Forks? Bike? or just me?

mac_man

Went round Gisburn Forest yesterday. Had a great time on my upgraded rockhopper. But not as much fun as on the borrowed Mmmbop I used a few months back.

The Ragley felt more confidence inspiring - I just seemed to be able to blast over stuff that I ended up hesitating and bottling on the Rockhopper.

The Rockhopper is running 100mm Rebas and a fairly standard width bar. The Ragley had much wider bars and 160mm Pikes. I can only think it was the extra control afforded by teh wider bars and the extra travel when dropping down the steeper angles that gave me so much more confidence to tackle them. For them that knows Gisburn there's one particular section which is well rutted and holed that drops down to a small steam and then up a steep climb. On the Ragley I just flowed down the hill no problem. On the Rockhopper I was all over the place... just felt really skittish and vertiginous looking over the bars.

Also.. the Rebas were hitting the limit of their travel.

So... is tehre anything I can do to improve the Rockhopper - I is it worth taking the spacers out on the forks and pumping a bit more air into them. or is it time for a new bike? Will an extra 20mm travel on the Rebas make much difference. Sure I hear you say... just do it and see what happens... just seeing if anyone can advise on whether it's a good idea go ahead or save me the bother if its not :-)

If I got a 2nd hand frame and forks I'm pretty sure most of the other components except the bar n stem will carry over

supersonic

The head angles are massively different - the MMMBop is slacker and more stable, the Hopper less stable.

20mm of more travel will make a little difference, but the bikes are just designed for different things and will never really match.

The Northern Monkey

Your main issue will be that youre trying to compare 2 very different bikes.

A long travel hardtail and an XC hardtail.

Anonymous

Different bike geometry, different control, different suspension. All makes a big difference I think.

Probably the head angle on the Ragley was a fair bit slacker which would give confidence on steeper stuff. Or at least that's my theory. Something I want to test as I think the angle on mine is one thing making me hesitate down steep bits.

Bar width will affect the control aspect so shorter width bar may make it more sketchy, apparently. Stem length also has an impact. Not got my head round it fully but found longer stem made my bike steer like a bus but apparently you get more control or something, but usually people go for shorter stems for more AM and DH riding. I went shorter stem and steering is much better with less understeer but does feel a bit sketchy on gnarly bits. Longer bars I'm told is the fix for that. But then why is long bars and short stem not like having a longer stem and short bars?

mac_man

I know they are quite different bikes. But I have to say I much preferred the Ragley on the downs. And it wasn't too shabby on the ups either.

I was just wondering, in your opinions, what aspect of the Ragley was making so much difference... bars? Forks? Geometry? or alll of these?

I really enjoy riding the Hopper, in most respects, but is what I experienced at Gisburn typical of this breed of long forked hardtails liek teh Ragley?

EDIT... deadkenny beat me to some of my follow ups.

Mr_B1989

Got an mmmbop and an older (pre evo full floater) trek fuel ex 6, The bop has a short stem wide(ish) 710mm bars. The reason this works so well is because the slack angle of the fork/frame puts your weight right over the back wheel, even when going down really steep slopes, it also has a more compact cockpit so steering feels more responsive on the downs. My trek on the other hand has a less slack angle which is fine on the flat but when you point it down steep slopes more weight ends up going towards the front wheel making it seem less stable than the bop.

Northwind

No such thing as 160mm Pikes btw, Pikes are 140mm.

The Mmmbop's basically a descending weapon, so yes it should outshine your allrounder Rockhopper on descents, it'd be doing something wrong if it wasn't. But I found mine a pain to live with, I built it up as a sort of hardhitting massive XC bike and it did it OK but it was only really happy on techy descents. Flat out lumpy descents tied it in knots. Coed Y Brenin made it feel like it had square wheels

Nice bikes though. Brilliant at what they do best and OK at most other things.

mac_man

Northwind wrote:

No such thing as 160mm Pikes btw, Pikes are 140mm.

The Mmmbop's basically a descending weapon, so yes it should outshine your allrounder Rockhopper on descents, it'd be doing something wrong if it wasn't. But I found mine a pain to live with, I built it up as a sort of hardhitting massive XC bike and it did it OK but it was only really happy on techy descents. Flat out lumpy descents tied it in knots. Coed Y Brenin made it feel like it had square wheels

Nice bikes though. Brilliant at what they do best and OK at most other things.

Living and riding in Calderdale I guess that's why I probably appreciated the Ragley's strengths on Gisburn's rocky/rooty descents. Carbon copies of what we get around Hebden Bridge .

Here it's either up or down, with not much else. And a lot of the downs are pretty rocky/rooty.

Just need to find somebody who will swap a Mmmbop for a rockhopper :-)

Northwind

Heh, well, you are the target market aren't you!

I won't swap it for a Hopper but I do still have my Mmmbop frame in the garage and I would exchange it for moneys.

mac_man

Hi Northwind

I'll contact via PM to discuss...

Cheers