pedal to ground clearance

crispy1980

ive been up to cannock today but instead of taking my bike my mate took both of his so i could have a go and see what i prefer ( he has cannondale 29er and a boardman fs team ) the idea was to get an idea of what my future bike may be. anyway, i think i preffered the boardman bar one thing. i continually caught the pedals on the ground. through some of the single track there is a need to pedal as cornering and i nearly always caught the pedals on the floor. the bike is an 18 which is actually too small for me but cant see this making a difference. the only other thing is that the bike was set up for my mate who is lighter than me, so maybe the rear shock is too soft? i didnt suffer this with the 29er and i dont with my own hardtail so not sure what is happening?

nicklouse

If you had too much sag then yes the suspension would be more compressed than it should be.

hucking_fell

You're probably right about the shock being too soft for you.

I hope your mate doesn't mind his pedals and the ends of his cranks being all beat up now.

Personally, I think they look better like that.

crispy1980

to be honest he has only had the bikes for around 6-7 weeks! but he wnet up to scotland to 7 stanes a few weeks ago and the bike took a bit of a beating. pedals were already pretty battered. i did sit on it to see what the sag was and it was about 1-2 mm over the 30% mark.

peat

I get pedal-strike alot on my hardtail, even in shallow ruts. I do have honking great DMR pedals though. Thinking that some clips might alleviate the problem?

reformedfatty

I have a boardman fs team and get more pedal strikes than I do on my hardtail. This was after setting the pressure + sag according to the manual, and then putting in another 5 or 10 (cant remember) psi to try and stop it. Large frame size (19"), 6ft, 80kgs without kit.

I've decided its mostly a skill issue for me

nicklouse

reformedfatty wrote:

I have a boardman fs team and get more pedal strikes than I do on my hardtail. This was after setting the pressure + sag according to the manual, and then putting in another 5 or 10 (cant remember) psi to try and stop it. Large frame size (19"), 6ft, 80kgs without kit.

I've decided its mostly a skill issue for me

so which is it pressure or sag that is correct?

what sag are you getting?

vmgscot

Perhaps the Boardmans are designed with lower BB height?
I recently moved from my old Whyte E5 (tall stance bike) to a Yeti 575 (lower BB) .... I have increased pedal strikes (with same sag %) but I would not go back.... the Yeti is much faster (more stable?) through everything

reformedfatty

nicklouse wrote:

reformedfatty wrote:

I have a boardman fs team and get more pedal strikes than I do on my hardtail. This was after setting the pressure + sag according to the manual, and then putting in another 5 or 10 (cant remember) psi to try and stop it. Large frame size (19"), 6ft, 80kgs without kit.

I've decided its mostly a skill issue for me

so which is it pressure or sag that is correct?

what sag are you getting?

Whilst it wasn't apparent when riding, it appeared I used the full travel on a ride quite a bit tamer than I normally do, this was with sag @ 30%. I've not looked at the sag since, just added pressure to avoid it bottoming out.

YeehaaMcgee

Well, you should be using all the travel. That's what it's there for.

nicklouse

reformedfatty wrote:

nicklouse wrote:

reformedfatty wrote:

I have a boardman fs team and get more pedal strikes than I do on my hardtail. This was after setting the pressure + sag according to the manual, and then putting in another 5 or 10 (cant remember) psi to try and stop it. Large frame size (19"), 6ft, 80kgs without kit.

I've decided its mostly a skill issue for me

so which is it pressure or sag that is correct?

what sag are you getting?

Whilst it wasn't apparent when riding, it appeared I used the full travel on a ride quite a bit tamer than I normally do, this was with sag @ 30%. I've not looked at the sag since, just added pressure to avoid it bottoming out.

an XC bike should have 20/25% sag you need more air. take it to 20% and play about from there.

Woody80

I used to get pedal strikes all the time when I first started riding my current bike (Canyon Strive with DMR Vaults), partly a lower BB and massive platform pedals combined with the BB getting lower because it's a full suss with bags of travel.

I've just learnt to ride around it and pay more attention to the position of my feet/pedals when riding.

jndb72

Used to get it a lot with the Spech Rockhopper. Don't seem to get half as much with the Canyon AM

Cheers

Thewaylander

Woody80 wrote:

I used to get pedal strikes all the time when I first started riding my current bike (Canyon Strive with DMR Vaults), partly a lower BB and massive platform pedals combined with the BB getting lower because it's a full suss with bags of travel.

I've just learnt to ride around it and pay more attention to the position of my feet/pedals when riding.

This as well some BB are very low, mine is makes the bike feel very stable with its low centre of gravity, down side is the odd bang

craigw99

ive had a few strikes on mine through rock gardens at kirroughtree i put it done to me being a bit fat and all bouncing about on a f/s !bikes sag is 25%

timpop

There're a lot of fat people out there, you need to ride more... :P :P

rockmonkeysc

I'm a fat b*stard. I set up my suspension correctly & think about when I pedal through tech sections.
2 of my bikes have very low BB's, you learn to ride around it.

craigw99

timpop wrote:

There're a lot of fat people out there, you need to ride more... :P :P

v true thats why i got the new bike 2 stone to go!

crispy1980

perhaps is a combo of lack of skill on my part, low bb position plus i think the presure was too low as with me testing the sag it was a little over the 30% mark. im thinking of getting a full suser once i sell my car and it may be a factor to think about. it did become rather annoying through the single track as it was making me conciuos of it all the while

jehosophat

On full sussers this varies a lot between bikes and suspension designs.

I have used VPP and single pivot Santa Cruz designs and definitely get more pedal strike with VPP, which seems a known "feature". For me the other benefits of VPP outweigh this, but every now and then I get rut rage (a term coined by my wife during one memorable rutty ride) from too many strikes.

Presumably fatter profile tryres must help a bit...

YeehaaMcgee

Wait, wait wait, what?
Suspension design has nothing inherent to do with pedal strikes. BB height at the correct sag does, but don;t start blaming suspension system XYZ because your BB is too low - that's just a frame design decision, not a side effect of VPP, or Horst, or Single pivot.

Woody80

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

Wait, wait wait, what?
Suspension design has nothing inherent to do with pedal strikes. BB height at the correct sag does, but don;t start blaming suspension system XYZ because your BB is too low - that's just a frame design decision, not a side effect of VPP, or Horst, or Single pivot.

Wise words

jehosophat

Well a lot of magazine reviews seem to link pedal strikes with VPP.

Regardless of semantics, VPP bikes tend to have a very low BB - on my Blur Carbon, very low indeed - and of course that makes a difference, as does the quite active nature of VPP which means you get quite a lot of movement from smaller stuff and rider weight changes compared to similar travel/similarly set up single pivot. For me, Heckler, Superlight, and various hardtails = very few pedal strikes, Blur Classic and now Carbon = more, all else being equal.

This always came up a lot in Blur TRc vs ASR5 tests...Maybe the Yeti has a higher BB, maybe not, the point I am making is that on different bikes this will be more or less of a problem, it is not the same on all.

YeehaaMcgee

My marin's a vpp, and has a high bb. It has absolutely f-Ing nothing to do with suspension layout. It's like saying all single pivots have a steep head angle, i.e. moronic.

paul.skibum

My guess is he means VPP as in Santa Cruz VPP's although I am not sure they all have low BB's - mind you that said the Blur is listed as having a 13inch BB where as a Marin East Peak is shown as having a 11inch BB drop (not sure quite what they mean by BB Drop though!)

My Heckler gets a fair few pedal strikes but only in rocky rooty sections, where a 8 inch obstacles between my wheel base is always going to cause issues. If I am leaning into a corner hard I am rarely pedalling!

reformedfatty

Reset the sag @ 20% so we'll see how that goes on the next outing.

Fitted some new and shiny grips today and generally did more tweaking that goes with it being a relatively new bike, so any excuse to post a picture..

craigw99

let me know how it goes im not sure im getting full travel with 25% and am thinking of going to 30! what grips as i like the green endcaps

cooldad

Look like Superstar

reformedfatty

Yep superstar excel with lime green locking collars / end caps. I'm some sort of bike tart in denial - 2/3 of my bikes are from halfords and yet I go and do this to them!

on the plus side noone ever expects me to ride well on a halfords bike

crispy1980

how do you find the mountain king tyres?my mate hates them and is thinking of changing them,this couldsuit me well as im desperate for some new andim sure he wouldlet me have them for next to nowt!

getonyourbike

It's technique tbh. I spent a day on a DH track on a demo Whyte 146, which has a seriously low BB. I soon learnt to get used to it.