Is less travel more for a slow rider?

Captain Brainstorm said:
Those bikes are totally not made for Creek, another myth perpetuated by the bike industry. I roasted brakes, destroyed tires, bent rims, and continually bottomed suspension on my 160mm “too much bike” in 2 days at Creek. Downhill bikes are made for Creek.
Click to expand...
I agree with a lot of stuff you say, but this one?.....not so much. My Chilcotin with a 160mm fox 36, CCDB inline, XT 2 pot brakes, sends it at Creek better than my 180mm, coil shock freeride bike did, without breaking a sweat. You see pro riders using "trail" bikes at events like Sea Otter, Air DH at Whistler, and other selected events. I followed Dylan VanWort and his dad down Alpine after pre-ridding the H2H course on XC bikes, and they sent everything, and broke nothing. While
I would not recommend doing that every weekend, clearly its doable. The myth is you NEED a dual crown ,200 mm DH bike to ride Creek.
 
I should have clarified. Compared to the Mach 5.5 the SwitchBlade was more suitable to Creek. In fact most of the YouTubers commented on how fast and hard the bike likes to be ridden. Shuttling or lifting up and riding down doesn’t appeal to me, I’m not good at getting steezy or whatever the kids are saying these days. I just like picking my way through our rock strewn trails up here in North Jersey.
 
mtbiker87 said:
I agree with a lot of stuff you say, but this one?.....not so much. My Chilcotin with a 160mm fox 36, CCDB inline, XT 2 pot brakes, sends it at Creek better than my 180mm, coil shock freeride bike did, without breaking a sweat. You see pro riders using "trail" bikes at events like Sea Otter, Air DH at Whistler, and other selected events. I followed Dylan VanWort and his dad down Alpine after pre-ridding the H2H course on XC bikes, and they sent everything, and broke nothing. While I would not recommend doing that every weekend, clearly its doable. The myth is you NEED a dual crown ,200 mm DH bike to ride Creek.
Click to expand...
I would agree with that. Even XC race bikes can handle pretty much any of the terrain at Creek. Seriously. If you watch some of the World Cup XC courses the top pros race on these days, you'll see sections that compare to some of rockiest sections at Creek. They just don't ride them quite as fast as one could on a full-on DH race bike, which is pretty much what a dual-crown fork equipped DH bike is designed for - riding the most extreme terrain as fast as possible.

That was basically why I sold my M16C DH bike. The bike was far more capable of going fast than I am. To the point where I am not capable of riding it fast enough to make the bike to really "work". My Megatower is also far more capable than I am, but for whatever reason is more forgiving of my lack of talent.
 
@JohnnyWestood what you’re experiencing is common. If you’re looking to motor along on the trails with any level of efficiency and speed then the Swicthblade isn’t the best choice. This whole trend of making bikes “enduro” is so stupid, especially here where we ride. Unless you’re at a bike park or up in northern Vermont no one is climbing fire roads to blast down gnarly mile-long decents. That shit just doesn’t exist around these parts.
 
Ryan.P said:
These bikes although less travel than your current bike are far more aggressive geometry wise and probably considerably longer as well. Why not try altering your current ride first ? Lower the fork travel 10mm . Remove lower headset spacer.
Click to expand...
I am definitely going to do that, and slide the seat forward. I think I’ll also take advantage of demo season when it rolls around. Then maybe decide what I want to do. The bike depreciates quickly so, I kind of want to maximize the trade in value as well. So there’s a lot of variables. I certainly don’t NEED a new bike, that’s for sure though.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ron
JohnnyWestood said:
I am definitely going to do that, and slide the seat forward. I think I’ll also take advantage of demo season when it rolls around. Then maybe decide what I want to do. The bike depreciates quickly so, I kind of want to maximize the trade in value as well. So there’s a lot of variables. I certainly don’t NEED a new bike, that’s for sure though.
Click to expand...

I've been messing with mine as well. I bumped the fork up to 160mm over a year ago and I just recently brought that back to 150mm. I moved the seat forward and replaced my 50mm stem with a 60mm stem. It probably won't make a whole lot of difference but we'll see. The way I see it is that it's way cheaper to play around with the bike I have rather than buying a new one.
 
Ian F said:
I would agree with that. Even XC race bikes can handle pretty much any of the terrain at Creek. Seriously. If you watch some of the World Cup XC courses the top pros race on these days, you'll see sections that compare to some of rockiest sections at Creek. They just don't ride them quite as fast as one could on a full-on DH race bike, which is pretty much what a dual-crown fork equipped DH bike is designed for - riding the most extreme terrain as fast as possible.

That was basically why I sold my M16C DH bike. The bike was far more capable of going fast than I am. To the point where I am not capable of riding it fast enough to make the bike to really "work". My Megatower is also far more capable than I am, but for whatever reason is more forgiving of my lack of talent.
Click to expand...

You could ride a unicycle on a DH course, doesn’t mean it’s smart. Sure, any bike can “handle” creek, but the repeated abuse of it? I doubt an xc will survive for too long (except on maybe Green Horn), but hey, I’m willing to take that challenge (just not with my bike).
 
Monkey Soup said:
You could ride a unicycle on a DH course, doesn’t mean it’s smart. Sure, any bike can “handle” creek, but the repeated abuse of it? I doubt an xc will survive for too long (except on maybe Green Horn), but hey, I’m willing to take that challenge (just not with my bike).
Click to expand...
You're missing the point. Even a DH bike won't last forever at Creek under a harsh rider. It depends more on the rider than the bike and the trails they want to ride. If all you want to ride is the rock garden trails like BMW or Slayer, then yeah - a DH bike makes more sense. If your main focus are the jump trails, you definitely don't need a DH bike.
 
[QUOTE="qclabrat, post: 960174, member: 10316" Though I'm not I had a 429 but didn't love it. Planning to check out Yetis this year. [/QUOTE]

I've spoken with Adam, and he loves your old bike.
 
Longer travel will have a longer wheelbase all else equal. As all else is generally not equal, they usually have slacker HT angles as well. Good or bad depending on your perspective. More cumbersome at slow speeds, super stable at high speeds.
 
Tim said:
I've been messing with mine as well. I bumped the fork up to 160mm over a year ago and I just recently brought that back to 150mm. I moved the seat forward and replaced my 50mm stem with a 60mm stem. It probably won't make a whole lot of difference but we'll see. The way I see it is that it's way cheaper to play around with the bike I have rather than buying a new one.
Click to expand...
Have you looked in to the trade in value of your current bike? Rather than tinkering with your current bike maybe it’s better to get the money out of it you can and buy a more suitable bike for what you want? I bought mine and justified it by saying that it was the last I’d buy. But here I am. ? I’m not getting any younger and and I want to maximize my experience while I can.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tim
The issue with longer travel bikes is keeping the front end down on steep/tech climbs. Seat forward will steepen the ST angle which will help. Reducing the travel and or using an angled headset (if able on that frame) to steepen the front end might also help keep the rubber on the ground.


I assume you’re already lowering your chest as far as you can while still maintaining power and control on the climbs.
 
Juggernaut said:
The issue with longer travel bikes is keeping the front end down on steep/tech climbs. Seat forward will steepen the ST angle which will help. Reducing the travel and or using an angled headset (if able on that frame) to steepen the front end might also help keep the rubber on the ground.


I assume you’re already lowering your chest as far as you can while still maintaining power and control on the climbs.
Click to expand...
I am, as best I can. Where have issue is picking lines. The bike goes where it wants and pretty much over anything. Which is fine, but it’s just not the ride experience I am looking for. I wish someone would tell the bike companies that not all terrain benefits from slacker head tubes. It seems that mountain biking is just riding downhill at 25-30 mikes per hour
 
JohnnyWestood said:
Have you looked in to the trade in value of your current bike? Rather than tinkering with your current bike maybe it’s better to get the money out of it you can and buy a more suitable bike for what you want? I bought mine and justified it by saying that it was the last I’d buy. But here I am. ? I’m not getting any younger and and I want to maximize my experience while I can.
Click to expand...

My bike is an aluminum YT Jeffsy. It was $2,800 brand spanking new. It's been ridden a lot and is "worn in" pretty well at this point. It's isn't worth much. Certainly not enough to offset a nice shiny brand new carbon whip at $5k. I am also like you. I told myself I would keep this one for a while. There is always that itch to get something new, though.

I like to tinker so that will distract me from all those shiny new bikes for a little while, at least.;)
 
Tim said:
My bike is an aluminum YT Jeffsy. It was $2,800 brand spanking new. It's been ridden a lot and is "worn in" pretty well at this point. It's isn't worth much. Certainly not enough to offset a nice shiny brand new carbon whip at $5k. I am also like you. I told myself I would keep this one for a while. There is always that itch to get something new, though.

I like to tinker so that will distract me from all those shiny new bikes for a little while, at least.;)
Click to expand...
You are better off. The new Jeffsy looks cool though. Sorry. ? The bike industry knows how to keep us coming back for the latest and greatest.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tim
goldsbar said:
Not at all. It's about doing 50' gaps while spinning and flipping. That's what most people do based on the videos I see.
Click to expand...
I think that puts a lot of people off. When I mention to people that they should give MTB a try I think they think that they are expected to ride the most extreme stuff and all that. Does the industry a disservice. I think.
 
goldsbar said:
Longer travel will have a longer wheelbase all else equal. As all else is generally not equal, they usually have slacker HT angles as well. Good or bad depending on your perspective. More cumbersome at slow speeds, super stable at high speeds.
Click to expand...

Except all bikes, with the exception of some xc bikes, are starting to have the same geometry. All of these shorter travel bikes that everyone is so hip on have almost the same reach, wheelbase, and head-angle as the "enduro" bikes. So you get basically the same truck-like wheelbase minus the travel. At that point, you may as well get the travel also and build it up lighter. And this notion that of longer travel bikes not being agile or pedaling well is BS. Bikes like the Ripmo, HD5, SB150, Bronson all pedal pretty damn well. The other thing those bikes all have in common is superior suspension design vs. the Horst-Link that everyone else uses. The trend of making bikes so long is whats making them handle like shit in the slower speed tech, and that applies to bikes with less travel too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom