Recent Avalanche incarnations have had universally good reviews, and it's not hard to see why. You're getting a lot of bike for not much money - the Avalanche 1.0 Disc you see here packs a RockShox J3 fork (with lockout), Deore/LX transmission mix, Tektro hydraulic brakes (which bear a remarkable resemblance to Shimano's Deore units) and Truvativ cranks for a trifling £569.99. You even get SPDs on it. The same butted 6061 frame features on the non-disc 1.0 for a hundred quit less and the 2.0 Disc, which gives you an RST fork, entry-level Shimano bits and Tektro cable discs for £369.99. There's also a £299.99 Avalanche 3.0 Disc with a plain-gauge frame and a V-braked 3.0 for £249.99. Going the other way, there's the Avalanche Expert (£799.99 with RockShox Tora fork, SRAM X-9 transmission and Shimano Deore brakes) and the range-topping £999.99 Avalanche Pro featuring a Kinesis Superlite frame, RockShox Recon fork and an LX/XT component mix.

As the iDrive XC, the iDrive 4 platform was the first of the reborn GT's next-generation iDrive designs. The 2006 version looks the same in profile, but the 100mm travel frame is completely new. It's got some lovely cosmetic touches on it - we particularly like the bullet-tipped seatstays with internal gear cable routing. Specs across the range are impressive. This is the £1,899.99 iDrive 4 1.0, with a complete Shimano Deore XT groupset, Fox Float R 100mm travel fork and some top-flight finishing kit - DT Swiss XR4.1D rims, Thomson post and the like. There are three other bikes in the range, kicking off with the iDrive 4 4.0. The entry-level bike gets SRAM X-7 transmission and a RockShox J3 fork. It's only got V brakes, but then it does have the same frame as the 1.0 and costs £799.99.

The mid-travel iDrive 5 was introduced in 2005. We've only ridden a 5 briefly, but we liked it a lot. We'll try and get some more miles in on an '06 bike - the frame is unchanged from 2005, with changes limited to components. The line-up mirrors that of the iDrive 4 range, with fairly similar (or almost exactly the same in the case of the 1.0) specs at broadly the same price points. The bike pictured is the entry-level £899.99 4.0 - RockShox J4 fork, Tektro Auriga hydraulic discs, SRAM X-7 transmission.

Need more travel? The all-new iDrive 7 may fit the bill. Last year's Ruckus bikes were the last hold-out of the old-style iDrive system, which is now no more - the 7 uses a pumped-up version of the same suspension configuration as the 4 and 5. We really like the look of the 4 and 5 models, but we have to say that the 7 isn't conventionally attractive. It looks better in real life, though, and there're some neat details. All three bikes in the range have 7in of travel and run 12mm rear through-axles and twin-and-bash crank setups (does no-one like to go fast any more?). Fork travel is at least 150mm, with the mid-range £1,699.99 2.0 packing a 170mm travel Marzocchi Drop-Off Triple. Entry level is the £1,499.99 3.0 with a Manitou Stance fork, Truvativ cranks, X-7 transmission and Hayes Sole brakes. Top of the tree is the 1.0 at £2,499.99

Top of the GT travel tree is the all-new IT-1. This has been in development for quite a while, with various prototypes putting in appearances at trade shows over the last few years. It's the first internal transmission bike from a major manufacturer. The bike works along similar lines to the G-Boxx bikes built by Nicolai and other niche brands, but rather than a Rohloff hub-derived transmission the IT-1 uses the guts out of a Shimano Nexus 8-speed hub. You don't get the range or number of gears as a Rohloff, but you still get a decent range. You can tune which particular range of gears you get by swapping chainrings up front. Inevitably each gear is going to end up feeling quite a long way from the next, which might limit the DH race appeal of the IT-1 - it's more in the heavy-duty freeride camp. You get 7-9in of travel at the back from a Fox DHX5.0 shock, while a Fox 40 RC2 fork does the business up front. Cranks are Shimano Saints, while the UK bikes will run Hope Mono M4 brakes. Start saving now - an IT-1 will cost you £3,999.99.

With the introduction of the i-Drive 7 bikes, the Ruckus name is now confined to a pair of jumpy bikes. The top one is the Ruckus UF, or "Urban Freeride". It's a singlespeed chromoly bike aimed at street riders, kind of bridging the gap between BMX and trials bikes. You get chromoly three-piece cranks and a ground-clearance-enhanced 28:14 gear ratio. The fork is an 80mm travel Suntour Duro D with 32mm chromoly stanchions. Tektro cable brakes slow it down. The UF is £499.99 - one size fits all. The bottom bike is the Ruckus DJ, essentially a pure dirt jump bike. The 6061 aluminium frame has huge box-section chainstays, hydroformed top tube, extra gussets and rather nice forged BMX-style dropouts. They're horizontal and have integrated chaintugs so you can singlespeed it if you like. The £799.99 asking price gets you a Manitou Stance Static fork, Truvative Hussefelt cranks, bar and stem, Hayes Sole brakes and SRAM X-7 transmission. In a similar vein to these two there's also a range of Chucker hardtails.

If your tastes lean more towards the XC, the Zaskar Pro could be for you. At £1,299.99 it's a full-bore speed machine built around an all-new Kinesis-built frame - hydroformed main tubes, tidy new dropout design and lovely silvery finish. Spec is straightforward - 85mm travel Reba SL fork, full Shimano XT groupset, Syntace bar and stem, Crank Bros Candy C pedals and Tioga tyres. We like.

Finally we have the slightly-quirky ZUM range, essentially slick-shod MTBs for blatting round town. The top two (1.0 and the 2.0 shown here) also have road bike 50/34 chainsets for added speed. The 1.0 has an LX groupset including disc brakes and costs £899.99. The 2.0 has Deore and V-brakes and is £599.99 and the 3.0 and 4.0 have Alivio and Acera and cost £469.99 and £349.99 respectively.