Riding XC geometry on trails - do you?

cdb

Do you have a bike with XC geometry and ride it on trails? How do you get on?

cooldad

Define trails.

The Rookie

Define XC geometry.

Trails can be anything, or do you mean at trail centres?

My old HT was very much an XC bike, the new FS is slightly slacker but not by much, links in sig, both get (got) ridden over a variety of trails and at trail centres.

cdb

Sorry. Trails, yes, trail centre trails. XC geometry, at its most basic, a head angle of more that 68 degrees? Just repeating what I've been reading. If it's an unanswerable question happy to be told so.

In asking for advice about bikes I'm being told some models look a bit a bit "racy", I assume having XC geometry. I'm also told it you want to ride in trail parks you should get a 'trail focused' bike. Assuming those who don't have trail bikes do ride in trail parks, I wondered how they get on.

Itsallablur

Forget those two degenerates up there ^.

Yes yes you can use xc racey hardtails for trail centre rides. In fact I'm off to one tomorrow to ride a ss 100mm travel 29er with approx 69/70 head angle.

There is no reason why not to and listen to all the marketing shyte.
Rider skillset comes into play most of all.

Think about it a minute, we never complained in early days of xc which covered lots of riding styles and trails.
The bikes too weren't slack but could put up with a fair amount of heavy riding.

Everything is about brands achieving their maximum £££££££ these last few years.

Ride what you want preferably what you have already (if it aint broke...) and pay for a bike skills day or two if that would help hone your skills.

Focus on where and how you ride more than what bike your on and specifics. It all becomes pretty irrelevant as soon as you get going on a ride.

cooldad

Happily, I won't be there.

As bikes have become more competent, trails have become bigger and steeper.

So depends a lot on the trail centre. Swinley I used to do on an 80s rigid Muddy Fox, (before it was actually a trail centre), and still do it regularly on a 96 Kona Explosif with a massive 60mm of travel. I also use it in the Surrey Hills, but a bit slower than some.
South Wales trail centres are reasonably tame, 120mm and slightly slacker is more than enough, unless it's somewhere more DHilly with an uplift like BPW where more and slacker is better.
Head north where it's more rocky and a bit steeper and a bit of travel is nice to have.

For general do it all I'd prefer more travel and a slacker bike than a racy XC bike though.

Also depends on the rider. My son has a Nicolai with 180mm, but can beat most people down anything on an old Kona Caldera with 100mm that he rides SS. With orange 1.9 Michelin Wildgrippers.

My main bike now is a Trek (Gary Fisher really) Rumblefish 29er. 120mm travel, big wheels to roll over everything, gives me confidence and my old body a break. Quick uphill too.

So it depends.

Angus Young

Itsallablur wrote:

Forget those two degenerates up there ^.

Yes yes you can use xc racey hardtails for trail centre rides. In fact I'm off to one tomorrow to ride a ss 100mm travel 29er with approx 69/70 head angle.

There is no reason why not to and listen to all the marketing shyte.
Rider skillset comes into play most of all.

Think about it a minute, we never complained in early days of xc which covered lots of riding styles and trails.
The bikes too weren't slack but could put up with a fair amount of heavy riding.

Everything is about brands achieving their maximum £££££££ these last few years.

Ride what you want preferably what you have already (if it aint broke...) and pay for a bike skills day or two if that would help hone your skills.

Focus on where and how you ride more than what bike your on and specifics. It all becomes pretty irrelevant as soon as you get going on a ride.

Utter boIIocks.

A better bike is always going to make your riding better. Yes, sort your skills out, but at whatever skill level you happen to be at, good, average or bad, you're going to get more of that skill down on the trail with a better bike. And the idea that just because we used to ride tat 20 years ago every development since is just marketing is complete tosh. Bikes got better. Whether that's been driven by marketing or not is irrelevant.

reformedfatty

I tried to ride a trail on a bike which only had a 71 degree head angle and 1.9 inch tyres, it exploded and I died. Twice.

cooldad

I still ride tat at times for the fun of it, and what Mr. Young (I have reason to believe he's not the real one though) says is quite true.

Even with my limited skills, a decent bike allows me to go faster than a rubbish one.

How weird is that?

cooldad

reformedfatty wrote:

I tried to ride a trail on a bike which only had a 71 degree head angle and 1.9 inch tyres, it exploded and I died. Twice.

I blame Wiggle.

Angus Young

reformedfatty wrote:

I tried to ride a trail on a bike which only had a 71 degree head angle and 1.9 inch tyres, it exploded and I died. Twice.

My old bike tries to kill me in the middle of the night when I'm asleep, all because I bought a new bike.

The Rookie

The current Giant Anthem has an HA of 69.5 degrees, perfectly competent at trail centres, the Anthem SX is 68.5.

I would agree though that trail centres, like downhill race tracks have got tougher as bikes have evolved, so the 'easier' bike becomes not that much easier on the new track than the less competent bike on the old. A modern DH course would be just about unrideable on a mid 90's bike.

oodboo

I've got an xc bike. I ride it on trails. I'm not dead.

And to add to that I've set a faster time down section 13 at Hamseterley Forest on my 29er xc hardtail than I did on my 2010 26" specialized enduro.

rockmonkeysc

You can get down any trail on any bike. You will probably be faster on the appropriate type of bike although faster doesn't always mean more fun.
I'd ride a modern xc bike down any UK trail with the exception of Egypt at Gawton, I don't think an xc bike would survive the evil of the double black graded rock garden.

kajjal

To give a comparison I have a recent xc hardtail and it rides all trail centre trails up to red with no problems at all. I have not found a natural trail except really long rock gardens I would not ride it down or up.

I also have a mid 1990's xc hardtail and rode it recently through forestry and mountain trails. It handled everything fine with its 50mm suspension, v brakes and 3 x 8 gearing. Makes you think more of this is marketing BS than reality and personal preference as well.

poah

cooldad wrote:

reformedfatty wrote:

I tried to ride a trail on a bike which only had a 71 degree head angle and 1.9 inch tyres, it exploded and I died. Twice.

I blame CRCWiggle.

FTFY