So the year is 2016, and guess what?
People go out on pieces of metal and plastic still powered by their own bodies for exercise, relaxation, and transportation.
I got myself a new fun bike this year. This time it was a Mountain Bike.
So a what and why?
I decided I wanted a Hard-Tail (no rear suspension), Trail Bike.
First thing I discovered is that the mountain bike industry has gone kind of crazy with options. And most major players have bikes for riding off road with performance in range of categories.
From: Light and Fast-Up Hill to Heavy and Slow-Up Hill (but easier downhill)
Cross Country (XC) -> Trail -> All Mountain (AM) -> Enduro -> Down Hill (DH)
Basically I wanted a fun bike to ride around on, that I wasn’t going to break constantly, that I could ride on mixed trails and haul my kids on a Weehoo. Also I was just going to buy Shimano XT because eventually I always wind up buying it after breaking everything else.
What is all the new Hype in Mountain Bikes?
I have been riding Mt. Bike’s since the late ’80s in Eugene, OR
- 650B / 27.5″ wheels vs. 26″
- Tubeless Tires vs. Tubes
- 1×11 vs. 3×7 drive train
- Cammed Derailleurs vs. simple parallelogram
- Thru Axle vs. QR Skewer
- Boost 148 spacing vs. Classic 135mm
- Dropper Posts vs. Quick Release or Hight-Rite
- Modern Suspension Fork (Fox 34) vs. Rigid, early Rox Shox air, or Maintou Elastomer
- Wider Bars vs. Shoulder Width
#1 650B is for me a great idea. I am not just on 650B, but with Plus size tires (2.5 – 30 inch/62-75mm)
I found the old specialized 2.5 inch tires to be a good idea for rear. The 650B+ gives you a rolling tire similar to a 29″/700C with a 2inch tire. For shear roll over, I always liked the feel of my cyclocross bikes better than my mountain bikes. Modern geometry can get me a similar wheelbase and turning radius. With more roll over. The trade off is acceleration the bike does not feel as fast at getting going, but rolls over more. I do not miss 26″, I would consider getting a lighter pair of wheels, I could put a 29″ with a 2″ tire into my frame if I wanted something light and fast. But for all the sandy trails shared with horse riders, the extra width is nice.
#2 Tubeless Tires definitely make the more sense in combination with fat tires. You want to run lower pressure. I have the WTB Trailblazer 2.8″ tire. I almost bought new tires the first week I owned the bike with tubes in these particular tires have two problems.
- They are really really heavy (extra 400+ grams of tube rotational weight)
- They were sketchy in turns at 30PSI (not enough side nubins)
Both of the problems were resolved switching to tubeless, the accelerations difference was noticeable. And they fold differently with lateral pressure, so the nubins stay in contact with the ground more. Not noticible difference in rolling resistance.
Going Tubless was easy the WTB Scraper rims worked fine with Stan’s valves and a simple floor pump.
So far so good, will see how I feel about the maintenance at the end of the summer.
#3 1×11 drive train.
Turns out I think this is a fantastic idea! It is a compromise, I only have enough gears for mountain biking. I cannot really go faster than 50KMH (31 MPH) –calculate for yourself here– but that is good enough for trail riding. Basic stats: 32×11-42 or 6.6-1.7 gear-meters (261 – 68 gear inches)
So what do I get in exchange?
- I can climb anything I can balance for
- I get simple linear shifting
- I get even gear spacing the whole way through
- I get a chain that never jumps (partially because of wide teeth on the front chain ring)
- I get one less thing on my handle bars (to break)
- I get one less thing on frame (to break)
- I get more precise shifting
overall well worth it for the trail riding use case.
#4 Cammed Derailleur
No chain slap, that is really it, the swing arm feels stiff either on 11 or on 42, need to flip the lever to get the wheel off/on but otherwise not an issue. Having destroyed an aluminum frame with chain suck this is great.
#5 Thru Axle
Turns out to be another good idea from downhill bikes. With Lawyer Lips, the convenience of removal was never there. The big thing for me is my wife’s bike, I can press on one handlebar while standing and see the wheel flex in the fork. This does not happen with my bike leaned over at 45 degrees. It makes for a stiffer wheel, that is secure in place.
The Nalid clamps on my Marin are really easy to use and as fast as QR, BUT spare parts are impossible to find and it makes them not work any kind of bike trailer.
#6 Boost 148
All for it! I know why another spacing? The answer is that it give frames so much more breathing room for frame designs. Wider tires/more clearance are nice. Getting chain out by 3mm makes it so much easier to not have drop-outs or bottom brackets crunching. I just hope it takes off enough to make the parts standard. I don’t have any issue with Q-Factor and find it super comfy. Having killed my chain stay near the bottom-bracket, and having seen the tightness of dropout design on my wife’s bike this is a great idea.
#7 Dropper Posts
OK this is really something I could live without, but it is fun to have it, but the more I ride my bike the less I find I use it….
Basically in the real world I have a road position that is high, near maximal and if I get 1mm higher hurts my knees.
A trail position that is slightly lower than the road position but not by more than 5mm.
I have a down position for when I am feeling chicken descending, though in practice this adds very very little My center of gravity is actually pretty good in my trail position, slightly better if really really steep and sliding as I can actually put a foot down.
A technical climb position that is 5-10mm lower than trail, the problem with even lower is that there is not enough weight on the front wheel and it begins to slip. Honestly I am out of shape and cannot stay in this position for more than 2 minutes as it requires lots of force and balance to keep the front or rear wheel from slipping.
Overall I find my dropper post addictive to use, and somewhat fun/comfy but not really needed and I think it makes me slower than not having it. I swap it out when I want to ride with my kids as the Weehoo would probably crack it.
#8 Modern Forks
My Fox 34 Floats are the great. In practice on my mild trails I really on 75mm of travel, though with air-forks in practice you want the more travel even if don’t use it all every day due to the way the logarithmic compression.
The combination of Boost 148 (15mm thru axle) and the wide Fox 34 is super rigid! They just go up and down and not side to side to side. The lockout and pre-load are so smooth compared to my old forks it is just a joy to ride.
The lockout is on the dial on the right fork, it turns out I don’t need another cable on my handlebars it is easy enough to just turn the dial on the top of the fork while riding between down-hill, mixed-off-road, road (my interpretations of the lock-out modes). I do sometimes on rougher trails (lots of logs) in down-hill mode. Road-mode still does bounce a little bit and does engage on big drops but is very stiff. Down-hill mode is way too bouncy for standing while climbing.
I find it amazing how much less skill I need to handle roots … I used to hole my hands on so tight while keeping my elbows loose, and now I can be much more relaxed about this and it makes it comfortable and fast.
#9 Wide Bars
I added bar ends as I find the variability of position is very valuable for comfort and that shortening did make the bars a more reasonable width for me. The second is that I moved the brake levers fairly far in so I can use the inside edges of the grips.
This position makes sense with a much shorter stem than I have historically run. The handle-bar is over the front axle visually in this position still. It is a bit slower, but it is comfortable and gives plenty of power for holding on to wild bumps