Pick your 3 favorite MTB brands?

Santa Cruz

Canyon

Scott

Personal opinion, but let the brands that are doing DtC do that, even as they pursue dealers. This isn’t out of malice, but rather what their core operating values have been perceived as- quality, support, etc. The brands above I’ve had great interactions with. They have an awesome brand image. Most of all though, they are making some awesome bikes that can be ridden by a wide variety of user. They have great “depth” in their range, while not important to all people, this is pending your location and what the aspirations of the business are.  

I’ve owned 10 SC’s in my life, and will continue to buy them. They have always had my back with good customer support, replying quickly when reaching out directly. They support their dealers. They have taken care of me so much better than any MTB industry brand and any other consumer brand. SC has overnighted me parts to make sure i’m set for a trip. All at no expense. They made a life time customer out of me. 

Turner.
Frameworks.
Intense.

But only the US made ones. 

Rocky Mountain, Their bikes are top quality since they focused on only mtb and fun to ride. They charge when your riding hard trying to keep on someone's wheel that's faster than you and if you're just having a chill day, maybe riding with friends that aren't point end, they stay super playful. I think people shut in them for pricing, but they also double down on their builds on name brand stuff, proper tires, better suspension and even pre-installed tire inserts. The A70 models offer a full fox factory/race face/Shimano XT build with an alloy frame for 7k cad so people who can't afford 12k bikes can still get the goods out of the box. 

Santa Cruz, They're nice to work on well thought out and they work top quality stuff. Some of the best working suspension in the game and fun to ride. 

Transition, the bikes are great, again, like the other two, they just do it right. Great carbon and alloy offerings and the vibe is right. Even if their bikes didn't ride and look as good as they did, their company vibe and warranty make them a winner. Also the take out at the transition outpost... Blew my mind. 

Transition, Orbea, Forbidden 

Who are the big 3? Giant, Trek, Merida?

My brand loyalty used to be GT and Santa Cruz, but that was when every brand all had the same-ish sized bikes. Now that there is a proper size for taller riders that is more of a determining factor. Santa Cruz makes long enough bikes, but with a lot of other choices now, I cannot justify the cost.

Haven’t made in USA since 2015 lmao 

If I was starting a shop, I would bring in Ibis, Kona, and Banshee. Ibis makes a great bike for almost every rider, and at great price points so they would be my main brand for flooring bikes, honestly I just like Kona, and they offer something different from Ibis, and have a great line of bikes outside of MTB. Banshee is just rad, and would a great buy for people who want to curate their own build. I would also bring in Cervelo, to get the roadies and gravel people happy. 

Polygon seems like a DTC brand in the US because they exclusively sell through bikes online here, kind of like how Ghost was only distributed through REI which made them seem like a cheaper department store kind of brand. Only being sold through an online store is functionally the same thing as DTC, even though they're not. If they open up their distribution to more shops Polygon would probably grow as a brand in the US, but untill then the only people who are going to ride them in the US are the people who bought a bottom of the barrel sisku t5 to commute in comfort on. 

Nukeproof

Spank/IXS

Commencal

The big 3 is generally a term for the USA market and after Pon purchase is mostly referred as the big four with Trek, Giant, Specialized and Pon Cycling (Cannondale,GT,Santa Cruz, Cervelo, Gazelle, Focus, Urban Arrow, BBB, Nimbl, Schwinn, Mongoose, OneUp, Caloi, Kalkhoff, Veloretti)

Merida would mostly be referred as the big 3 in terms of actual frame manufacturers with the likes of Giant, Kenstone, VIP composite and other Taiwanese/Chinese/Vietnamese companies.

Every person I’ve seen own a banshee has broken the frame or ita hardware.  I’d put them in some of the lowest quality bikes out right now. 

Specialized/ trek.  They sell everything possible and all of it is great quality.   

Santa Cruz (highest quality frames out right now)

Forbidden for the boutique brand that offer high pivot  

I’ve got a horrible track record. Kona Operator, GT Fury and YT Tues. Hopefully I never kill the Fury, I truly like that one. 

Challenging times — being a bike shop in 2025 isn’t easy.

My dream shop would be right next to a trailhead, where I could actually demo bikes — not just look at them. Ideally, there’d be a mix of boutique and practical options: something exotic like a gearbox bike, Frameworks, Esker or whatever’s trending, along with solid value brands like Transition, and a good range of sizes and models. Maybe some kind of cheaper n+1 bike from Surly, Salsa, Pk ripper..
It should feel like a destination — a place where you can hang out, check out cool gear, and get inspired — not just another cookie-cutter showroom.
At the other side of the spectrum, you really can’t go wrong with Specialized; they cover almost every need. But I’m not sure how much flexibility you’d have as a dealer.
Honestly, I wouldn’t expect to make serious profit selling bikes (other than to beginners or people with deep pockets). Most core riders already buy online. But if you offered affordable parts, good service, and a few aspirational bikes or components to drool over, I’d happily stop by to grab gels, tubes, or whatever else I need. Especially if the shop has some culture — supports local racers, hosts events, or just feels connected to the scene.

If you were opening up a bike shop or online store.

Picked these three because they offer a wide range of high quality bikes that appeal to all types of consumers. 

-Orbea

-Ibis

-Trek

Actual Favs:

Picked these because they consistently make bikes that absolutely slap.

-Commencal

-Forbidden

-Nukeproof

I think this depends a lot on your specific region and the market you plan to cater to, for a few reasons:

1. Who are you competing against? What do they offer? What can you do better or differently? What will make a customer choose your shop over the other options?

2. Are you trying to cover all the bases, from kids’ bikes to adults’, road, gravel, and mountain, entry-level to high-end? If so, it makes sense to get at least one brand that covers most of these, such as Giant, Trek, Specialized, Norco, etc. If you’re able to focus on a niche, such as gravity riding, gravel, bike packing, or something else, then you can be more selective in choosing a brand that caters to that niche (eg. Banshee for gravity, Surly for bike packing, etc.)

3. What are brand reps like to deal with in your area? What are their policies and requirements for minimum volumes, warranties, spares availability, etc? The product might be good, but if they have minimum volume requirements that you can’t meet, they want you to stock exclusively their brand of accessories, or they are difficult to communicate with, then it might not be viable in the long term or at all.

Also consider which brands you enjoy working on, if you plan to offer servicing.

I run a small shop in Zimbabwe. We get 99% of our stock through South Africa, as that is where the continental distributors are based, and our volumes are too small to deal directly with brands. Because there aren’t any other shops here offering a good selection of bikes and parts, we try to cater to all needs, as much as we can. We have been working to get access to Giant. Their range would cover about 90% of our needs, and we could get a huge chunk of our spares and accessories from them too, such as lights, helmets, tubes, some tyres, pumps, CO2 canisters, cables and housing, brake pads, pedals, tools, etc. However, after nearly a year of back-and-forth with them we have only just received our first small order, and it was problematic. Giant is probably the best-known bike brand here, and even if we are not selling them we are servicing lots, so it makes sense to get access to their parts. So, we will keep trying to work with them, but if we find that another brand like Trek is easier to work with then I will happily switch for that reason. Specialized has minimum volume and exclusive brand requirements that we could never meet.

As we do servicing, I will not consider stocking Scott. There is a dealer here who has been selling them for years, and so we get lots coming through our workshop. Maybe they are nice to ride – I have never tried them on the trails – but I hate working on them and can’t in good conscience recommend them to customers. Santa Cruz, on the other hand, are a pleasure to work on. We have access to them and have sold a couple, but there is a local rider who brings them in from his mate’s shop in Europe and doesn’t pay duties or put a viable markup on them, and we can’t compete with that on pricing.

Our market situation is unique in many ways, but wherever you are you will have your own unique market, whether it’s on a national or neighbourhood level.

As for what brands I ride and would choose again for my personal bikes, they are Starling, Cotic, and Mercer (steel frames handmade by a friend in Cape Town) as a start, but there are plenty more I would also consider.

I think there is a big difference between my three favourite bike brands and three bike brands I would sell in my (hypothetical) shop. 

If I could have a crazy, boutique, high end shop that only catered to custom builds and it didn't matter whether or not I was making money, I'd sell RAAW, Frameworks and Atherton. I'd be niche, but it'd be cool. 

Edit

Do mtb shops like this exist? I know roadies have super boutique shops (there is one about 3 minutes from my house that regularly sells $15-20k+ Colnago complete bikes, but mainly focuses on custom, high end builds that I'm sure are consistently $15-25k)

my favorite brands are:

1 Ancillotti; 2 Evil; 3 Santa Cruz

For Ancillotti i just love Tomaso’s bikes. Evil I like their bikes too. Santa fascinate me for the polish but aggressive product design. Out of big brands I never used Giant, so I cannot speak, and I like Specialized for their product effectiveness and simplicity, Cube for their prices.

We might be a little biased but we think SR Suntour is our favorite brand!

Hard to choose a 2nd and 3rd.  

Yeti, Forbidden, Banshee