Bike Perfect's mission is to provide the best bike buying advice on the web to help you get more from your riding, whatever your level of fitness and skill. Our editorial team comprises award-winning writers and journalists based all over the world who specialize in bike testing, buying advice and product reviews. While the majority of our content centers around mountain biking, we also cover gravel cycling and bikepacking.
Our team is actively involved in their local cycling communities - and can be found out and about on local trails, mountain roads and gravel expanses enjoying the meditative experience that comes with riding a bike. No matter what you're looking for - be it a new bike, helmet, clothing or accessories - you can rest assured that the advice we provide will help make your purchasing decision an easy and trouble-free experience.
Meet our editorial team
Daniel Benson, Editor-in-chief
Daniel Benson is the Editor-in-Chief for both Cyclingnews and Bike Perfect. Based in Oxfordshire, he has covered the Tour de France 13 times and also reported from the 2012 Olympic Games in London. His career as a journalist has taken him to the Tour Down Under in Australia, major world championships, and races in every continent since he began on Cyclingnews all the way back in 2008. Daniel runs the editorial teams across Cyclingnews and Bike Perfect and plans race coverage across road, track, cyclo-cross, mountain biking, and now gravel. A recreational cyclist at best he has dragged himself through several marathons and two Ironman competitions.
Aaron Borrill, Tech editor aaron.borrill@futurenet.com
Aaron is Bike Perfect's Tech editor. As the former gear editor of Bicycling magazine and associate editor of TopCar magazine, he has tons of experience writing about bikes or anything with wheels for that matter. He's tested thousands of cars and bicycles, all over the world. A competitive racer and Stravaholic, he’s twice ridden the Cape Epic, raced nearly every MTB stage race in South Africa and completed the Haute Route Alps. Recently, he has also taken up Zwift racing and competes at the highest level of eRacing, the ZRL Premier Division. When not riding, racing or testing bicycles in and around the UK's Surrey Hills where he now lives, he's writing about them for Cyclingnews and Bike Perfect.
Graham Cottingham, Senior reviews writer
Graham is all about riding bikes off-road. Based in Edinburgh he has some of the best mountain biking and gravel riding in the UK right on his doorstep. With almost 20 years of riding experience, he has dabbled in downhill, enduro and, most recently, gravel racing. Not afraid of a challenge, Graham has embraced bikepacking over the last few years and likes nothing more than strapping some bags to his bike and covering big miles to explore Scotlands wildernesses. When he isn’t shredding the gnar in the Tweed Valley, sleeping in bushes or tinkering with bikes, he is writing tech reviews for Bike Perfect and the muckier side of Cyclingnews
Mildred Locke, Reviews writer
Mildred is a Reviews Writer for Bike Perfect and Cyclingnews. She enjoys everything from road cycling to mountain biking but is a utilitarian cyclist at heart. She’s spent over four years volunteering as a mechanic and workshop coordinator at the Bristol Bike Project, and now sits on its board of directors. Her expertise comes from previously working in a bike shop and learning the ins and outs of the industry, and she's previously written for a variety of cycling publications, including Bikeradar, Cycling Plus, Singletrack, Red Bull, Cycling UK and Total Women's Cycling.
Ryan Simonovich, Contributing reviews writer
US-based writer Ryan Simonovich has been riding and racing for nearly a decade. He got his start as a cross-country mountain bike racer in California, where he cultivated his love for riding all types of bikes. Ryan eventually gravitated toward enduro and downhill racing but has also been found in the occasional road and cyclo-cross events. Today, he regularly rides the trails of Durango, Colorado, and is aiming to make a career out of chronicling the sport of cycling.
Guy Kesteven, Contributing tech editor
Guy Kesteven is Bike Perfect and Cyclingnews’ contributing tech editor. Hatched in Yorkshire he's been hardened by riding round it in all weathers since he was a kid. He got an archaeology degree out of Exeter University, spent a few years digging about in medieval cattle markets, working in bike shops and warehouses before starting writing and testing for bike mags in 1996. Since then he’s written several million words about several thousand test bikes and a ridiculous amount of riding gear. To make sure he rarely sleeps and to fund his custom tandem habit he’s also coughed out a handful of bike-related books and talks to a GoPro for YouTube, too. We trust Guy's opinion and think you should, too.
Lance Branquinho, Contributing writer
Lance is a Namibian-born media professional who graduated to mountain biking after injuries curtailed his fascination with trail running. An award-winning tech and motoring writer, Lance's understanding of dynamics, drivetrains, and anything with wheels has made him an asset to Bike Perfect's contributor panel. He does have a weakness though - British steel hardtails, especially those which only run a single gear
Josh Ross, Contributing writer
Josh Ross is our American tech writer. Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest of the United States he lives cycling and the culture that accompanies it. Josh is most happy when talking about the finer details of how bicycle parts and components work, and enjoys putting his thoughts to words for Bike Perfect. He is a road cyclist at heart but can often be found taking the gravel road less travelled. Although he rarely races these days, he still enjoys a good Zwift session and race but will always choose the real world over pixels when given the choice.
Rob Spedding, Content director
Rob serves as Content Director at Future Publishing, a portfolio that spans Bike Perfect, Cyclingnews, Cycling Weekly and MBR. His first proper road bikes were a Raleigh Sprint in the early 1980s and then a Trek 1000 in 1999. Rob spent 12 years as editor of Cycling Plus magazine after which he took on the role of Content Director at Bikeradar.
Editorial and advertising enquiries
Editorial: bikeperfect@futurenet.com
Advertising: richard.hemmings@futurenet.com
Our PR, reviews and ethics policy
We take pride that our reviews are independent and free from commercial considerations. We never take money for reviews. Nothing that has a star rating has been paid for.
Separate from our editorial content and process, we do run advertorial feature content that is clearly marked and tagged as ‘sponsored’.
We sometimes take trips and hospitality to attend shows and see products. We always mention this within our coverage. It doesn’t affect how we think about products but does affect whether we cover certain products (as in we may not have been able to get to see a certain product had the company not taken us to see it).
Almost all our review products are sent to us by the companies involved and almost always as a result of our request. We only review the products we think are worth reviewing. We always return products on request or at the end of our agreed loan period.
We score products on a scale from 1 to 5 stars. Three stars is a good to very good product, four stars is an excellent product. Five stars are never awarded lightly and are a mark of exceptional quality.
We often include shopping links in articles to enable readers to buy the products we write about – these prices are automatically populated from a selection of retailer pricing. Our parent company, Future Publishing, gets paid a small percentage of the purchase price if someone clicks through and buys a product as a result of using these links. That price, known as an affiliate fee, is not added to your purchase price so the price you pay is the same whether you click to visit the retailer from Bike Perfect.com or you go to the retailer's site direct.