Carrera Vulcan - HELP

bowden769

Hi Guys

Me and the Mrs has just started this mtb lark!! i am rather enjoying flying round the trails on my boardman, the Mrs however is strugerling to get her Carrera Vulcan up the climbs, just wondered if they are any tips that you guys have to make it easier to get up. I dont weather changing the tyres would help ?

supersonic

In what way is she struggling? Grip? If grip, then try adjusting weight balance to the tyre that is losing grip (shifting body weight is the key). If fitness, then just have to keep going!

cooldad

Swap bikes for a bit and see.

benpinnick

Perhaps you need to put the saddle up. Most of the girls I see on the trails (newbies at least) have the saddle way to low as they like to be close to the ground when they stop, which severely compromises both climbing ability and straight line speed.

The Rookie

+1 for saddle, most women (my wife included) think they should be able to put both feet on te ground while sat in the saddle, in fact for best efficiency your knee should be near enough straight when your hel is on the pedal at the bottom of the stroke, however for an MTB I run about 1.5" lower than that to ease saddle clearance off road.

The ther thing is gears, most women seem to prefer to slog in a higher gear and its ruddy hard work, make sure she is changing down and spinning!

Gizmo_

The Beginner wrote:

The ther thing is gears, most women seem to prefer to slog in a higher gear and its ruddy hard work, make sure she is changing down and spinning!

My OH does this too. I keep telling her to drop a few cogs and spin her way up, but no, she tends to stall half way up hills with burning legs when she had half a dozen gears to go

The Rookie

LOL, I've taken to telling the wife to shift gears before a hill, slower, but at least she gets up it, always make sure she is in the Granny for sure then I only have to tell her about shifting on one side as it simplifies matters!

agentsammo

i had trouble in the end with my carrera vulcan getting up steep hills, and it wasn't due to my lack of fitness, just the weight of the bike, but try it yourself and try shifting gears to help and put the saddle up, every women i see out on a bike are way too low in the saddle and gear change is a foreign object to them. But having just come from a vulcan it can be hard work getting up hills even of the lower kind.

Give her a shot on the boardman to see if she can go up hills no trouble if she can then her bike isn't set up right.

chez_m356

agentsammo wrote:

Give her a shot on the boardman to see if she can go up hills no trouble if she can then her bike isn't set up right.

assuming the boardman actually fits her

agentsammo

chez_m356 wrote:

agentsammo wrote:

Give her a shot on the boardman to see if she can go up hills no trouble if she can then her bike isn't set up right.

assuming the boardman actually fits her

That would help i suppose he could always lower the seat before she got on.........

bowden769

Thanks for all the comments guys!! (lol)

Its a 16" frame so quite small!! mine is a 19" so no chance of her riding mine!
i will try her next time raising the saddle up next time

agentsammo i agree it is heavy bike how could i shed some of the weight

chez_m356

bowden769 wrote:

Thanks for all the comments guys!! (lol)

Its a 16" frame so quite small!! mine is a 19" so no chance of her riding mine!
i will try her next time raising the saddle up next time

agentsammo i agree it is heavy bike how could i shed some of the weight

if you go down that road you could end up replacing everything, maybe a better option to buy her something better and sell the vulcan to get some of the money back

benpinnick

Tyres are often a great place to make a bike both much lighter, and much quicker rolling. Whip one o the tyres off and pot the weight and model here for some advice.

dhobiwallah

Depends on what you mean by struggling up the hills!

The one time I tried to take my missus out we had to turn and head home due to the hills - but that was on the road before we got to the trail! The bike was slightly big for her - but loads lighter than mine!

Is the rear wheel slipping/front wheel lifting? My mate has this issue all the time and its simply to do with weight placement/ smooth pedalling to maintain traction. ie technique rather than equipment.

Or is it just that she runs out of oomph on a hill that should be reasonably easy? If so then saddle height/body position/gear selection are all probable culprits. Her bike will be heavier than yours, but for that to be a limiting factor on making a climb or not then we are talking a pretty steep incline! Her total weight (body + bike) might still be less than yours depending on her build. However that also means a extra weight on the bike will affect her more than you...

It may of course just be the engine.... I went out riding with a new group recently for a quick nightime blast before a pub sesh. I was definitely the straggler at the back (not a position I'm used to with my current group), and one of them was riding a DH rig!

agentsammo

chez_m356 wrote:

bowden769 wrote:

Thanks for all the comments guys!! (lol)

Its a 16" frame so quite small!! mine is a 19" so no chance of her riding mine!
i will try her next time raising the saddle up next time

agentsammo i agree it is heavy bike how could i shed some of the weight

if you go down that road you could end up replacing everything, maybe a better option to buy her something better and sell the vulcan to get some of the money back

You could go for lighter wheels and tyres, but the big difference is replacing the front fork, on the Vulcan it's a heavy coil unit (you could go air but they cost as much as the Vulcan did to begin with), other than that is wheels and tyres or just sell it and get a better bike like the voodoo hoodoo if they do it in that size).

In the end after much knacking on the bike i got a new one, rockhopper comp 2012, couldn't believe how light it is when compared to my old Vulcan.

Change the pedals, the cranks, the wheels and tyres, the handle bar, the saddle and seat post and i reckon you could shave off about 2 kg of weight from the bike add an air fork to save quite a bit more aswell.

Or just wait to she gets used to it and change the position of her riding (higher saddle) and get her to change into a lower gear for hills.

best of luck

The Rookie

The Vulcan isn't that much heavier than a 'hopper and the frames (at least comparing my 2006 with a 2006 'hopper frame) are an identical weight.

2Kg from that lot is optimistic unless your talking of going for absolute top end stuff, Carrera bits are actually quite light.

chez_m356

agentsammo wrote:

Change the pedals, the cranks, the wheels and tyres, the handle bar, the saddle and seat post and i reckon you could shave off about 2 kg of weight from the bike add an air fork to save quite a bit more aswell.

so spend around the same as the bike cost in the first place and it will feel like a different bike ?

shigllgetcha

Thats assuming the weight is the problem, she just might need to keep at it untill she's strong/fit enough

agentsammo

chez_m356 wrote:

agentsammo wrote:

Change the pedals, the cranks, the wheels and tyres, the handle bar, the saddle and seat post and i reckon you could shave off about 2 kg of weight from the bike add an air fork to save quite a bit more aswell.

so spend around the same as the bike cost in the first place and it will feel like a different bike ?

Yeah that's it basically spend as much as the bike cost to get a different bike, on the plus side you would have some spares