am i going mad i have gone from giant trance 2009 to a mongoose teocali super 2009 to a on one carbon 456 and i just cant get to grips with it anyone done the same and prefers the hard tail more what makes you fell more confident. my 456 is slacker chunkier more travel bigger rims and tyres surly this would make me more confident or am i getting soft in my old age

head angles and tyre size have very little to do with confidence. just ride more!

head angles and tyre size have very little to do with confidence. just ride more!

what do you ride

oscar………..ffs you have done it now……….. 😯

everything from 63-74deg HA and tyre widths from 2.5″ – 23mm

what do you mean i have done it now

gw is a expert, never question a expert…… 😉

I built up a HT out of parts and it’s pretty much all I ride now. Did 4 laps of GT7 on it today, one on a Boardman FS on skinny tyres and couldn’t wait to get back to the steel HT with fat tyres on it!

basically what i want is the bike to do most of the work should i get a bigger bike 180mm travel fandr will this change things, baring in mind im extreamly fit and strong i train 5 days a week in the gym so bike weight is not a problem, was not being vein there just honest

baring in mind im extreamly fit and strong i train 5 days a week in the gym so bike weight is not a problem

Well, as you’re carrying 50lbs more muscle than most mtbers bike weight is a problem. That muscle is luggage. 🙂

true but im not racing i ride for pleasure, i new some one would comment on that lol

180mm up front? 😀 It will be a bitch to climb on. I changed from a Top Fuel to a 853 Altitude, put some U-turn Revs on and imo it feels perfect. Wind the fork down to 100mm and I can ride with my XC mate no problem. I’m a wuss on the downs so the ability to put the travel to 130 means I’m a bit confident as well. The geometry on it feels just spot on. I thought I’m turning into a roadie as I was riding my road bike most of the time but this HT just feels soo good.

Plus the steel frame is more comfortable then my old alu Maxlight. 3 hour ride in the Pentlands and I was not beaten up like the Maxlight made me feel.

It’s a bit of a trade off, full sus was comfortable and efficient, but higher maintainance and weighted slightly more.

It is probably down to the fact You need to adjust to ride a HT, can’t just go through stuff, pick your line etc etc 😉

great comment,

I am confused here you say you are very fit but then want the bike to do the work ?????

one of the problems i have found with my 456 is keeping the backend down when climbing its so light at the back so on loose stuff i find it harder than my other bikes i seem to climb better on a heavier bike bizarre. on tarmac up hill its super fast but when it gets technical i seem to wash out, i love technical climbs more than the going down ,

i want the bike to do the work going down i will do the work going up if you know what i mean

every one seems to rave about sc heckler and orange five so i may give one of them a try and see if this make a differance

go and build a rigid or short travel HT and learn the basics. build up your skill – and consequently cofidence – levels and progress from there.

don’t believe that massives of travel will make up a better rider. it won’t. more than likely it’ll amke you a lazy rider.

oh, and please try to use a little more punctuation in your posts. they’re really hard to read.

Dear Top Gear I sold my BMW and bought a Focus and then sold that and bought a Reliant Robin, and I just cant get to grips with it

sorry will do.

Confidence/faith are weird. I’ve a mate who can’t ride a bike with anything smaller than a maxxis 2.5, it’s not that he’s bad, he just looks down the front and sees a “skinny” tyre and thinks “That can’t possibly grip enough” and then fulfulls the prophecy by losing his nerve and panic braking and crashing. But if you put him on a big, ungrippy tyre he’s happy as larry.

I don’t really think you can predict it tbh, it’s too irrational sometimes. People get hung up on “good” or “bad” handling but there’s really no such thing IMO, not at our sort of level, there’s “handling I like” and “handling I don’t” and sometimes even the bike that you’re fastest on feels horrible.

Dear Top Gear I sold my BMW and bought a Focus and then sold that and bought a Reliant Robin, and I just cant get to grips with it

so your trying to say from a teocali super to a 456 i have gone down the ladder

Yes

Yes

really that funny because the 456 carbon gets better reviews than the teocali,

And yet you’re not happy with it

the teocali did ride better than the trance only because of spec,

I suddenly became very skint so sold my Scott scale HT with revelations, hydraulic discs etc etc
I then bought a 1996 Specialized stumjumper HT with Judy sl forks and v-brakes.

The spesh has excellent geometry and is more fun and challenging to ride but the brakes scare the crap out of you, that is where i lose my confidence!

I say you should keep at the hardtail and just alter your riding to suit it, thats what i have done from bike to bike, you just have to think about it a bit more when confronting obstacles.

may be i should of started this thread by saying does a bigger longer travel bike inspire more confidence , i think i have just got my answer to my question thanks for your help every one.

Sometimes you just have to…….get on with it.

Unless of course you are happy shopping and swapping for solutions .

went from a cove hustler to an mmmbop and its improved my riding no end love it
only down side it kills my old ankles on the rough stuff

A bike shouldnt improve you as a rider, if it does then theres a good chance you’re a shit rider. If your a decent rider then the bike doesnt really matter too much, you’ll be able to ride well on anything.

So, stay a shit rider and spend a load of money on a new bike that may improve your riding (but you’ll still be shit)

Or just stick with what you’ve got, ride lots, improve lots and become a riding god.

This may not be true at all.

Oscar – I’ve had the same issue as you for several years. I have a 1994 Kona hardtail, and a 08 Trance. Couldn’t get on with the trance – lacking confidence. I was convinced it was geometry and frame size. However, yesterday I finally spent a few hours repeat running on a challenging downhill – and by the time I’d finished, I’d increased the confidence by about 80%. All the improvements came from dialling in the front and rear rebound rates to be in harmony with my natural riding position. I never expected to gain so much. I still don’t quite have the front end turn in on fast loose bends, but everywhere else it’s 20x better.

Dear Top Gear I sold my BMW and bought a Focus and then sold that and bought a Reliant Robin, and I just cant get to grips with it

In my experience, only t*ts drive BMW’s… or was it’s Audi’s :/

My hardtail seemed to be as fast as anything else on the STW Peak ride thing at the weekend. It’d be nice to pretend that it was in some way down to the rider, but I think hardtails are generally just faster on technical terrain because they’re so much more predictable.

I have to say that I’m a little in awe of the riding ability of some of the folk who post here, but I couldn’t help feeling that a lot of folk on full sussers at the weekend were paradoxically actually being held back by their choice of bike.

i dont think your technical climbing is improved by a heavy bike per se, but the rear suspension allowed you to worry less about grip at the rear