The New New Mountain Bike Megathread: bars with eyes freak meowt

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > The Great Outdoors > The New New Mountain Bike Megathread: bars with eyes freak meowt

abigserve: Sep 13, 2009; this is a better avatar than what I had before

Guys, I'm really keen to get back into mountain biking but I'm having a hard time deciding whether to go an E-MTB like the Trek Fuel EXE or to get a normal dual suspension trail bike.

For context, we have a world renowned mountain bike trail system about 20 minutes from my house as well as several other extremely high quality trails within a short driving distance ranging from green to double black diamond.

The prevailing rhetoric from both my local mates who ride as well as all the bike shops is "noone in their right mind would buy a non e-mtb anymore". Is it true? What do you guys think?

# ¿ Oct 10, 2023 11:48

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 10, 2024 12:34

abigserve: Sep 13, 2009; this is a better avatar than what I had before

Look, my mates all have e-mtbs so there's a heavy bias there. I'm in reasonably good shape from running but not very bike fit, at least compared to a few years ago.

# ¿ Oct 10, 2023 12:33

abigserve: Sep 13, 2009; this is a better avatar than what I had before

Aphex- posted:

How much elevation is this world renowned trail system?

Its like 2500 feet, it's Mount Stromlo in CBR if you wanna look it up (also; to be fair, apparently it is more accurate to say it was, at one point, world renowned as it hosted a couple world championships around the time I was an active rider)

I think you guys have sorta swung me back around, and the price differential makes good sense as well.

# ¿ Oct 10, 2023 12:57

abigserve: Sep 13, 2009; this is a better avatar than what I had before

VacaGrande posted:

Stromlo-posting as I ride there a lot:

It's not 2500 feet of elevation difference which I think they were asking, 2500 is the actual elevation of the peak. It's about 700ft of elevation gain/loss on the front side and 400 on the back side where the more technical stuff is. If you ride the back side a lot an ebike would be nice, as all the fire roads back up from the bottom on that side have pretty steep pitches (up to 30 percent on Casuarina). I ride it regularly on my leg-powered 120mm bike where I'm outgunned on both suspension travel and watts but I make it work, and I vastly prefer a lighter non-e-bike for all the other riding in town. That said, I agree with the above that if all your buddies ride e-bikes and you'll be sticking to winch-and-plummet riding it's probably good to get one too so you can all ride together. Maybe demo a bike or borrow one and see how you go riding with them not on an e-bike?

Yeah I'm thinking about sending a non e-mtb but not going all out with the build and then re-evaluating in 12 months or so. Thanks everyone for the responses, they've been really helpful!

# ¿ Oct 11, 2023 01:05

abigserve: Sep 13, 2009; this is a better avatar than what I had before

So I wanted to close the loop on my story.

I ended up buying a Norco Optic C3. It came in at a really good price, there was really only one other option and it was a big step back component wise.

I took it to Stromlo today and rode up the greens with one blue in the middle on the way up, then greens all the way down. We stopped short of the steepest climb because of time constraints.

The climb was really fun. Definitely I was totally outpaced by the emtb but I still got up there fine.

Downhill was great. Hit a few of the jumps and a couple of the little baby drops. Felt extremely confident the whole way.

Overall; mission success.

# ¿ Oct 13, 2023 10:11

abigserve: Sep 13, 2009; this is a better avatar than what I had before

I almost died on a blue trail today ama

a mate pointed me at a line that was "good for practicing drops but maybe stop after the first one" and i was like ok sick, so I did the first one and handled it pretty primo so I was like lets just see the rest of this line through

well about halfway through there's another drop that *surely* is twice the height at least and onto like, flat?! maybe if you hit it with enough speed you land on a downslope but I was going pretty fast (which is why I didn't stop when I saw it) and it was a true "I am about to die going over the bars" moment

# ¿ Nov 6, 2023 11:30

abigserve: Sep 13, 2009; this is a better avatar than what I had before

Does anyone have any good tips on getting more confident cornering on berms or is it a case of simply riding more?

I've watched a few good youtube instructional videos and I think I'm just not confident enough to send it through without braking, which only makes it worse!

# ¿ Nov 23, 2023 04:25

abigserve: Sep 13, 2009; this is a better avatar than what I had before

There's a pump track like a 5 min ride from my house. That's probably the strategy surely

# ¿ Nov 23, 2023 05:08

abigserve: Sep 13, 2009; this is a better avatar than what I had before

Anyone have good recommendations for elbow/knee pads and a full face? I'm riding more than I expected (twice a week at least...) so I should really be as protected as possible even though I'm not hitting anything too hard. I read a story on reddit about a guy loving splitting his face open going over a small jump and I was like man - gently caress that!

# ¿ Nov 28, 2023 00:40

abigserve: Sep 13, 2009; this is a better avatar than what I had before

I'll definitely try a few on; the comfort on longer rides is the biggest thing I'm worried about for sure.

# ¿ Nov 28, 2023 01:20

abigserve: Sep 13, 2009; this is a better avatar than what I had before

@VacaGrande; how the gently caress do you ride some of the features on Blue Tongue at stromlo? There's one which is like, straight up a rock after a tight left turn. There's no run up or anything!

# ¿ Nov 30, 2023 23:41

abigserve: Sep 13, 2009; this is a better avatar than what I had before

Imo, because I was in your situation just recently!

If you already have a gravel bike buying a full sus will add the most scope to your riding. You'll be able to take on more trails and go to bike parks and all that other good stuff

# ¿ Dec 3, 2023 23:38

abigserve: Sep 13, 2009; this is a better avatar than what I had before

VacaGrande posted:

I think you're talking about the one just after the fire trail crossing... I don't get that one 100% of the time, it's hard!. I usually clean it if it's not the first singletrack of the day but I need to be in the right head space. Too often I'm hitting it with my HR through the roof coming straight off the steepest part of the fire trail climb (fire trails to there then Heartbreaker is a quick way to the top from the cafe).

For me, I don't get it right if I don't get through the left turn lined up straight to roll into the first rock with my wheels straight-on. From memory, I then get the bike light on the front, weight a little back to get up the first rock, then shift my weight up and forward almost like a hop to get up the second smaller step. It helps to get a little momentum into it after you get through the turn so you don't stall. It's tricky because the two steps are almost perfectly spaced with the wheelbase of the bike.

One thing I'd recommend is to practice on the Evolution climb for little step-ups like that, there's a section near the start with three lines up that you can work through. They go easier to harder from left to right if I remember correctly. The middle and the right lines are tricky in the same way that the section you're thinking of is, and it's an great spot to session.

Definitely the biggest thing is the heart rate, you nailed it. I can picture in my head how to get up there but I can't make the body do it, it's usually too gassed by that point.

Evolution is exactly where I've been practicing! I've done the middle line once so far and I almost made it but got tripped up by the last rock at the top.

# ¿ Dec 4, 2023 04:43

abigserve: Sep 13, 2009; this is a better avatar than what I had before

We had a cool change here so I went for a long, uninterrupted session on the mountain. Did a bunch of blue climbs and then the blue flow trail down a couple times.

Didn't see too many lads out there climbing but heaps doing the downhill runs which is good to see.

# ¿ Dec 10, 2023 08:23

abigserve: Sep 13, 2009; this is a better avatar than what I had before

Opinions on Cushcore for trail riding? Will do a tubeless swap when I need to replace the tyres and I've heard good things besides being hard to install.

# ¿ Dec 12, 2023 12:35

abigserve: Sep 13, 2009; this is a better avatar than what I had before

The number 1 tip I got from those videos, and others on youtube, is to always look up and forward. Jumps, drops and corners all feel sooo much smaller when you aren't staring directly at them

# ¿ Dec 20, 2023 01:19

abigserve: Sep 13, 2009; this is a better avatar than what I had before

oXDemosthenesXo posted:

So far I've been either driving my bike around on a car top carrier, or tossing it in the car itself. Its a hatchback so plenty of space for that.

Neither solution is great. The roof rack is a pain in the rear end to load onto and I'm always paranoid that I'll forget its there and drive into my garage with it loaded. Putting it in the car is both awkward and is slowly filling my car with dirt.

What every sensible person seems to do is use a hitch carrier that supports their bikes by the wheels. This solves all of my issues besides needing to buy a bunch of stuff.

Any recommendations for a 2 bike rack? I'll be mounting it to a Mazda 3 hatchback which is pretty low. In my quick research it seems like there's a threshold around $500 where all of the major brands offer a good option.

I also need to add a hitch to the car, which seems fairly straightforward. Is there any real advantage of a 2" hitch over a 1-1/4"? The larger size seems to be 2x the price but I doubt it offers any advantage for hauling bikes around.

I have a kuat carrier and it's great. The new model is apparently even better!

It takes about 30 seconds for me to install onto the car now and that includes putting the lock and the bike on. It also includes an integrated bike stand!

# ¿ Dec 30, 2023 01:00

abigserve: Sep 13, 2009; this is a better avatar than what I had before

I was worried when i bought the Optic the travel would hold me back going down and it really doesn't at all, I'm not very fast but I can hit the jumps and drops on the blue lines and I've never once thought "gee I wish I had more suspension for that part"

If you're trying to rocket down at mach 1 for sure it'll matter but the compromise is uphill efficiency and imo if you're climbing for 30 minutes and descending for 5 I know where the return on investment is...

# ¿ Jan 30, 2024 04:05

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 10, 2024 12:34

abigserve: Sep 13, 2009; this is a better avatar than what I had before

Make sure you have a dropper post!

# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 10:30

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > The Great Outdoors > The New New Mountain Bike Megathread: bars with eyes freak meowt