4 Tips to Instantly Make for a Better Ride
I just spent the last 3 days working with my friend and colleague Gene Hamilton or Better Ride (www.betterride.net) to become a certified Better Ride skills coach. I took a camp with Gene a few years ago and it made a huge impact on not only my riding but how I look at creating training programs to enhance technical skills. When he sent out an email telling his former students he was offering a chance to become a coach for him I jumped on it.
Besides learning how to teach basic and advanced skills I also learned some great things about bike set up. Here are the top 4 things that Gene says will instantly help improve anyone’s ride (yes, even an XC rider):
1) Shorter Stem – long stems (90+ mm stems) are a left over from road bikes and beach cruisers. A shorter stem will actually give you more control and help you stay in a more balanced position. In fact, Gene feels so strongly about it that he offers his students a “buy back” guarantee – if one of them buys a shorter stem and doesn’t love it he’ll buy it back from them. To date no one has took him up on the offer.
2) Wider Handle Bars – Gene recommends a 27-30 inch bar. Wider bars give you better leverage for steering and standing pedaling. Wider bars also help you keep your elbows out which aid in breathing and steering. While some of it depends on your body size, wider bars equal better control.
3) Droppable Seatpost – Getting your seatpost down will help you get into a better position when descending and let you make better use of your legs to help absorb shock. I personally have a friend who refused to lower his seatpost on descents – two broken wrists later (thanks to getting launched over his handlebars) he is the proud owner of a droppable seatpost.
4) Wider Tires – Wider tires offer a bigger contact patch. This gives you more traction which equals more control. Plus, Schwalbe tires have produced a study that shows that wider tires actually roll faster (given the same tread pattern). Aggressive tread patterns offer more control and confidence so if those are important to you then avoid semi-slicks.
Gene also said to be wary of bike fitters. He feels that they are good for helping you find a good seat height and position but overall they do not understand how fit effects control. They often suggest a longer stem which compromises control and balance.
Check out www.betterride.net for more info on his camps and if any of you are heading to the Grand Junction area this summer and want to set up a private lesson with myself or get in on a clinic I’m teaching let me know, I’d be happy to help you learn more about how to gain more control and have more fun.
-James Wilson-
Mountain Bike Skills Training, Mountain Bike Strength Training
How much is a private lesson with you because I’m coming up to GJ later this week to ride.
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bikejames Reply:
March 31st, 2010 at 7:44 am
@ Gabe – shoot me an email at james@bikejames.com about setting up a lesson.
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I am happy to report that my YETI 575 came with an even shorter stem than the one I replaced on my last bike! Ya think that YETI knows something about bike control?
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I agree with these on all counts. Great tips.
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I’m going to defend professional bike fitters. I’ll agree to be wary of some. A lot of them are cyclists themselves, one of my close friends is an athletic trainer and mountain biker. He does bike fits at the University of Pittsburgh Sports Performance complex. As a cyclist himself he has a good idea on how set up effects control. So check their background first.
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bikejames Reply:
April 1st, 2010 at 10:42 am
@ Heath – good call, not all of them are guilty of that. The best thing you can do is educate your self on what helps with handling so you can make good decisions.
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Well, I completely agree on all points… with a couple of caveats:
1) Longer stems are indeed left over from road bikes and 90+mm stems are ill advised for anyone. However, the more XC ‘flat’ riding you do, a stem up to 90mm might make sense depending on the match between your body geometry and the bike’s geometry. My XC/AM bike is a med Yeti 575 and I’m 5’10″ with a relatively long torso and arms (so… I’m basicly ape-like). I have riden a large 575 with a short stem – which works pretty well. But overall, the medium frame with a 90mm stem gives me better overall handling on everything but the most crazy downhill.
2) I tried wider bars last year and I really liked it. But, ended up swapping back to my 26″ MonkeyLite SL as we have a lot of tight single track through trees around here and the wider bars caused too many ‘nicks’.
4) Before everyone freaks out at the comment about “fat tires = lower rolling resistance”, allow me to clarify. The study is for MOUNTAIN BIKING folks – it completely conceeds that on smooth road surfaces, skinny, smooth, and hard is the way to go. However, for anything bumpier than a gravel road, a fatter tire with relatively lower air presure requires less overall energy to produce the same forward motion. The general idea is that it consumes less energy to ‘absorb’ a small feature in the tire/tread’s path than to ‘roll over’ it. The difference is not huge by any stretch – but even if it was a ‘break even’ result, the traction and suspension benifits of running a wider, lower presure tire would still tip the scales in favor. Don’t believe me? Take a look at the trend in what the top World Cup XC riders are running for tires. Not so long ago, EVERYONE was running 2.1′s or lower. Today, 2.2′s and 2.35′s at 35lbs. Only downside is weight of the fatter tires and the slight responsiveness sacrifice.
Just my two cents.
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I don’t do enough DH style riding to warrant a droppable seatpost. I usually leave my at full height 99% of the time. I don’t really have trouble with it being that high either.
I do want wider bars.
Also, I went to 2 well respected people for bike fit. I don’t believe I got my money’s worth out of either of them. I still think riding lots of different bikes with different geos, can be the best teacher as far as fit goes.
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The report by Schwalbe says
“The data on tyre pressure yields near-revolutionary results. On the road
the principle of ‘the more, the merrier’ applies, as has been common road-
racing-knowledge for years. A firmly inflated tyre makes for good
propulsion. To this present day many mountain bikers have adhered
unflinchingly to this rule, too, transferring it without reflection, so to
speak, into the dirt.
Way off! As soon as you leave the road, reducing tyre pressures does not
just leave rolling resistance more or less unaffected, as can be heard here
and there, but actually reduces rolling resistance! This is true even on
level paths of fine gravel (Chart 3 on page 7), but the rougher the ground,
the greater the effect, as the grassy ground shows. Reducing tyre
pressure from 4 to 1.5 bar (57 to 21 p.s.i.) can save an averaged 20 W!
The main reason for this is the unevenness of the ground.”
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Yes, great tips! I agree and apply all of these as well for anything from XC to lite DH (Super D) and have had great results with 45mm stem, 30″ bars, 5″ adjustable seatpost and 2.3 tires ran tubeless with aggressive tread.
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Hi James
I am looking at adjustable seatposts and I am considering the x-fusion hilo. Is there any that you recommend in particular? Also I run a 90mm stem on my Specialized Pitch with 27″ wide bars. I’ve tried a shorter stem (75mm) and the 90mm feels better to me. I haven’t had any issues with descents and climbing is much improved with the 90mm. What are your thoughts on this? Am I doing something wrong?
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bikejames Reply:
October 17th, 2011 at 2:34 pm
If it works for you then keep using it. You might try a shorter stem (60mm) and see if you notice a difference but if you like the 90 mm then rock it.
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