Trail bike
Comments
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:shock:bones3027 wrote:was it because you like GT's and it looks sexy
I ride an 09' ID5 XCR
Its butt ugly!
It's not that i'm over over-biked, my bike is under-personed...
Thats my new footerCube Hanzz Pro FRSquarepants wrote:It's not that I'm over over biked, my bike is under personed...0 -
It's all marketing BS, get a bike, ride it, like back in the day. They'll have you believe you need 10 different bikes depending on what ride you do now, back in the day you had one mountain bike and didn't know any better, didn't have people saying oh I can't ride that as I don't have my all mountain enduro street freeride light adjustable headtube bike with me.... 0
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supersonic wrote:Thing is people are walking into shops wanting mountain bikes, and coming away with 6 inch travel machines just to ride in the local woods and paths with few obstacles. Poor shop maybe (but certainly happens online too), but a bit of background reading and they would easily see they would be better suited by a XC bike.
Of course there is overlap, but it is about getting people into the right ball park. Too many riders seem overbiked to me.
Thats a rather big assumption, for example myself I live in Norfolk and own a Stumpy FSR.
Way overbiked for round here, as a hardtail will more than suffice but when I take it to the Yorshire Moors/Peaks/Lake District/Scotland etc which I do a lot, it isnt...
Just because you see that person at that time riding a 6" down the road/forest path doesnt mean thats the only place they take it out, thats the beauty of lockout, I can turn my bike into a hardtail to do the job around here and then open it up when needed, and its still as light as most mid ranged HT's anyway.0 -
I did say 'just to ride' ;-)
Quite obviously you ride more lol.0 -
supersonic wrote:I did say 'just to ride' ;-)
Quite obviously you ride more lol.
How do you know they are just riding on one particular type of terrain/area though and that they dont take it elsewhere at other times of the year thus requiring such a bike, hence my point
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I talk to them?!0
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As was said previously, two 100mm bikes can be worlds apart in what they were designed for. Surely all of these labels actually make it easier to understand the differences. Single words which describe; weight, travel, intention and geometry. common, it makes life easier!
Without all of these labels i'm sure you'd be complaining about how complicated buying a bike was with soooo many variables.0 -
I agree you shouldn't judge bikes on travel. For example, these two bikes are very different, and built for very different purposes and very different riding although they are the same price and travel:
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=23223
http://www.bgstores.co.uk/bikes-655/mou ... 10061.html
I think it also is better to over biked than under biked. Either way, people will think you're a tw*t. I would say i'm underbiked, since i ride a 100mm xc hardtail at swinley and the surrey hills alongside 6 inch AM full sussers (I'm not saying you need 6 inches for swinley - 120mm is all you need for riding like that). But although they may be panting away on the uphills, that just gets them fitter, and they can go bigger on the downhills, whereas as i'm underbiked, so i might be quicker on the uphills, but that doesn't let me enjoy it anymore, just use less energy, and then downhill, i can't go as big without worrying 'what's going to break this time...?'. If i could, i'd get a better, bigger bike, but currently, i'm not in a position where i can.0 -
I don't buy into the "overbiked" meme either. A burly bike with plenty of travel front and rear, and tough components can handle 99% of the riding 99% of people do, and they'll have great fun doing it all day long.
I don't understand why anyone would deliberately limit themselves to a super light XC machine, which is very good at the specific task it is designed for but let's face it crap at everything else, unless they were a very serious, focussed XC rider with no other aspirations.
"You don't need anything more than $whatever for UK biking" is also utter bollocks. I think the people who post this have some underlying insecurities. You don't *need* anything more than some old supermarket wreck, as demonstrated by thousands of people every day of the week. Riding pretty much any trail worthy of the name is faster and more fun on a burly bouncy rig than it is on some ratty old hardtail.
And to those who find it "too easy" on a big bouncy rig then all I can suggest is that they either try some more challenging trails, push themselves a little harder or turn pro and make a killing, because if it's too easy then they must be the next Peaty.0 -
I used to ride a 100mm Epic. Never had any problems with it at all until I took it to Wales. Although it coped "ok" there....it wasn't as much fun as I had hoped. And I bashed the shit out of it.
Next time I went I had upped to a Zesty. Seemed just as nippy on the ups but a load more fun on the downs. Do I feel overbiked on my usual trails? Not really. It's just a good, fun, confortable ride.
That said I wouldn't race it - and am toying with the idea of a short travel hardtail as well... 0 -
I don't understand why anyone would deliberately limit themselves to a super light XC machine, which is very good at the specific task it is designed for but let's face it crap at everything else, unless they were a very serious, focussed XC rider with no other aspirations.
We need to add in rider skill too ;-)
I am all for rider choice, but you have to admit a 6 inch travel 30lb plus full susser is probably not the best choice if you just ride smooth trails and canal paths.Riding pretty much any trail worthy of the name is faster and more fun on a burly bouncy rig than it is on some ratty old hardtail
Depends what you mean by rattly old hardtail lol, and I guess we have to take into account cost too - but some do ride faster on hardtails.0 -
overbiked is a viable term, take this as an example...
much of my riding is in the city, i have no choice, i dont have a car, and my local stuff is limeted to what i can find in parks, back streets, and general stuff like that, this is not amazing, but with all the little bits iv linked up, is still fun, however if i was on a 5 inch beast, well, the little woopy bits, the short singletrakcs and little bumpy root sections would be too easy, there eould be no chalenge, no tech aspect, for pure speed, well, yes it would be good, but for fun, well not so much.....
if i was riding the kind of trail i love (big, burly and natural rocks, with some jumps) everyday, then the 6 inch beast would be just right, but as it is, my HT is just right...I like bikes and stuff0 -
Phonk7 wrote:
Whats the difference between an enduro and a AM they seem the same too me, lots of AM bikes have 160mm travelnicklouse wrote:_Ferret_140-160mm - Enduro bike
too much travel for an enduro bike. 100-120 IE just a bit more than an XC bike.
Enduro has a couple of different meanings, either endurance downhill (which is essentially AM) or more like marathon XC.0 -
I also think you need to consider the rider as well, whilst I ride a lot of canal paths and light trails a lot would say a 100mm hardtail would suffice, but then I have to consider the fact that I suffer with a bad back, so full susser it is for comfort, then, I have to consider that I weigh 17.5 stone, so that's a lightweight xc full susser out of the question, they just don't feel strong enough and don't leave me with a lot of travel, so I opted for a 140mm all mountain bike, it feels strong, plenty of travel left and it's comfortable for me..so for anyone that says I'm overbiked I'm sorry but you just don't know what you're talking about ..0
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The simple solution is...buy lots of bikes
Conversly, What happens if i take my jump bike on a cross country ride? Am i over bike? underbiked? or just wrongly biked?What We Achieve In Life, Echoes In Eternity0 -
It's just a marketing ploy, wanna sell more bikes? Throw in another 'mountain bike catergory'
I've ridden AM all my life. Started with no travell back in '95 and now have 6 in on my AM bike. I've been drawn in by it. The mountains havn't got any worse.Niner Air 9 Rigid
Whyte 129S 29er.0 -
hyperman wrote:I also think you need to consider the rider as well, whilst I ride a lot of canal paths and light trails a lot would say a 100mm hardtail would suffice, but then I have to consider the fact that I suffer with a bad back, so full susser it is for comfort, then, I have to consider that I weigh 17.5 stone, so that's a lightweight xc full susser out of the question, they just don't feel strong enough and don't leave me with a lot of travel, so I opted for a 140mm all mountain bike, it feels strong, plenty of travel left and it's comfortable for me..so for anyone that says I'm overbiked I'm sorry but you just don't know what you're talking about ..
Short travel doesn't always mean weak. But yes, as I mentioned before, the rider plays a huge part.0 -
el loco pollo wrote:I don't buy into the "overbiked" meme either. A burly bike with plenty of travel front and rear, and tough components can handle 99% of the riding 99% of people do, and they'll have great fun doing it all day long.
And to those who find it "too easy" on a big bouncy rig then all I can suggest is that they either try some more challenging trails, push themselves a little harder or turn pro and make a killing, because if it's too easy then they must be the next Peaty.
More challenging trails aren't always available... If you take, say, an Orange 5 round the local loop I use, it'd be incredibly dull, lacking in challenge, even at speed. If you take my rigid round it, it'll be fun, and pretty tricky in places. On my Soul, well, you'd be a little bit overbiked still tbh but not drastically. And I'm not talking about totally dull XC here, just natural-ish trails with moderate features.
Another example, Glentress. I was lucky enough to test a Five Pro and a Zesty 514 there, as well as my own Soul and Idrive 5, among others. The Five and Zesty were both phenomenal machines, and as a result sucked the fun out of most of the trails- only by seriously upping the pace could I get the challenge back, which just meant the descents were over faster and the price of failure was higher.
On my Idrive, which was a much less capable and forgiving ride than those 2, it became more interesting at lower speed. And on the Soul, even more so. A mate said "You're faster on the Idrive" and it's completely true, the question is, who cares? I'm not racing, a 10 minute challenging descent isn't better than a 15 minute challenging descent, it's worse- the climb is exactly as hard and I get less in return.
And yet, the internet is full of people with 5 or 6 inch trail bikes complaining that glentress is "too easy", or my favourite, "too smooth", who seem oblivious to the fact that they've lowered the skill level and roughness level with their choice of bike.
The thing is though, this is all just my own opinion based on my riding- ymmv. You have to take into account that not everyone wants the same thing from their riding. For some, speed is everything. Some people like bigger features, others just want the level of challenge and don't care how mad it looks. The speed freaks are probably never overbiked, since all they want to do is go faster by any means.Uncompromising extremist0 -
It's like music , car, motorcycles or pretty much everything today all genres and sub genres with niches in them, I wouldn't worry about it, it is usualy pretty obvious what a bike can handl/do it is in my case at least the rider that lets the side down.-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
Mongoose Teocali
Giant STP0
Why are MTB economics; spend twice as much as you intended, but only half as much as you wish you could afford? :roll:0 -
Well I just moved up from a Rockhoopper with 100mm forks to a transition trans am with slacker geometry and 140mm forks. Only because after going to uni in sheffield the rockhopper was difficult to ride everything on, possible and makes you a better rider. But when you are at the back of the bunch on the downhills as you try to control a twitchy bike, with skinny tyres. I'm glad to have one that can now take it in its stride.
However when I get back to Bristol in the holidays, unless I go over to Wales or to the Quantocks; Ashton Court becomes laborous and dull as having a bike with slack angles isn't as much fun as a twitchy one.
So I suppose it depends where you ride, how good you are and how much money you have to spend on a bike. I just go with what gives me the enjoyment for the amount of money a student has.0 -
And yet, the internet is full of people with 5 or 6 inch trail bikes complaining that glentress is "too easy", or my favourite, "too smooth", who seem oblivious to the fact that they've lowered the skill level and roughness level with their choice of bike.
I totally understand the point being made Glentress is more challenging on a hardtail, but for me less fun. The fun for me is in tearing down the decent as fast as I can, getting a bit of air and knowing I have a safety margin when I mistake my abilities for my intentions.
Sometimes riding my full sus lacks the purity of my hardtail but most of the time I'm having too much fun to care0
