It's been a quiet time for the postie who's not been knocking at the doors of off-road HQ this Christmas. Nevertheless, we still have a new gravel bike in from Scott, some women's Castelli kit to ride it in and some brand new ION winter gear too. 

The Marin Hawk Hill 3 is a 120mm full susser that can hold its own with the big bikes, is well specced and comes in at a very reasonable price too. It’s hard to fault this versatile bike, whilst not ground breaking in terms of design or geometry it does its job of being a fun and capable trail bike very well indeed.

Now in its second year of production, Identiti have dropped the price of its enduro bike, the Mettle by £600  on the base model bike. There are also savings to be made across the three bike range, plus specification upgrades hung on the same progressive frame. 

Welcome to the very first off-road.cc mountain and gravel bike awards! We've tested a huge number of bikes over the course of the past year and as 2018 draws to a close, we've picked out our favourites from the world of gravel and mountain biking with three very different awards for each discipline - Benchmark Bike, Best Buy and Bargain Buy. We then crowned a drop bar and a flat bar bike with an 'off-road.cc Mountain Bike of the Year' award and a 'off-road.cc Gravel Mountain Bike of the Year' award, lastly the best bike received our 'Bike of the Year' accolade.

Our winner of the 2018 off-road.cc Bargain Bike is the Calibre Two Cubed, a trail hardtail that is small on price and big on fun. It isn't just the cheapest mountain bike here - that doesn't necessarily make something a bargain - but the Calibre Two Cubed is a great value hardtail with fine handling thrown in too. This is the first of three mountain bike awards in the off-road.cc lineup alongside Benchmark Bike and Best Buy to be revealed over the next few days.

The Mondraker Foxy Carbon RR SL is the winner of our 2018 off-road.cc Benchmark Bike award. It's a sublimely fast and capable trail bike that builds on its predecessor's superbly balanced geometry with more refined construction and suspension. If you have been following the off-road.cc awards you'll know this is the second of three mountain bike awards in the lineup alongside Bargain Buy and Best Buy.

Our 2018 off-road.cc Best Buy mountain bike is Boardman's new MTR 8.9. It's not just a good bike for the money; it's a bike that's more than capable of shaming machines double or triple the price. That's the main reason we are advocating this as the Best Buy out there. If you have been following the off-road.cc awards you'll know this is the third award in the lineup alongside Bargain Buy and Benchmark Bike.

Winner of the 2018 off-road.cc Benchmark Gravel Bike is the Lauf True Grit Race Edition, a lightweight speed machine with excellent off-road handling. It's a dedicated and entriely focused gravel racer with a unique fork. If you have been following the off-road.cc Best Bike awards you'll know this is the second of three gravel bike awards in the lineup alongside Bargain Buy and Best Buy.