Seven years of TREAD Media’s South African Mountain Biking Survey data reveal some dramatic shifts in the brands South African mountain bikers choose to ride. In the first of a series of our survey analysis articles, we examine the movement among mountain bike brands.
By Sean Badenhorst
There is something particularly useful about looking at a bike-brand popularity table once every year. It tells us who is winning right now.
But look at the same question over seven years and the story becomes much more interesting. Suddenly, the brands at the top aren’t necessarily the most interesting ones. The real stories are the brands that have gained ground, lost ground or somehow managed to hold their position while the market around them changed.
That is what the South African Mountain Biking Survey, presented by Garmin, allows us to do. The survey began in 2019 as the South African MTB Race Survey. Following the disruption caused by Covid-19 and the cancelation and postponement of most events, it became the broader South African Mountain Biking Survey from 2020.
The latest survey, conducted in December 2025, attracted 2 504 respondents. And when we put the 2025 results alongside the previous six years, there are some very clear winners and losers.
Before we get into them, though, this isn’t a sales-market-share analysis. The figures represent the percentage of survey respondents who identified a particular brand as their primary bike brand. The sample and survey methodology have evolved, and 2020 and 2021 were obviously unusual years for cycling. So the numbers shouldn’t be treated as audited industry sales data.
But as an indication of brand preference among South African mountain bikers, the trends are fascinating. You can link to the 2025 survey reveal here. Below is the mountain bike brands table since 2019:
This table is best viewed on a laptop or desktop computer. On a mobile phone, turn to landscape for best viewing.
What brand of bicycle do you ride/race currently (if you have more than one, mark your primary bike brand)?
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Specialized | 22.36% | 20.35% | 20.41% | 20.83% | 21.85% | 19.53% | 21.15% |
| SCOTT | 14.50% | 14.59% | 14.93% | 16.20% | 15.35% | 15.14% | 19.80% |
| TREK | 10.28% | 12.33% | 12.13% | 10.04% | 8.01% | 6.40% | 3.06% |
| Giant | 7.23% | 6.68% | 6.90% | 7.03% | 8.89% | 9.49% | 8.91% |
| Titan | 6.14% | 5.80% | 5.23% | 3.72% | 3.22% | 3.64% | 0.99% |
| Cannondale | 5.60% | 6.54% | 6.94% | 6.46% | 7.22% | 6.47% | 7.02% |
| Santa Cruz | 4.38% | 3.47% | 4.02% | 3.11% | 3.41% | 3.15% | 2.97% |
| Pyga | 4.13% | 3.10% | 3.30% | 4.43% | 3.64% | 2.40% | 4.14% |
| Merida | 3.97% | 4.14% | 3.85% | 5.68% | 5.87% | 6.60% | 6.57% |
| Silverback | 3.63% | 4.36% | 3.93% | 5.00% | 5.35% | 8.32% | 5.94% |
| Orbea | 3.13% | 2.84% | 1.80% | 0.84% | – | – | – |
| Momsen | 1.88% | 2.07% | 2.72% | 3.01% | 3.12% | 3.48% | 3.78% |
| Norco | 0.87% | 0.81% | 1.38% | 1.42% | 1.21% | 1.17% | 1.17% |
| GT | 0.66% | 0.70% | 0.59% | 0.78% | 1.08% | 1.59% | 1.53% |
| Yeti | 0.66% | 0.74% | 0.92% | 0.84% | 0.79% | 1.04% | 1.08% |
| Bianchi | 0.58% | 0.37% | 0.50% | 0.74% | 0.75% | 0.49% | 0.72% |
| Canyon | 0.50% | 0.85% | 0.33% | 0.67% | 0.39% | 0.49% | 0.54% |
| Cube | 0.41% | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Liv | 0.41% | 1.14% | 0.96% | 0.67% | 0.39% | – | – |
| KTM | 0.41% | 0.70% | 0.92% | 0.67% | 0.98% | 1.04% | 1.26% |
| Other | 6.47% | 7.53% | 7.65% | 6.83% | 6.21% | 7.03% | 6.04% |
| Other | 7.53% | 7.65% | 6.83% | 6.21% | 7.03% | 6.04% |
THE BIGGEST WINNER: TREK
If there is one brand whose trajectory jumps off the page, it is TREK. In 2019, just 3.06% of respondents identified TREK as their primary bike brand. By 2025, that had risen to 10.28%. That’s more than a threefold increase.
The growth hasn’t been a one-year spike either. TREK’s share climbed from 3.06% in 2019 to 6.40% in 2020, 8.01% in 2021, 10.04% in 2022 and 12.13% in 2023 before easing to 12.33% in 2024 and dropping a bit to 10.28% in 2025.
Even after that recent decline, TREK is still more than three times where it was when TREAD first asked the question.
Perhaps even more significantly, TREK has established itself as the third-most popular primary bike brand in the survey, ahead of Giant, Cannondale and several other long-established players. That’s an impressive transformation.
SPECIALIZED: THE MOST CONSISTENT WINNER
If TREK has made the biggest gain, Specialized deserves recognition for something arguably more difficult: staying at the top.
Specialized was No. 1 in 2019 with 21.15% of respondents. In 2025 it was still No. 1, at 22.36%. In between, it never fell below 19.53%. That’s an extraordinary level of consistency in a market where brands have moved around considerably. Specialized’s 2025 result was also its strongest percentage since the survey began.
So while TREK’s story is about gaining ground, Specialized’s is about defending an already substantial lead. And that may be the more difficult achievement.
THE MORE COMPLICATED SCOTT STORY
SCOTT was the closest challenger to Specialized when TREAD first ran the survey. In 2019, 19.80% of respondents identified SCOTT as their primary brand. That was only 1.35 percentage points behind Specialized.
In 2025, SCOTT was still comfortably second, but its share had fallen to 14.50%. That’s a decline of 5.30 percentage points. SCOTT’s position hasn’t collapsed. Far from it. It remains one of the two dominant brands in South African mountain biking. But the gap between SCOTT and Specialized has become much larger, while TREK has moved much closer from behind.
That makes SCOTT one of the more interesting brands in the dataset: still a winner in absolute terms, but a loser when measured against where it stood in 2019.
And that’s why looking only at the annual rankings can be misleading.
GIANT: A BIG BRAND ON THE WAY BACK
Giant’s story is worth highlighting because it is one of South Africa’s most established bike brands and appears to be on the way up again. Giant accounted for 8.91% of primary bike brands in 2019, rising to 9.49% in 2020 before gradually slipping to 6.68% in 2024. In 2025, however, it bounced back to 7.23%, putting it fourth overall behind Specialized, SCOTT and TREK.
That may seem like a modest recovery, but maintaining more than 7% in an increasingly crowded market is significant. With 94 brands mentioned by respondents in 2025, Giant remains firmly among South Africa’s major players. And with a strong product range and renewed momentum in the local market, Giant is certainly a brand to watch in the next survey.
TITAN HAS QUIETLY BECOME A MAJOR PLAYER
Perhaps the most impressive South African brand story belongs to Titan. In 2019, Titan accounted for just 0.99% of primary bike brands in the survey. In 2025, it was at 6.14%. That’s an increase of more than sixfold.
Titan has climbed steadily: 0.99% → 3.64% → 3.22% → 3.72% → 5.23% → 5.80% → 6.14% from 2019 to 2025. That puts Titan fifth in the 2025 rankings, ahead of Cannondale. It is difficult to call that anything other than a significant success story.
And unlike some of the international brands in the survey, Titan’s growth has happened in a market where South African riders have plenty of established local and international alternatives.
SANTA CRUZ IS ANOTHER CLEAR WINNER
Santa Cruz has also made meaningful progress. Its share has risen from 2.97% in 2019 to 4.38% in 2025. That may not sound spectacular compared with TREK or Titan, but the trajectory is remarkably steady. Santa Cruz has moved from tenth in 2019 to seventh in 2025.
It is now comfortably ahead of several brands that were more popular than it seven years ago. That’s an important theme in this data: you don’t necessarily have to explode into the market to win. Consistent incremental growth can change your position significantly over time.
PYGA HAS BOUNCED BACK
Pyga’s story is more complicated, but 2025 was a good year. The South African brand had 4.14% in 2019, dropped to 2.40% in 2020, and then climbed back to 4.13% in 2025. Its 2025 result was almost identical to where it started.
What makes the latest result particularly interesting is that Pyga jumped from tenth in 2024 to eighth in 2025. So Pyga hasn’t been a straightforward growth story like Titan. Instead, it has demonstrated something perhaps equally important for a smaller brand: the ability to recover market position.
AND THEN THERE ARE THE LOSERS
Perhaps the most obvious is Silverback. In 2020, Silverback accounted for 8.32% of primary bike brands in the survey. In 2025, that had fallen to 3.63%. That’s a decline of 4.69 percentage points.
Silverback has gone from sixth in 2019 to fifth and a high of 8.32% in 2020 to tenth in 2025. Again, this doesn’t tell us why the change happened. The survey measures what riders have, not why they bought it, when they bought it or whether they intend to replace it. But the direction is impossible to ignore.
MERIDA HAS ALSO LOST GROUND
Merida is another long-established brand that has seen its position weaken. It had 6.57% in 2019 and peaked at 6.60% in 2020. By 2025 it was down to 3.97%. That’s almost a 40% reduction in its percentage share compared with 2019.
Merida was fifth in the first survey and ninth in 2025. It is still a significant brand in the South African market, but the survey suggests it no longer occupies the position it once did.
CANNONDALE HAS SLIPPED TOO
Cannondale’s trajectory is less dramatic, but it is heading in the same direction. The brand had 7.02% in 2019 and 7.22% in 2021. By 2025 it had fallen to 5.60%. Cannondale dropped from fourth in 2019 to sixth in 2025, despite remaining comfortably within the top 10.
And interestingly, 2025 saw Cannondale overtaken by Titan. That is perhaps a better illustration of the changing market than Cannondale’s numbers alone.
THE MOST INTERESTING NUMBER MIGHT BE ‘OTHER’
There were 94 bike brands mentioned in the 2025 survey. That’s a remarkable number for a relatively small national market. The “Other” category accounted for 6.47% of respondents in 2025. That tells us something important.
While the top of the market is dominated by a handful of familiar names, South African mountain bikers aren’t buying from a tiny collection of brands. There is a substantial long tail of smaller and more specialist brands. And that makes the rise of brands such as Titan, Pyga, Santa Cruz and Orbea particularly interesting.
ORBEA IS ONE TO WATCH
Orbea wasn’t even in the earliest survey results. By 2022 it had 0.84%, followed by 1.80% in 2023, 2.84% in 2024 and 3.13% in 2025. That’s a small share compared with the leaders, but the trajectory is unmistakable. Orbea’s growth also demonstrates why the survey is useful as a longitudinal exercise.
A brand doesn’t have to be challenging Specialized for No. 1 to be interesting. Moving from effectively invisible in the dataset to more than 3% of primary bikes in three years is significant.
IT’S NOT SIMPLY A BATTLEGROUND FOR GLOBAL BRANDS
Perhaps the biggest takeaway from the seven years of data is that the South African mountain-bike market has become more competitive and more diverse.
In 2019, Specialized and SCOTT together accounted for almost 41% of primary bike brands in the survey. In 2025, the same two brands accounted for just under 37%. That’s still a huge combined share, but underneath them the market has changed considerably.
TREK has gone from a distant ninth to third. Titan has gone from 16th to fifth. Santa Cruz has moved from tenth to seventh. Pyga has regained ground. Orbea has emerged. Meanwhile, Silverback, Merida and Cannondale have all lost relative ground.
The result is a market that looks very different from the one TREAD first measured in 2019.
SO, WHO REALLY WON?
If we had to hand out awards based purely on the survey data, we’d probably go with:
Best long-term growth: TREK
Most consistent: Specialized
Most impressive local growth: Titan
Strongest steady climber: Santa Cruz
Best comeback: Pyga
Most interesting emerging brand: Orbea
Biggest relative decline: SCOTT
Biggest percentage-share decline among established brands: Silverback
Quiet loser: Merida
But there is an important distinction between losing share and losing the market. SCOTT is still No. 2. Cannondale is still No. 6. Silverback is still No. 10. Merida is still No. 9. These are not failed brands.
What the survey tells us is that the South African mountain-bike market is moving around them. And that may be the most valuable insight of all.
Seven years ago, a rider looking at the TREAD survey would have seen Specialized and SCOTT occupying almost the entire conversation at the top. Today, there is a much bigger fight for the positions behind them. And if the past seven years are anything to go by, the next few years could be even more interesting.
