I started a hardtail 29er build in April, still not finished because I'm waiting on wheels.
In the meantime I'm doing all my local 25+ mile XC rides in the Chilterns on my 26er Nukeproof Mega, with a CCDBair, 160mm Coil Lyriks and Flows.
It's a hefty beast to drag up the climbs with my rusty legs.
Anyone else riding something a tad silly on their local XC trails.
Well I used to ride my YT Capra round the Chilterns and before that my 36lbs Transition Covert with its Hammershmitd, 2.6 inch tyres and CCDB Coil.
Sure, winching iu up hill was slow, but it was fast downhill and once I bought a second bike (XC / Trail type) I found all that effort had translated into making me faster 🙂
What I did find out was the biggest difference is down to tyres, way more so than weight. I tired a pair of fast rolling XC type tyres on the Capra, it was no longer slow.
My g160 is my everything bike. Inappropriate, nah, it's great
Anyone else riding something a tad silly on their local XC trails.
Fast gravel bike on 30mm tyres!
Privateer 161, albeit a wheel swap for xc wheels/tyres. Faster than the hardtail!
What weeksy said, 160mm Bronson for everything, uplifts, munros, local stuff, long distance stuff - It'll be doing the 95 miles of WHW in a day next month, touch wood.
I took a 20” alu Dahon folder on a trail once. It creaked. I weigh a lot. Not the best move.
A mate did a 12 hr XC endurance race on a 180mm coil, 2015 Specialized Enduro Evo, didnt finish last either...
I've sort of done the opposite since entering lockdown. I now ride literally everything on my 9kg 29er WC XC hardtail with SIDs, no dropper and 700g tyres.
I dunno if I've become some kind of masochist, or everyone else is overbiked? It is so much more fun than that heavy (30lbs, eurgh) monstrosity. Even taken a few downhill Strava KOMs (and now uphills become entertaining mini races).
My evil following with 30mm rims and 2.5 tyres has literally just sat there.
I will admit, I sort of want a dropper again. Stupid 27.2mm size and no internal routing.
I used to ride mid week XC rides with a group, one of whom would turn up on his Demo 8 with DH tyres. We weren't slow but was always near the front even on the climbs.
No such thing as over biked, just under trailed.
I've seen plenty of people on old 26" DH bikes with dual crown forks, and low seat posts, on the bedgebury red trail.
And they wonder why they're having a heart attack at the top of the biggest climb there... 😀
I am still riding this brakeless fixed gear on 25c tyres so fairly inappropriate
haha, I was also riding around the Chilts last summer on a Spesh Enduro. It was pretty good fun actually
Canyon Strive with coil front and back and DH tyres, no money for another bike so it does it all. Just minor risk of hernia crossing fences and locked gates
Seemed like a good idea at the time.
Wasn't.
My do it all 26er fitted with CCDB Coil and a coil Marzocchi fork is surprisingly good as XC bike.
Man... I had a similar Lapierre (Spicy) years back and I loved it at the time, but I can see from that pic why the front wheel used to lift on some of the steep climbs round here
In the fairly distant past, I did some sizeable XC rides round the peaks on my old schwinn straight-8 with boxxers, 321 rims, hope biguns, Michelin DH tyres and a 40t chainring. Hard work, but better than not getting out at all!
Also done a fair few on a singlespeed original DMR trailstar and one or 2 on a singlespeed Muddy Fox duel slalom hardtail with boxxer 151s up front.
In all cases, the climbing speeds were either fast/flat out or walking...
Mate did the passportes du soleil on Schwinn straight 8
reggiegasket
Member
witaf is that
My patrol does that stuff, 170/160 and set up pretty much open to soak stuff up, no climb switch or that either, but i counter this by trying my best not to do any XC!
If i do have to do it, then it's pretty slow on the ups, downs aren't much fun either if it's bog standard stuff, hence why i try to do other stuff, i don't mind stuff like FoD blue/red, but hate riding CwmCarn these days!
witaf is that
That is maybe the ugliest (and most mechanically-disadvantaged) bicycle I’ve ever seen. It must be a joke? Like a sculpture-joke? It has literally no headtube and is made from daftness.
Mountain mayhem 2006 and one of the lads took a big hit with shivers out on a couple of laps.
Something like 180 each end and definitely to be aimed downhill.
I do everything on a vitus sommet 160/170mm bike.
The micro division of bike suspension travel and genre doesn't make as much difference as the marketing would have you believe imo
My mate did the SDW in a day & HT550 in 6+/- days on a Specialized Enduro.
Other end of the spectrum, years and years ago I broke my mum's Raleigh Pioneer, step-through ladies frame and basket on the front, at Sherwood
.
I suspect still not as bad as that fixie up there ^
musttryharder
Anyone else riding something a tad silly on their local XC trails.
Does a rodbrake roadster round the StrathPuffer course count?
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My brother asked if he could borrow a bike for a ride in the pentlands. I said sure, take the grey one (my Ragley Ti). I get a text message later, this is really hard to pedal, I think it might be broken. Phoned him up and it turned out he'd taken the blue one- my Orange 224 Evo.
I started offroad riding on a 60s road race bike - tubular tyres and drop bars. I did modify it by putting wider range gears on - 2x5 and inverted the drops
Out in the pentlands yesterday I met a chap on a 20" wheel folding ebike.
I did the sdw in a day on a freeride bike weighing 45lbs. I used to use it as a do-everything bike, so it wasnt the only xc it did, but it was the longest.
Also did london to brighton on a bmx
As I always say, just ride the bike you enjoy riding. Who cares if it is appropriate or not and many bikes are actually not as bad as people would imagine once trying it. Saying that, I gave up riding a BMX off road after a few months as they are too hard work even though I enjoyed riding it.
My partner picked me up from work on a Friday with bikes in the car for a wee summer evening spin round the red at Glentress - turned out he hadn’t brought my xc bike … but my Norco 4by … he said I needed the training. 😂 This was in the days before the freeride area, and when Spooky Wood was still skinny, rooty singletrack. The climbs were brutal, but I rode the descents like a pro (relatively speaking). 😄
Knolly warden....started as 170 front 155 rear coil 27.5 bike now a mullet bike 150 29er fork and 155 coil rear.
My xc bike is a fatbike
Like somebody up ^ there, I did the SDW in a day on a daft bike - Bullit with suprtacky tyres on it
Finished but I can't really remember the last 30 miles or so at all
There are number of young chaps round here who ride along the promenade to the local beach on their Specialized Demos. Looks like it’s the only thing they do on them looking at how pristine the bikes are.
Used to have a Mr O with a triple ring on it. Pace Monsters, Tioga DH tyres, Hope Big Uns. Used for 40 mile ride once. Good resistance training.
I'm getting some light tyres and using my Trailstar LT. Will do some minor dietary stuff but should be good for it. Maybe.
I have only one bike a 2018 yt capra, so all my riding is done on that.
Tyres make the biggest difference to performance, if I put light xc tyres on the capra it would be way faster uphil, but I'd get a puncture within 100metres of the first downhill.
The spec on my bike (Aeris 145LT) that I rode in a XC marathon race is the same as what I'll be riding downhill courses in the alps in a few weeks. Didn't come last either lol
I gave up riding a BMX off road after a few months as they are too hard work
Interesting, although it wasn't front suspension or disc brakes that I wanted. It was hard work because you couldn't sit down and because the small wheels didn't carry speed well over bumpy surfaces.
Thanks @qwertry, I'd managed to forget about those bikes. Supertruckers of the 21st century!
Friend of mine ended up in hospital requiring reconstructive surgery on his face after riding a xc race and the handle bars tipping forward on one particularly fast descent.
47 mile XC ride in the Galloways yesterday, a rigid krampus, 120mm horsethief, and a 160mm Bronson.
Ride what you want. 😊
