limits of a 140mm trail bike?

richg1979

me and a few ride budies have broken our frames recently yeti 575, lapierre zesty, trek fuel ex9.

we ride on cannock chase wich apparently is very easy going and nothing too rough, we dont do anything more than 2ft trail drops ect but do ride fast and agressive, i cant even remember anyone keeping up never mind having to let anyone past.

we do a bit of dh at stile cop mainly red route wich is no where near as rough or hard on the bike as some of the monkey trail sections.

so what happens when we brake so called "trail bikes" on trails? ive taken the plunge and orderd a nomad frame and some 160mm forks so hopefully this should hold up better for trail riding.

but what are the limits of a "trail bike"?

biff55

in a word , its frame.
wheels and forks can be replaced with bullet-proof varities.
my path would be to buy a frame which would cope with your specific riding needs and build it up to your own spec.
likely to last longer than an off the shelf bike , but probably cost more but cant have it both ways.

FIow

:roll:

biff55

glad to see he took my advice

robertpb

A lot of it is to do with the size of frame and the weight of the rider.

Small frames are stiffer and flex less putting less stress on the welds, plus normally the rider is lighter.

I ride a Meta 5.5 small frame and weigh 62kg but if it were a large frame with a 85kg rider on it I don't think it would stand-up to some of things I do.

nickfrog

Your best bet is to use capital letters now and again.

Northwind

Well one thing to do would be to stop slating lapierres as if they're the only bikes that break, when your mates have managed to break 3 of the best regarded frames out there "just riding along"

Anonymous

Northwind wrote:

Well one thing to do would be to stop slating lapierres as if they're the only bikes that break, when your mates have managed to break 3 of the best regarded frames out there "just riding along"

Holy shit, you hve a chip on your shoulder about this don't you?

Northwind

Nah, Richg does, which is why he's always banging on about it, and just started yet another thread to moan about frames breaking.

handon94

well if the frames are braking regularly, you must be doing something there not designed to do, frames don't break them self's :?

Clum84

That's nuts if you've all broken frames on 2 foot drops. Which part of the frame is breaking....did the hangers not just snap as they're supposed to?

I'd probably just take it as a sign to buy a proper DH bike....or strap some handlebars to a tank!

richg1979

Why is this forum like a f**king english exam?

Why does every one get slated for bad grammer?

Who really cares?

The Yeti and Trek are both 3 yrs old so stood up for 3 years, the Lapierre broke 3 times in a months so pipe down.

Were not doing anything a trail bike shouldnt be able to cope with, no drops over 2ft and no big jumps ect.

TheKrikkitWars

richg1979 wrote:

Why is this forum like a f**king english exam?

Why does every one get slated for bad grammer?

Who really cares?

Because good grammar makes it so much easier to read, and so much easier to understand too sometimes. Rulle of thumb "If you wouldn't write something in a letter, don't do it online either."

popstar

Northwind wrote:

Well one thing to do would be to stop slating lapierres as if they're the only bikes that break, when your mates have managed to break 3 of the best regarded frames out there "just riding along"

+1

richg1979

There not the only bikes to break, just the only ones to break when there pretty much brand new and lots of times.

Lapierre would not refund the shop for the Lapierre Zesty that broke 3 times, but they are replacing the frame with a full carbon 714 frame so see if that one lasts.

He is a big bloke at about 15-16 stone but was told by the sales man that his weight would be no problem.

The Zesty is a great bike to ride and looks great, but when you pretty much see a brand new one destroyed in a few weeks just from doing stuff it was built to do, it deserves a slating.

Anonymous

I with Rich on this one. on both the bike and tha grammar. It's not exactly one of the most unintelligible posts here is it?

JamesBrckmn

are you very heavy? do you ride unsmoothly? if no to those questions, you must have just been unlucky. a 140 trail bike should be able to cope with 4 foot drops, a 160mm bike like the nomad could cope with 6 ft drops, so i don't know why your frames have broken

TheKrikkitWars

There's no two ways about it, if you break bikes at an alarming rate, you're doing it wrong!

Anonymous

JamesBrckmn wrote:

are you very heavy? do you ride unsmoothly? if no to those questions, you must have just been unlucky. a 140 trail bike should be able to cope with 4 foot drops, a 160mm bike like the nomad could cope with 6 ft drops, so i don't know why your frames have broken

Not necessarily, as not all 140mm bikes are built the same. Some are tougher (usually the ones that get marked down in reviews for being 34lbs and up) and some are lighter.
Fuel Ex, for example is a much lgihter duty bike than a wolf ridge.

I found that riding hard was breaking components left right and centre, so over the years my bike had evolved into more or less an unbreakable tank.
But frames breaking?
Hmm, maybe you need to look at some more heavy duty frames.

popstar

Wolfridge, Orange 5 or even Alpine160 or Remedy is the way forward for aggresive XC round Cannock Chase it seems. The OP riding buddie seems to be an ultra-extra case* and very unlucky one too.
Surprisingly my Zesty didn't break doing downhill runs in Cwmcarn (and having crashes on it too), ... my weight is around 16st+camelback, so I am buffled.

thebikechain

Considering most Pros will use a 'trail bike' for training and off season riding (example Aaron Gwin = 575) then i suspect a lot of it will be down to the rider not riding it very well.

You can kill any bike off a 2ft drop of you don't ride it properly off it.

Seeing what Chris Ball, Danny M and many people i know can do on these bikes i would say that the bike is not the weak link.

They can be hammered day in and day out down DH trails in the right hands.

richg1979

I dont know.

We see people doing the same trails ect on xc hard tails ect, maybe not as fast but there doing the same sort of stuff.

I wouldnt say im hard on the bike, i always land pretty flat and try and keep clean lines ect and take a lot of jolts ect with my legs and never bottom out the suspension even with 20-30%sag.

We are all big blokes, he is quite chunky at around 15-16st but is trying to loose weight and im quite athletic but 6ft 3" and just over 15st so these bikes dont get an easy life what ever there doing.

Maybe his Zesty is a one off and this new 714 frame will problem free, or maybe it will break in a week.
Im really thinking now that we are out riding our bikes and us being blokes dont help the problem , but there does seem a few failures lately.
I really love my 575 but now its cracked im scared to ride another one incase i am actually putting it through more than it can withstand hence replacing it with a full am bike.

blister pus

richg1979 wrote:

I dont know.

We see people doing the same trails ect on xc hard tails ect, maybe not as fast bet there doing the same sort of stuff.
We are all big blokes, he is quite chunky at around 15-16st but is trying to loose weight and im quite athletic but 6ft 3" and just over 15st so these bikes dont get an easy life what ever there doing.

Maybe his Zesty is a one off and this new 714 frame will problem free, or maybe it will break in a week.
Im really thinking now that we are out riding our bikes and us being blokes dont help the problem , but there does seem a few failures lately.
I really love my 575 but now its cracked im scared to ride another one incase i am actually putting it through more than it can withstand hence replacing it with a full am bike.

i've got a complaint about your latest posts. I don't like the gratuitous use of big letters everywhere. it's incredibly difficult to read and not cool.

thebikechain

The 575 can be ridden bloody hard. Ex Yeti mechanic used to work in the shop and he gave his a hard time. His idea (Kiwi) of a XC ride was the inners dh tracks.

Once when we rode some he got to the bottom and asked when we were hitting up the DH stuff....

mental.

richg1979

Maybe it is a one off with the Yeti as it does seem quite a rare one, but its gave me an excuse to get a new toy

thebikechain

Fair point well made!

ESHER SHORE

its all proportional

a smaller, lighter rider will get away with riding a trail bike, and regularly getting air under their wheels

a bigger, heavier rider will crack a trail bike, if riding it hard and regularly getting air under their wheels


ignoring size, a more aggressive rider (of any size / weight) who likes to rag their bike, get air and tackle drops on a regular basis would also be better off staying away from trail bikes

I weigh 12 stone, come from a freeride background, and like to go quick down hills and regularly get air / hit drops and stunts - I ride an All-Mountain bike for this reason, this is mine which weighs 29lb, it feels flex-free and solid which is not something I have found with trail bikes I have ridden!



I would always advise a bigger / heavier rider to buy a 6 x 6 All-Mountain Bike over a trail bike, as the All-Mountain framesets uses heavier duty tubing and will deal with the extra stresses no problem!

a big guy will find a good quality All-Mountain bike no problem (in terms of climbing and singletrack) when used as a heavy duty trail bike!

Black

LOL NORTHWIND Can I reccomened a KIT KAT

Father Faff

I don't know what all the fuss is about - if you are big and heavy then you need a big, heavy bike.

xtreem

I see two options.

Either you use a stronger frame as mentioned.
or
You improve your riding technique.

I would pick both.

Anonymous

When you say landing flat, do you mean landing both wheels at the same time?
I'm not suggesting that the kind of drops you say you're riding should damage a bike even when flat landing, but pushing the rear wheel down first, and absorbing the impact iwth your legs is far gentler on teh frame - unless you're landing on a transition.