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Afternoon all,
I've got a Specialized Stumpjumper FSR 650B Evo (or whatever order the words are meant to be in!!), and whilst I like it in almost every way, the bottom bracket is [i]really[/i] low. I find I'm clipping the ground 4-5 times on an average 12 mile ride with my kids round Swinley on a Saturday morning, and it gets worse on less even natural trails such as the Surrey Hills.
At some point, I'll look to change to 1x11 or 1x12, so I suppose at that point I could go for slightly shorter cranks to raise the pedal height slightly, but is there any way of raising the BB height a little? Even 10mm would probably make a significant difference, and restore my confidence somewhat.
Fat-ass tyres
Shorter cranks.
bunny hop?
Wait a few years for this stupid fad of low bbs to end and return to old geometry as the latest big thing.
Had this problem with my commencal hip hop. The suspension stroke was very linear so would catch when shock was compressing and I was still pedalling.
A volume reducer in the can has made a huge difference giving more support in the mid stroke without losing much, if any small bump sensitivity.
Raising the BB is likely to make handling worse.
I'd look at increasing shock pressure, or increasing the ramp-up - you may have a knob to twiddle or you may have to put in tokens.
I lowered the BB on my Patriot - vastly improved handling but I had to increase the progressiveness of the shock to max to get rid of pedal strikes on certain trails.
Lift your bike up?!
I'll take a look at the Shock, thanks. It comes with a setting button that automatically sets the pressure, but I think maybe it's time to look past that...
More suspensions*
Side effects made include head tube departure from frame, questionable handling.....
On a more serious note, I take it the suspension setup is reasonable for your weight?
Is it pedaling over stuff? Pedaling along? Descending?
Wheelie everywhere.
Pump tyres up harder; shorter cranks; more practice; spds (they are skinnier than flats so less to clip)
“Raising the BB is likely to make handling worse.”
If it’s the first 650b Stumpjumper then I highly doubt it. They used a 29er front triangle with a spacer under the headset to compensate for the shorter fork, which gave them the lowest BB height of any mainstream MTB ever.
Less sag in shock and fork, bigger tyres, shorter cranks are your easiest solutions. You can probably extend the fork by changing the air shaft, which will gain about about 3mm BB height for every 10mm of fork travel. You may be able to run offset bushes backwards to raise the BB too (which would steepen the angles but the longer fork will cancel that out).
What is the actual height both un-sagged and with rider on board?
As all the sensible options have been suggested how about Buying a rear 29er triangle and putting 29er wheels in?
You might get lucky on eBay with a broken front triangle.