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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

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...

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

Transition, Orbea, Forbidden

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.

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...

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.

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

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.

Nukeproof Spank/IXS Commencal

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...

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...

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.

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.

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...

Turner. Frameworks. Intense. But only the US made ones.

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.