My Enduro bike feels slow what could it be?

daztrek

Hello

My son has a Specialized Enduro Expert large. He got it used and was expecting a really great ride on it compared to his old trail bike which was a 13-year-old Marin Rocksprings.

When he got it he said from the moment he rid it that it felt like he was being held back, it feels slow. I have a Marin Mount Vision Pro 5.8 which I built up and weighs a few grams lighter. My bike has ZTR Flow rims with Hope Evo pro 2 hubs.

Now I know his bike is an enduro bike and mine is more on the Trail side, but when I rid his bike I also felt it was slow, dragging, and held back. He got another set of wheels better rolling tires but it feels the same. My bike feels much lighter although its not, and my bike is just way faster on them 26" wheels compared to his 27.5". When we roll down a dirt track no pedaling my bike overtakes his and leaves it behind.

He had a go on my bike a few days ago down our local trails, I was on his, I could not keep up with him, he was gone, I was knackered, it felt so har work, even on down decents.

What could be going on here? I had few ideas such as his bearings under pressure not rolling well, how could I test this? His Enduro geometry is different to trail, but its way slower?

What else could it be?

Thanks,
Dan

wilberforce

It would not be the bb or chain though if same scenario when rolling downhill without pedalling.

Could only be brakes dragging or wheels and tyres.

mully79

Just lift a wheel off the floor with it in the bike and spin it. if it doesnt slow quickly then theres nothing wrong.

if it does slow down release the clamping force on the axle. Does that change how quickly it slows ? if so the bearings need attention.

Take the wheel out of the bike and turn the axle by hand.
Are the bearings rough or tight ?

if its not the bearings its probably the brakes rubbing. if they rub a little too much then they heat up and rub even more when they warm up. should be obvious if brakes are rubbing when you spin the wheel.

Check the freehub spins nicely.

steve_sordy

All the mechanical things have already been covered, so do check them out. However, do not underestimate the impact of wide, sticky compound tyres that are also low pressure. If the previous rider was interested in grip above all else, that could be what you have got. Changing to a harder compound with a smoother tread pattern and adding some psi would dramatically reduce the rolling resistance. But Enduro bikes are mainly about gnarly trails and descending and don't tend to have tyres like that, but more like what it sounds like it already has. Is it possible to ask a few questions of the previous owner?

There is another point to make. High tyre pressures are great on smooth surfaces because they have low rolling resistance. But on bumpy surfaces, those same tyres can be slower than softer tyres because they bounce off the bumps. A tyre that conforms to the trail better just flows over the bumps and you make faster and smoother progress. Without pedalling, I always outpaced a mate of mine riding a very similar bike on a rooty, gravity assisted trail. I never told him why he had to pedal to keep up!

Perrygc

Wheels and tyres are the first place to look as suggested by Steve sordy above. I had the same problem on my Whyte T-130 trail bike. From new it felt horribly draggy compared to my brothers Giant trail bike. A few downhill rolling comparison proved it was terrible. I bought a second set of budget carbon wheels with high end hubs from China and fitted them with less aggressive tyres, running a slightly higher pressure and it is now faster than his bike on a downhill rolling test. I can use it in that set up for 8 months of the year. However, In the worst of the winter I put the old standard ali wheel/tyre set-up back on to cope with muddy conditions. Guess what ? The old draginess comes back straight away, but now I have safe margins of grip for those 4 wettest months . With wheels and tyres you are always making compromises and trade offs to match the conditions and your riding style. You will be unsurprised to learn that I fit summer and winter tyres on my car seasonally for the same reason.

steve_sordy

Lightweight wheels can transform the feel of a bike, allowing you to accelerate much faster and to change direction faster too. But they do not affect dragginess (rolling resistance). For that, it is all about the tyres.

I used to have a White T130 from new. On the front it had a Maxxis High Roller II TR, 27.5" X 2.30" 60TPI 3C (Maxx Terra) folding bead, EXO sidewall protection, with a tube that weighed 189gm. I converted to tubeless and ran it at 22psi. (My riding weight was 14 stone). The 3C in the tyre description means triple compound ie sticky shoulders.

The rear tyre was a Maxxis Crossmark II TR 27.5 X 2.25" EXO Sidewall protection, folding bead, converted to tubeless and run at 25 psi. This was a hard compound tyre, no doubt to reduce drag. But it failed to provide enough grip to drive me out of bomb-holes or up steep slopes that were loose or muddy. So, I swapped that tyre for a Continental Trail King 27.5x2.2 Protection BCC (black chilli compound) run tubeless at 24psi. Conti's BCC tyres are well known for their grip.

I hardly ever ran the bike on tarmac because Conti TKs don't like it, or rocks. They are grippy, but wear rapidly on tarmac, towpaths, and rock. I don't like riding on tarmac either, too dangerous!

I never compared the bike's rolling speed with anyone else, but it never felt draggy to me. I wasn't trying to go fast on smooth hard surfaces, I was trying to corner fast, not have the front or rear slide out on me, and to climb stuff on cr4p surfaces. Those sticky tyres were excellent for the job I wanted them to do. I freely accept that they would have had a higher rolling resistance than hard compound higher pressure tyres. But those tyres would have been bad for me 95% of the time.

If you want to reduce rolling resistance, first experiment with tyre pressures. Go high, go low (see my previous post), but it's free. Next go for a narrower tyre, one with a smoother tread pattern and a harder compound, then experiment with tyre pressures again. At approx £50 per tyre that is a lot cheaper than new wheels. But carbon rims are brilliant! I have tried some, but they were too pricey for me.