160mm travel too much for the trails?

[boz]

just picked up a trek remedy 9.8 27.5 and starting to 2nd guess it.
I ride chimney and lewis Morris mostly. The bike is light enough but between the fork travel and 27.5 wheel size its hard to tell where my problems stem from.
Coming off of a fat bike and 29r so been spoiled with an easy roller and super forgiving fat tires.
The test ride in the parking lot and first trip to the pump track was great but different story on the trail, The bike tends to bounce off of rocks and feeling a pogo effect on turns and poppy front end while climbing, waiting for my front end to washout (adjusting the rebound helped). I'm going to follow Trek's suspension calculator to see if that makes a difference. Never had a 27.5 and wanted something a bit more playful on the Traill.

 

[Cassinonorth]

Sounds like the high speed compression/rebound needs some adjustment.

My Ripmo is my favorite bike and it's 160 front 147 rear. To be honest it's too much for Lewis Morris though. I usually bring my downcountry bike there.

 

[Paul H]

Definitely too much bike for LewMo

 

[Ian F]

I can only add I had a really hard time going back to my 27.5 wheel DH bike after spending a lot of time on a 29er trail bike. It just felt like the bike couldn't roll over anything and got sucked into every little hole. I know it was more me than the bike or wheel size, but after a few more rides I ended up selling it and ended up with the full 29er Megatower I have now for mostly park riding and occasional trail riding. Compared to my much lighter and quicker handling Ryve 115, the Megatower is definitely takes a lot more effort to ride on trails, even when I fit it with less aggressive wheels and tires than the pure DH setup I usually have on it.

 

[jdog]

I just sold off my Mach 6 as I could not get comfortable with a 27.5 front wheel. I replaced it with a Orbea Rallon in a 27.5r/29er f setup. The mixed wheel works great for me. Yes this is too much travel (160mm/170mm) much of the time, but man is this bike fun. I first rode it in straight 29er and I couldn't get comfortable with how big it felt.

Point being is that 160mm is borderline too much, but if you want one bike for everything, I think it's worth dragging it around so you have it when you need it.. unless all your riding buddies are riding 120mm bikes.

I will also say that I also have a Pivot trail 429 in 120mm/140mm and that bike can do most anything comfortably and it might be the sweet spot for NJ .

 

[Glenn Rides After 4 PM CST]

I ride Chimney Rock all the time. I felt my 160mm Mach 6 was overkill. I also had a mach 429 trail 130mm and a 429 SL 100mm at the time.
My 429 trail was my favorite bike ever, untill I got an Occam.
I now ride a 140mm Orbea Occam It's a pretty solid in between travel.
I've raced it XC this year as well.

 

[jdog]

I ride Chimney Rock all the time. I felt my 160mm Mach 6 was overkill. I also had a mach 429 trail 130mm and a 429 SL 100mm at the time.
My 429 trail was my favorite bike ever, untill I got an Occam.
I now ride a 140mm Orbea Occam It's a pretty solid in between travel.
I've raced it XC this year as well.

The Occam at 140/140 is for a sweet spot for NJ in a lot of ways.

 

[stb222]

I rode a 5010, 140/130 for 3 years and that amount of travel is probably the best comprise if you only have one bike. I moved to a pivot Mach 5.5 that is 160/140 and it is just on the Good side of being too much.

 

[shrpshtr325]

I happen to have the very same bike (remedy) and the suspension took some work to dial in correctly. The trek calculator was an ok starting point but was not the be all perfect setup.

That said you mentioned 2 parks that I would never take the bike to; its just too much for those parks imo but then I would take my hardtail to both cr or lewmo.

If you were to have only one bike I would agree with the above that a 140/130mm bike is ideal as an all around bike. From trek that is the fuel ex.

Also a note my 18.5 (m/l) weights 32.7 lbs not what I would consider a light bike, not terribly heavy for what it is but still not light

 

[boz]

There is a small window for returns and they happen to have the Occam....

appreciate all of the feedback its been helpful!

 

[mtbiker87]

Your issues sound more like suspension tuning issues, rather than issues with amount of travel, or bike design, but yeah, that's more bike than you need for those parks. Since I bought a short travel full sus bike 2 years ago, my 160 bike has seen less than 100 miles put on it, 90% of them at DH parks. My 130/120
bike does almost everything my big bike did, usually faster, climbs better, and makes riding most trails more fun.

 

[scott62]

Definitely too much bike for LewMo

A time trial road bike is to much bike for LewMo

 

[Ian F]

Your issues sound more like suspension tuning issues, rather than issues with amount of travel, or bike design, but yeah, that's more bike than you need for those parks. Since I bought a short travel full sus bike 2 years ago, my 160 bike has seen less less than 100 miles put on it, 90% of them at DH parks. My 130/120
bike does almost everything my big bike did, usually faster, climbs better, and makes riding most trails more fun.

I agree - you can probably tune an enduro bike's suspension to work better as a trail bike, but if you take it to a bike park, you'll probably want to return it to more park friendly settings. If you are a constant knob twister, this might not be a big deal. If you are more of a "set and forget" type, then having to record and reset the suspension every few rides might be annoying.

 

[bergsnj]

my daily trail bike is 170mm front, 150 rear. all depends on your style of riding and what you like. I dont take it to bike parks, thats what the DH bike is for

 

[qclabrat]

@boz if you have a return window, I'd definitely give something else different a try. Many here have moved between 29 and 27.5+ and the debate still continues. I typically ride mediums and have recently gone back to 29s. My squish bikes are140/135 (Banshee Prime)and 160/160 (Orbea Rallon). CR and LM are also my local haunts as a rec rider, so can offer some thoughts. I'm the type of guy who likes more travel than most but for LM, I usually take a hardtail with bigger tires, but even the Banshee isn't overkill for me. For CR and up north when I ride the Banshee I sometimes want a little more, and I'd take the Orbea but its an older 27.5 model and wished it pedaled better, though I'm sure a tune would help. I've demo'd many bikes which I thought I would like, but didn't and were surprised by some which I didn't even consider. Seems you've ridden enough to know what you want. Try a tune like others have mentioned for the Remedy and also demo a 29r, todays 29rs are very different from your Turner of yesterday. If I only rode CR and LM, I'd go with less travel. I'm starting to look for a new bike later in the year to replace the Orbea so travel in the 150-160 range, but will definitely be a 29r. Lastly, the tires may also attribute to your feedback, I've never liked Bonty tires up front, though in the rears, been spectacular for me.

 

[boz]

Well. just found out that they will not be able to exchange it so going to make the most of it. You guys helped me lots with your different perspectives.
Tonight setup begins! already off to a good start, the front tire had 30 psi and the trek calc recommends 21 psi

 

[2Julianas]

My Ripmo is my favorite bike and it's 160 front 147 rear. To be honest it's too much for Lewis Morris though. I usually bring my downcountry bike there.

^this! I'm not the first up the climbs but man its a fun bike. I lock out the suspension on sustained climbs.

 

[goldsbar]

You have suspension setup issues. Remedy is known for being a relatively poppy bike for the amount of travel, so it shouldn't be boring at places like LewMo. Hopefully this pastes correctly; I went a little crazy on the Trek website before buying a Slash. The Remedy is much less of a long/low/slack bike and more of a 1/2 generation behind, which is probably good for your riding.

Frame size

Position

Seat tube

ST Angle

Effective ST

HT length

Head angle

Effective TT

BB Height

BB Drop

Chainstay length

Offset

Trail

Wheelbase

Standover

Frame reach

Frame stack

20 Top Fuel

ML

Low

44.5

68.0°

75.0°

9.0

67.5°

61.5

33.7

3.6

43.5

4.4

10.7

116.8

73.5

45.6

59.4

21 Slash

ML

Low

43.5

66.6°

75.6°

10.5

64.1°

62.9

34.5

2.9

43.7

4.3

13.4

124.3

74.3

46.9

62.6

21 Remedy

ML

Low

44.5​

68.0°

74.2°

10.5​

65.6°

60.4​

34.9​

1.6​

43.5​

4.6​

11.5​

118.4​

76.8​

43.5​

59.6​

 

[boz]

I happen to have the very same bike (remedy) and the suspension took some work to dial in correctly. The trek calculator was an ok starting point but was not the be all perfect setup.

That said you mentioned 2 parks that I would never take the bike to; its just too much for those parks imo but then I would take my hardtail to both cr or lewmo.

If you were to have only one bike I would agree with the above that a 140/130mm bike is ideal as an all around bike. From trek that is the fuel ex.

Also a note my 18.5 (m/l) weights 32.7 lbs not what I would consider a light bike, not terribly heavy for what it is but still not light

I had several Kona stinky's that I rode Chimney on at over 35lbs back in the day, heavy but fun. There are still some nice rock ledges and steep rollers where the suspension will come in handy.

 

[Ryan.P]

I still love 27.5 bikes. One thing I've noticed between them and 29ers is the setup . I feel the 29er is a lil more forgiving if suspension or tire pressure is off . Get that thing setup a lil better and slap sum turns .