This is going on, in their area. You gonna' be there? Add Specialized Epic, Giant Anthem, Santa Cruz Superlight (more appropriate than Tallboy), Niner Jet 9, and Rocky Mountain Element. You may have a look around MTBR.com. Though, I don't care too much what the general forums have to say, as I don't know the person doing the review. As "Gummee!" said, you gotta' ride some bikes and pick what appeals to you. You may consider a 650b/27.5" wheel size. They seem to be gaining momentum as offering the best of 26" and 29er.
I'm thinking about doing the same in sending my suspension into Fox or I also hear Push can do a great job as well. Do you have an idea off hand of what your friend paid? I think I'm still so amazed by my Giant that I don't really yet realize any shortcomings in the suspension; for 99% of the terrain I ride, the suspension is flawless. This bike continues to be my all time favorite purchase. I agree my riding position is probably doing it. I'm sure there are faster people here than I am, but I do ride very aggresively on downhill runs. I try to keep the tires off the ground as much as I can. I'll take some lower back pain if it means having 5-10 minutes of bliss. Short list before this season is new platform pedals, a tuneup, lightweight full face helmet and maybe a dropper post... maybe. I think I'm going to sport a full face for a majority of my rides next season. I narrowly escaped eating a rock last summer, and the deductible on my dental plan is high.
He broke his Gary Fisher HiMod Pro. Trek replaced it with a Fuel. Unfortunately, that platform is terrible for big dudes. Also, the fork offsets are different between the two bikes. Fox did what they could with the shock and he had the crowns swapped, valving changed, and upgraded to 15mm. I have no idea what a basic service and revalve would cost. I'd just call them. Furthermore, there's nothing like having the maufacturer do the work. You know it'll be right. You only have one set of teeth. Look after 'em.
Absolutely. Good to know about Fox - I'll call them and report here what the cost should be in case any of you are looking at the same thing. As an aside; I've heard of more Gary Fischer/Trek frames breaking than any other brand. I have no idea if there's any validity in that or not, but I personally know of 4 riders around here who have broken Trek/GF frames, one being an old, sort of fat (super nice) hippy dude who rides slow, while high as a kite listening to his Dead tunes. He's broken 2 fuel frames. :huh
Sadly, have to be at another event that weekend. FAT BIKE. No, seriously. With 4" tires it's almost like a 29er with 4" of suspension travel. And no damping.
So, I took about 5 minutes off my best time on the local 5 mile MTB trail last night. I wasn't trying to per se, I was trying my best to be smooth. (OK, my heart rate was about 10 bpm higher than normal, so maybe I was trying ) After 7 months of riding I am still not confident in my cornering ability; I know I slow too much for turns. I am getting better though, like I said, I am working on being smooth. My bike has a 3x8 gear set. I try my best to keep the front on the middle sprocket. That seems to work best for me at the moment. There is one section of switchbacks on this trail that I have to drop down to about 2nd gear to get up... oh well, I get up it.
Some of it is tire pressure. Some of it is weight over the front end. Some of it is just trusting the bike. Don't worry about what gear you're in. Spin smoothly, don't mash. When you know a climb's coming, shift down a ring and a few cogs harder to get the same relative gear ratio and get ready to start dumping cogs to maintain your spin as the trail goes up. Ride more. It'll come M
This^ and amended/fixed. Gotta have confidence in the tires when pushing hard. I recently bought a dial type tire gauge with a 30psi limit. I think it will help zero in on getting pressures setup much better than the 160psi gauge I was using. This is the unit: http://www.ebikestop.com/meiser_presta_valve_dial_gauge_with_pressure_relief_30psi-PU3009.php
Also; when possible, try keeping your outside pedal at 6 o'clock and weighting it as much as possible through the turn. A DH rider told me this once, and it works very well.
And if you shift your head over your inside elbow and point your inside knee away from the bike and toward the corner, you'll feel the bike plant itself for the turn, just a like motorcycle.
Dual suspension 29er shootout: http://www.bicycling.co.za/bikes-gear/full-suspension-mountain-bikes-29ers-reviewed/
After a google search, three bikes in that comparo seem irrelevant... since they're only available in South Africa where the test was performed: Momsen Dual Link 7, Pyga Industries ONETEN29, and Silverback Mercury Elite. I'll go ahead and throw my 2 cents in for a demo ride on a Pivot Mach 429, since I like mine so much. Here's a dealer locator for thechickencow: http://www.pivotcycles.com/dealers/region/usa
That comparison has 29ers of all different component levels, disciplines, and travel. Not much of a shootout.
Oh my! This is better than that whole Larry Armstrong/Doping/Skinny tire ride around France scandal thing! Everybody was talking about it at the trails last night, people are taking sides, friendships will be destroyed. Seems the whole fat bike vs. skier thing has really come to a head. At the race last weekend, they started the fat bikes just 2 hours after the last wave of skiers on the 50k course. The fastest fat biker beat the fastest skier by almost 10 minutes. Even I was catching up to the last few poor souls on skis praying for it to just be over. Seems it didn't go without incident- the winning biker apparently crashed into a skier or two en route to victory. The race result comments are interesting if you catch them before they get edited. Guess I need to go ahead with my "FATBIKING IS NOT A CRIME" sticker order.
