[Closed] When is a bike ‘too much' bike?

It's a phrase I really dislike, too much bike.

My next door neighbour drives a Lamborghini , I'm sure he doesn't care if it's too much car for his commute.

Ride a bike that makes you happy, life's too short to worry too much.

When it's a Karpiel Armageddon. That's when.
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Not sure but I've just bought a 160mm travel 29er

when you're not going fast enough

Depends on the riding/your skill really.

I had a whyte G150 and rode it (badly) on some fairly gnarly stuff and it was great but on trail centre and stuff more my level it was too much in that it just took everything too much in its stride.

Just felt like it was so far in its comfort zone I could just point it at stuff and hang on didn't matter how bad I was riding it would make it through. At first I thought it was great making me go faster and making things much easier... This wore off after a while and it was just too much bike and made my riding go backwards if anything just relying on the bike.

Very happy with my choice to go to a 120mm travel 650+ hardtail makes me ride properly(or crash) and I'm actually riding faster on now it's forcing me to ride better.

Wouldn't say it was a bad bike at all just not the right bike for me at this stage in my riding, but if you just want to keep up with your mates without trying to hard it would be great.

150mm Stumpjumper would give you a bike you could happily ride 95% of UK trails on.

when you're not going fast enough

This, sort of- for me it's when having 'less' bike, generally meaning lighter, less travel, would make the riding you are doing more fun. Thats incredibly subjective though!

I have just changed from a 110mm FS 29r to a 140mm 27.5 HT

Fancied something different.

It's all relative to what you ride and how you ride it.

I'm a heap faster on my fs than the hardtail and that prevents the fs being too much bike.

The fs (a camber evo, 29r/120) is however about the limit of what I would have before I think I would feel I wasn't getting any more benefit / which I think is being over biked. My skill and bravery levels are probably the limiting factor along with being based in the South where big slabs and head sized boulders are not the norm.

If I lived in the peaks or lakes I'd probably have a bit more bike before I felt like that to maintain that smooth bump swallowing ability.

When your local trails become boring after all the enduroists have straightlined alll the corners.

When it feels like a chore to ride it and there is no reward. If 90% of your riding is on smooth rolling trails that would fly by under a 100mm ht then hauling a 160mm enduro bike round all day for the non tech descents for me would be pointless.
Personally I'd just ride better trails 😉

TBH it's about you, the bike, the trails... Some big bikes carry themselves well, my Remedy frinstance is a big honkin bike but is still great fun on simpler trails. Or so I find it, ymmv, that's half the issue here. But some big bikes don't like to lower themselves to this.

this overbiked myth is all backwards. It is often suggested that the better rider you are the more travel you need, but in reality good riders don't need the travel. they can ride their bikes over any terrain with little or no suspension. they ride the trail at the right speed and when they land they use nearly zero travel. actually I think that its the less skilled riders that need the travel as they more often than not cock up that gap jump and land on the top of the ramp rather than on the downward slope, or clatter through the rock garden hitting every rock on the way rather than 'riding light' and skipping over the tops of the rocks. the real measure of a rider is actually those tackling big stuff on short travel bikes and not long travel ones.

These days there seems to be little downside to longer travel bikes - suspension seems to have advanced such that the traditional downsides are not so much these days and weight wise there is a small disadvantage to carrying around that extra capability, so if you want a one-bike 'quiver killer' then long travel seems the way to go. If you can afford thee or four bikes then you can get ones tailored to specific things and pick the appropriate weapon.

These days there seems to be little downside to longer travel bikes - suspension seems to have advanced such that the traditional downsides are not so much these days and weight wise there is a small disadvantage to carrying around that extra capability,

I think the too much or over biked it comes in when you don't use the extra capabilities, your just carrying them round.

Hitting the sweet spot is ever evolving, haven't reached it yet but have got close, I think I'm 4 bikes away and several thousand spent to get their. Then I'll fancy a change. Good luck. Cheers 1 shed.

Depends entirely on the places you ride and how the suspension is set up.

I guess you choose to carry around too much 'capability' around most of the time or too little some of the time - its a balance of compromise. But after riding shorter travel trail bike and a longer travel 'enduro' bike back to back I struggle to feel the downsides of the bigger bike. Both brilliant bikes and far better than I am as a rider. OK, only one test ride on each so not exactly intimate with either bike, but if you want one bike and cannot afford multiple bikes to suit your different rides then a longer travel bike seems to offer the better all round capability.

But in answer to the OP's original question when I entered the 'overbiked' arena it actually spurred me on to stretch myself and my skills and i'm a better rider as a result. I'm still overbiked, but a bit less so than before. I'm tackling trail features that before I thought were beyond me and considering tackling features I simply thought were in the realms of fantasy before - for me. I'm still overbiked but I fluff things up more often than not so the extra suspension comes in handy when I do fluff things up and i'm glad of it. The extra suspension has saved my skin and probably a few broken bones a few times, so totally worth it in my experience. It's all about fun at the end of the day.

There was a long period when (according to Strava) my time over a tough 5-minute down hill segment on my Nomad was only about 17 seconds quicker than on my hardtail.

That rather suggested that a massive #enduro bike wasn't the magic ingredient to going fast. Which led me to conclude that the hardtail was plenty of bike, and the Nomad was perhaps a bit of a silly waste of money.

I've since managed to get slightly more of a gap....

🙂

Different bikes for different occasions, the better the rider the less travel the rider needs, I've seen a guy on a 100mm hardtail lefty leave for dust a 150-160mm enduro bike on the Cutgate descent.

The bike mags main aim is to sell bikes, to me overbiked is a bike that the rider doesn't/can't get the most out off.
For the majority of uk riding a 100mm hardtail is plenty adequate although everyone likes the better things in life, a bigger suspension offers the opportunity for the less skilled to make the wrong line and come of unscarred..

I'm always embarrassed for the fat lads at trail centres who are sat on £3-4K bikes that have to get off and push up the slightest inclines

I think I'm 4 bikes away and several thousand spent to get to their (the sweet spot)

For my area and the riding I do a rigid SS is perfect. Anymore than that would be too much bike for me and my riding (with exception of maybe having a few gears)

If I lived in another area with very challenging terrain I would no doubt have too little bike and not enjoy it. Just a case of being honest with yourself and what types of riding you actually do but it does;t really matter a lot whatever bike you ride does it.

I'm always embarrassed for the fat lads at trail centres who are sat on £3-4K bikes that have to get off and push up the slightest inclines

Why do you care?

Only time I've felt overbiked is riding a DH bike, where the bike is SO much more capable than my ability. For it not to feel like a supertanker (not in a good way) I had to ride so quick, for me, that I scared myself a bit. Slow down to a less scary speed and it just felt heavy, sluggish and harsh.

I've no doubt with practice, and a dose of growacet, I'd get more confident, but I'd rather be closer to the bikes limits (160mm gnarpoon) than mine.

Can only echo what other people have said, it all depends on your preference on what kind of riding you enjoy.

I started off on hardtails/rigids back in the 90's. First full suss was a Commencal Meta, that thing felt like it could take on the world. My riding grew as a result to the point where the frame cracked. I then went for a Nukeproof Mega, took up Enduro racing and started riding bigger stuff. Kind of peaked with a carbon 160mm travel Cube Stereo. Awesome bikes but it actually started to become a little dull in a way. The kind of riding it was built for was becoming difficult to achieve so I started to choose my hardtail more regularly on my local trails which is now where I ride 90% of the time.

I've now got a long travel hardtail (Stanton Switchback) which just never ceases to amaze me in what it can do. I recently went to Scotland (on a rare trip out!) and we did a day at Innerleithen on the uplift. I started the day on a friends Giant Glory but just found it a massive pain. Went back to the Switchback and on some of the runs I was riding so much quicker, chasing my friends down on their DH rigs was great fun!

I think what I'm getting at is that if riding is getting boring on your regular trails, take a step back. Being 'over-biked' I think takes the fun out of riding, it certainly did for me.

I have an uber lightweight 100mm 26" hardtail for just jumping on and riding as well as using for commute and a Cannondale Trigger Carbon for going doing heavier stuff and trail centres and I wouldn't change it for the world.

It's all bollox anyay, sometimes the fun is in riding an inappropriate bike (either direction)

I dragged my Cove Shocker around Whites Level at Afan once when my Trail Bike broke rather than stay at home, that was too much bike, but I still had a lot of fun (once I dragged it's 20kgs up the bloody hill)

The answer is that most people have too much bike most of the time.
Look at how fast the XC world cup guys are able to ride some properly gnarly features on 100mm bikes.
The rest of us spend most of our time on trails half as gnarly and ride them half as fast, but the media have persuaded us we all need enduro sleds, which despite weighing as much as a small ship and climbing like a hippo, they really do have no drawbacks right?

Pretty sure if they threw away their preconceptions most people would find the sweetspot at around 120mm. We see 140mm bikes show up under top riders at EWS on a fairly regular basis and they hit stuff a lot harder than average joe.

{}[I'm always embarrassed for the fat lads at trail centres who are sat on £3-4K bikes that have to get off and push up the slightest inclines]
Why do you care?{}

i dont particularly, its good to see anyone out on the bike getting some exercise, over the monotonous shoppingtrips many seem to do weekend in weekend out

just IMHO if you are gonna buy something, you may as well use it to its functionality, same with 4WDs i'd buy one if i felt the need to drive offroad :0)

I had a 2010 stumpy fsr as my only bike for the last 6 years. It was fine as a do it all bike, fine on all day rides, round trail centres or in the peaks. It's very capable and I never felt over or under biked

Have just replaced it and was going to get the bike you are going to get but noticed the 6fattie version that for the extra money was much better spec'd with 1x11 and fox 34's. I would try one of these as well, the larger tyres don't drag like I expected them to and the grip is amazing up hill and in the corners.

Chris

I'm always embarrassed for the fat lads at trail centres who are sat on £3-4K bikes that have to get off and push up the slightest inclines

Is this because you think if they were on 'less bike' they would be riding not pushing, or just a general dig at fat lads who would be pushing up irrespective but heaven forbid are getting out there anyway?

I guess there is a general perception that short travel, steeper angled bikes are lighter and sharper so they go up inclines and around twisty stuff a bit better. If you get back to the carpark and the dust/O ring position indicates you didn't use your full travel you might just have had more fun with 'less' bike with little noticeable drop in fun in the more gnar sections. Or you might not. If you don't race should you care - not sure anymore. Bigger bikes are so much better at the climbing/twisty stuff than they once were that, within limits, having a bigger bike than you need for most of the time is less of a disadvantage whilst opening up opportunities. I know it's hearsay but n+1 might need questioning as the goto number of bikes!

Any FS, for me anyway. I'm not good/fast/brave enough to get the most out of anything with rear suspension and riding a HT makes me feel like I'm pushing the limits of the bike rather than the other way around. It's not all about 'fast', I like a bit of 'ragged' as well 😆

amedias - Member
It's all bollox anyay, sometimes the fun is in riding an inappropriate bike (either direction)

Totes. Agree.

FWIW - I have a range of bikes, from rigid CX, to 80mm HT, to 140mm FS 'rig' and each has its merits, even on exactly the same trails.

CX round the Beast at CyB? Probably silly fun.. 140mm FS on a blue family trail? - probably also fun, in a way, on the right day..

What the 140mm FS has shown me though, is how to ride sections of trail that I would shy away from on lesser bikes. Then, having ridden them on 140mm FS, I find I have the confidence to ride them on a 120mm hardtail..

they can ride their bikes over any terrain with little or no suspension. they ride the trail at the right speed and when they land they use nearly zero travel.

Yes, that's why top level downhillers spend days setting up their suspension, because they don't need to use it 🙄

OP, 150mm as a do it all bike is fine, so's a hard tail. Ride what you like.

I've got an hardtail Scandium Kona Kula and rigid carbon forks 26 inch wheels... and run a 3x9 chain set up for the gears, though I do have disc brake! Its light very light titanium parts and carbon but still strong I wouldn't put say a feather weight set of wheels on it. But still I can have fun on it and I'm not doing air on it or drop offs or downhill. I like to ride singletrack, uphill (not pushing or ski lifts) and a bit of road riding to get to trails. Suits me better than anything on the market at present trend or in a magazine. I'm a dinosaur of the MTB world from a magazine or retail perspective.

If I was only into throwing the bike in the car or van and driving to a gnarly trail park or Lycra type 'down hill' tracks and clicking my bike on a lift or be willing to push it up hills I can piss easily bike up on my bike I would buy more bike to make the experience better. I also don't like too much maintenance with my bike, mud is a killer on a modern long travel bike so if your not using its potential its extra cost and fiddling. I'm guessing most people really into the sport would need two bikes, medium travel, lightish, full susser and a more XC orientated style hardtail bike.

Punctuate, dude, punctuate.

I've got a commencal meta am with 160mm lyriks and a ragley blue pig running the forks at 120mm at the moment as it doesn't really get thrashed about anymore.

I'm never gonna win any races up a hill so the commies ability downhill out weighs it's lack of pedaling ability for me (although it's not actually that bad going up hill). I'm thinking of getting rid of the blue pig and replacing it with a 29er HT like a coitc solaris for longer xc rides. For me I think that'd be the perfect set up.

I'm taking the commie out to the proper french mountains next week but will also be doing some family riding so will be massively 'over biked' but I can't fit any more bikes on the rack!!

What a lot of twaddle ... have any of you read Chipps' editorial in Issue 107? 🙂

I'm fortunately not in the position of only having one bike, or wanting a 'quiver killer', I'll be keeping the Scandal for XC rides/fun racing/very local stuff. The full sus is to compliment it, having the soul and the scandal was too much overlap.

I'm just questioning if 150mm is maybe too much travel for my needs, I'm sold on getting a fs. I purposely didn't say where I ride, but within an hour I have:

Hopton Woods
Mortimer & Bringewood
Long Mynd
Eastridge
Nant yr Arian
BPW
Black Mountains
FoD

I'd normally take the Soul to any of the above, but I'm definitely more of a wheels on the ground man at the moment.

IMO, modern single crown air forks and air shocks, combined with CF frames and decent components mean you can pretty much ride up to 180mm of bike with few negatives except the cost of that bike! If you've got the money, and are NOT actually racing the i don't think you can be over biked. If you're on a budget, or are racing then yes you can, as you'll get a much lighter / freer rolling bike for much less cash if it's a short travel bike.

I have:

100mm Race HT
140mm AM HT
160mm AM FS
180mm AM FS

guess which one i ride the most......... 😆

I'm just questioning if 150mm is maybe too much travel for my needs,

maxtorque's right, there's great all-day ride >150mm bikes out there yet in most of the places a bike like that would suit some will be happiest on a 100mm 29er HT. It's about what you want a bike to feel like and your attitude to riding. imo 'overbiked' is only a thing if you find a bike wallowy and soft when you prefer taut and agile, or similar.

For the places you list, both a 100mm race bike and a 150mm Enduro bike could be fine.

"Over-biked" = shorthand for under-fit or under-trailed.

Dual ply dh tyres do generally limit my enjoyment playing round on flatish bits in the woods though, regardless of the rest of the bike. Must get fitter by training with them on I suppose!

I've got a Carbine 29 (140 FS) which is an awesome machine but recently got a Stanton 29 HT which has blown me away. I think the short back end gives better manoeuvrability and the way you can get more forward momentum pumping through the trail makes it feel very rewarding. Maybe you don't hit things as hard (not sure if I don't?) but I seem to be able to get more speed out of the trail by lifting over and pumping the trail more.