of Santa Cruz. Maybe Trek or Specialized instead of Transition. Maybe Marin or Giant instead of Norco, etc. Though I have various reasons I personally wouldn't go for any of those brands.

is this a tax shelter thing? 

Opening a MTB shop in 2025 is bananas!

To play along I’ll say Guardian, Guardian, and Guardian. Corrupt billionaires aka billionaires are into it! 

I like transition bikes... but there are more quality issues then I am tolerant of and I would be concerned about selling them online.  

If I were opening a shop:

-I would want a high end, low return/warranty rate brand.  That answer is easy, Santacruz... One could make an argument that Specialized may be a smarter choice in this segment as they cover a wider range... that being said, becoming a specialized dealer has it's own set of challenges and potential pit falls.  

-I'd want a cost effective option for customers... while I don't love giant's business practices... they offer a great value proposition for consumers.  If I weren't in love with Giant (and I'm not really), then I could make an argument for Orbea as they have some good price/performance bikes in aluminum.  Warranty support with orbea can be challenging, and dealing with them as an IBD can be a mediocre experience from what I gather. 

-Lastly I'd consider a niche brand that would pull people in the door.  The choice I'd make in this position would based on if I wanted this brands position in the shop to cover a brand with a mid range and upper range that people aspire to, or if the idea was a brand to just pull people into the shop with dream bikes.  If you're looking for a mid range with room to grow, then ibis.  If you're looking for niche and cult following with build quality and luxury prices, then pivot.  If you want aspirational, dream bike vibes, then yeti.  

As far as my own favorite brands, that's pretty easy: Santacruz, Transition, Raaw, Frameworks, Kona.

Shop: Specialized, Santa Cruz, Norco

Personal: Production Privee, Zerode, Forbidden

Actual brands I currently own: Cotic, Transition, Surly, Esker, Giant

Transition, Frameworks & Pivot

Santa Cruz for sure.  I own 3 of their bikes and previously had one.  Nothing but good things to say about their quality and customer service.  They'd be the premium brand for a shop.  Downside is their lower end build kits are pretty meh value.

I'd take Transition for value brand.  They have solid working man's bikes, a bit less refined, but still excellent customer service.  Their build kits across the board are pretty good value.

Not sure who I'd say for a 3rd.  Definitely not Specialized - I don't like how they push around shops and some other things they've done.  Not any of the weirdo DW brands that insist on Super Boost (Evil, Pivot).  Probably something that offered something very different than either SC or Transition from a design standpoint, like Forbidden.  I've never owned one but am very curious about them.

These are for NZ market.
Probably trek #1 - usually warranty is just approved - or upgraded to a new model without all the fluff.

Hard to fault anything Advance traders bring in, Merida, Marin and Norco - they are really helpful.

Hard to fault santa cruz, those frames are Such good quality.

Scott here is pretty good especially with warranty but a shame about headset routing and no way to change - Id own a genius and ransom if they removed it for normal headsets(i've ridden the ransom and its damn good)
Some brands are known for good support in most markets but let down by 3rd party distro's in NZ.

Side note, Wouldnt own again: 
commencal(quality is sh1t and their lack of recalls for dangerous models) - 
transition, massively overpriced here for half-ass quality.
Pivot, fit and finish are exceptional but Weird Quality failures and the hassle of warranty here.
Giant - Arguably the worst experiences i've ever had and its not even the bikes/quality but Giant NZ are just complete A-holes, never support them even if the best bike on the market.
Rocky mountain(ruined by importer/distro) Had to contact Rocky canada to get issue sorted which NZ distro still said no after canada said it was a known issue(lmao)

Odd one out, Canyon - well priced bikes let down by dumb things, such as is52 headset on their torque/spectral - huge potential to be a great bike.
The alloy torque was fking awful, 5 frames before being swapped for a carbon but then had headset issues.(alignment)
Alloy and carbon spectral issues with Getting shock hardware to last more than 2 rides.
However, they have the best warranty despite having to deal with Canyon Australia puts local brands to shame.

 

Santa Cruz

GT

Intense

Transition - higher end, rider-owned, lifetime warranty, stellar customer service. 

AirDrop - all mentioned about Transition (warranty is shorter but crash replacement is intact and proven) but at a lower scale and price

Polygon - budget builds, sensitive spec

Also, I wouldn’t expect any serious deviations from these companies in terms of brand/image/appeal. Transition has been long enough, didn’t sell to PE, value their history and roots. Airdrop hasn’t been around for that long but they seem to run lean business and have no intend for unnecessary growth. Polygon probably have the most experience in frame manufacturing and have always been on point with their own offerings in the last few years.

For the folks with more money Transition have full portfolio: bikes, ebikes, kids bikes, components (ANVL). 

For the true/core MTB fans (and tighter budget) Airdrop comes in.

For all the rest you have Polygon.

Alternatives:

Santa Cruz, Banshee, Radon (the best kept secret from Germany)

Good: Santa Cruz, Specialized, Merida.

Bad: Commencal, Giant, Norco.

Norco might be a little controversial but I'm currently trying to build a gen3 Optic after my gen2's shock mounts fell apart, and it's a terrible experience. Most of the bolts are overtightened to hell with the tool interfaces having burrs and distortion as the material has yielded, i've had to chase multiple threads with taps because they're cut like shit and putting aluminium shavings all through the bike, there are multiple flaws in the paint, the rear triangle is crooked enough that it was actually difficult to reassemble. I hope it rides well because quality-wise it's kinda a pile of shit.

Ohh I see, people are only reading the title and not the post itself. 

The person also hasn't replied once so... Not sure what they're doing with this information lol

But if they are looking to start a shop and people are recommending Polygon, Canyon, Commencal, and even YT... They may be in for a nasty shock lol

also somebody just recommended GT 😂🤣 cmon guys no need to troll

Polygon is not a purely D2C or own-shops-only company, if that’s why you put it on the list of bad choices. At least here in Germany they are represented by independent shops and, as much as outsider can guess, their bikes are selling well. Happy to stand corrected if I’m wrong.

Dude, Polygon is not a direct to consumer brand, they have good prices because they are MAKERS of bikes, just like Giant or Merida.
Polygon is being carried here in our shops and it is a normal relationship like with any other, with preorders bla-bla-bla.

Of course it is stupid to suggest direct to consumer brands to a freaking bikeshop, whereas said brands are its worst enemies, but Polygon is not on that list.

So let's get our stuff dialed, before jumping to conclusions!
Mx

Santa Cruz

Norco

Giant