Mountain Biking

neil_g said:
with respect even on a £7000 bike you will still crash if you aren't riding correctly :)
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True but in tune with what beggers mentioned, something slacker and longer in the wheelbase will definitely improve confidence and stability in steep or fast stuff.
However the downside to that is, if your confidence surpasses your ability, things will still go wrong, only, sometimes worse.:eek:
 
I thought I was doing a reasonable job on my £500 MTB - felt like I was covering ground nicely, felt like I was about as quick as I could be. That was until I bought a long low slack lightweight hardtail with a proper fork and decent running gear.

Bike turned out to be a bit of a weapon and after just 4 or 5 weeks I was slaughtering all my Strava PB's around my two favoured MTB hunting grounds.

Decent bike will uncover new skills in most people, get the right bike with the right bits and the right geometry and suddenly you're finding yourself able to carry extra speed, hit things you'd usually avoid, pedal a little harder knowing the bike will soak up big hits.

I could never go back to an XC type bike - they'd just bore the crap outa me now.
 
Begbie said:
Some nice forward geo bikes will certainly help though, espically when it comes to confidence!
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steve45 said:
True but in tune with what beggers mentioned, something slacker and longer in the wheelbase will definitely improve confidence and stability in steep or fast stuff.
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hmmmm..... true up to a point. would be internesting to know what circumstances are leading to crashes rather than throwing new kit at the problem.

again, not offence to the guy but i think this..

Saytan said:
Skills coaching sounds like the answer.....
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or at least watch some of the MBUK (i think) guide videos.
 
WRONG!

We all know the answer is always new bike :D

I agree, I intend to get coaching done when I get back to the UK. But I still think you'll find a lot more confidence/skill set from a bike designed to go down a hill.
 
Bike+1 rule! :D

But yeah my patrol is definitely confidence boosting. But I know it'd spit me out as soon as I run out of skill.
 
neil_g said:
hmmmm..... true up to a point. would be internesting to know what circumstances are leading to crashes rather than throwing new kit at the problem.

again, not offence to the guy but i think this..
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Neil (and others who have said this),

Don't worry absolutely no offence taken! You are right about skills coaching, it was something I want to do but then I felt I would get even more value out of it on a bike I felt happier with.

When new to mountain biking I tended to go over the bars from too much weight over the front, I come from road biking so tended to be quite low and forward. To combat this I got myself the dropper and I swapped to the shorter stem/wider bars. This has helps quite a bit but it still feels like it doesn't have a nice balance between enough weight on the front for grip and too much making the front dive.

Budget wise no more than £1k ideally, I enjoy working on bikes though so 2nd hand is ok (I even enjoyed rebuilding the reverb dropper!). The guys I ride with are all full suspension which I guess doesn't help too much. They have Canyon Nerve 120mm, Boardman FS 130mm & Nukeproof Mega 275 160mm.
 
Have a look through pinkbike for something similar to you're friends, if you've tried them and like them?

Or look for a slacker HT, 2nd hand. Bird Zero, Privee Shan etc.
 
So trying out a new discipline for once been a roadie since 2009, time to do some beginner trails or xc.
I know stock photo picking it up end of next week, managed to bag one of these used for £300 what you guys reckon?
Whyte 801 2015
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Yesterdays ride was 64 miles with 6150ft of climbing on my rigid 29er. Very rocky and topped out at 11350ft. I may have claw hands for the next couple of days and my legs/arms/shoulders are feeling it today.
 
How much of a difference do heavy tyres make?
I put some beefier tyres on my bike for 'Ard rock and they're still there.
I hadn't been on my MTB for a couple of months until last Saturday, and found it really hard. I also found it really quite hard (but harder than the most recent ride) the last time I was out on it. Climbing especially, even just up fire roads.

Anyway, it HAD Minion DHF / DHRII 2.3 on the 3C compound, tubeless...single ply I guess?

Now it has a DHF 2.5 DoubleDown casing, Maxxgrip compound... and an Agressor on the back 2.3 also DD casing, 3C compound I think.

They survived 'Ard Rock which no one else's in my group did. They all got at least one puncture and one guy ripped a massive hole in one of his.

I don't know the weights of them (heavy, presumably) compared to the original tyres. But it definitely doesn't seem as easy to pedal up hills as it used to.

So do I leave them on and just be fitter, over winter... or replace them with the lighter ones, since I don't need that much protection for the riding I do. (Trails centres / moors)

I've put holes in the sidewalls of two DHR II's. The first didn't seal because my sealant had gone off, but I patched it inside and out and maybe it'll be ok to re-use.

The second I tore when my rim hit a big rock, and got a bit of sharp metal that went through the sidewall just by the rim. It wouldn't seal, and repairing it doesn't seem to have worked because it's right on the rim... can't get anything to stay stuck. So I think that tyre's definitely trash. Wouldn't mind but it was like 3 hours old :(

Any thoughts? I don't want to buy another new DHR2 but I suspect I was running it at too low a pressure when it got damaged. Don't know what it was, but think I burped some air out of it going off a drop the previous ride and didn't check it before I went out the next time.
 
Jono said:
How much of a difference do heavy tyres make?
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IMO very little difference and they're worth it for the extra durability and hassle free running.

I went from lightweight to heavy. Ardent 3C EXO 2.4's to HighRollerII, 3C Max Terra, EXO, tubeless, 2.4's - totally indestructible but damn heavy.

Personally though I felt no difference in terms of the weight/feel of the bike and Strava said I was still hitting the absolute exact same top speeds (so, rolling resistance didn't seem to take the hit I expected it would) - beyond of course gaining a bucketload of extra grip which was the purpose of the exercise in the first place.

The Ardents are hanging up in my garage making a nuisance of themselves - they're actually highly rated so I should probably Ebay them or something.
 
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