I have had a few bikes with various combinations of tyres, wheels, forks, shocks, bars, stems etc. I can tell you which bikes felt right and which didn’t, but I’m not very good at analysing or understanding the more subtle changes.

As an example, I had a Bianchi hard tail a few years ago that I bought without much research. It wasn’t much fun to ride, but by the time I swapped the heavy and poor suspension for some carbon rigid forks and swapped the cockpit for something wider and shorter, it transformed it into a fantastic bike that I loved riding. This all made sense to me. However, more subtle changes like suspension tunes, tyre pressures/tread/compounds and slight differences in geometry I find much harder to tweak since I can’t easily relate to what changes make what difference. I’m currently struggling with grip and I have no idea where to start: suspension, tyre tread, tyre pressure…

Who else is like me? Who knows exactly what changes affect what and why? Who has even less clue than me?

I ride bikes. I change things when the original breaks/wears out – thenonly exceotion being obviously rubbish wheels and brakes.

Hora on the other hand can tell you a fork tune is wrong just by looking at the bike, he doesn;t even have to ride it 😉

I ride bikes. I change things when the original breaks/wears out – thenonly exceotion being obviously rubbish wheels and brakes.

that

I know what changes will have what effect, I just cba to spend hours chasing perfection. If its good ‘enough’ then thats fine by me.

I ride bikes. I change things when the original breaks/wears out doesn’t look as pretty as something in the shop

I used to be very analytical. I’ve started enough threads on here trying to understand why certain bikes feel the way they do and I’ve spent far too many hours trying to understand the vagaries of geometry, wheel size, suspension tune etc. Then I built up a 26″ Five and now I just don’t care about any of that 🙂

Then I built up a 26″ Five

lol funnily enough whenever I have one of those “something doesn’t feel quite right” rides, I wonder if I should have bough the Five I demo’d that felt “just right”. Vanity got the better of me and I bought something less *ahem* “popular” 🙂

If both wheels are turning freely, and the brakes work, then I have reached the limits of my analytical ability, and am happy.

I too lack Hora’s insightful, almost encyclopedic knowledge of suspension preload and damping. To watch him in a pub car park with a set of forks? ….. well…. Its like watching Schumacher setting up a Ferrari at Monza 😀

Pay attention to tyres but that’s about it. Take a binary attitude to everything else: A. the bike’s riding pretty well. B. the bike’s f_ked.

Suspension knob twiddling is just nervous energy surely? Does anyone do this with a straight face outside of DH?

What does Analytical mean ??

Suspension knob twiddling is just nervous energy surely?

That’s the one that is the darkest art for me. I like a fairly active fork for the bumpy rocky stuff, but don’t like the accompanying brake dive and pogo-ing that often comes with it. For the life of me I can’t work out the happy medium, if indeed it exists.

[EDIT] As for tyres, I’m not much better. I can tell when a tyre grips and when it doesn’t, but I don’t have a clue why a combination of compound, pressure and tread pattern works better than another.

When something ‘doesn’t feel quite right’ during a ride, I assume it’s me.

As a result, my bikes tend to stay the way they are when I first buy them.

I am pretty lazy,so I adjust my riding style to suit whichever bike I am on.
I was close to the limit on last nights ride though, I tested my new build P7 with rigid forks,BB7s and I thought that I would put flats on for a change – because it had been a while – . Oh dear ,what a cats dinner I made of it 😳 .Still, I am well over 35 ,so maybe I should be looking at a full Suss 😉

I’m really fussy about my bikes set up and have all the dimensions, pressures and torque settings written down 😳

If something isn’t 100%, it gets sorted before the bike goes out.

Get it sorted then just replace bits when it dies, also flog all sram bits on the classifieds.

I have become increasingly analytical as time has gone by, to the point that I now have such a good bike for me that I just cannot decide what to replace it with. Now there is a First World problem for you… Almost every single bike I look at is not quite right….

Is much easier analyzing things when you only have one bike. I know if I jump on my bike it is easily recified if something isn’t as it should be, or certainly was last ride.

close enough is good enough.

i was taught to corner properly and realise almost all ‘grip’ issues are down to me and me only.

stilltortoise, you want a fork with high and low speed compression damping to find that happy active/non-divey medium.

Tyre pressure is my usual first port if bikes not feeling ‘right’. This can make a massive difference to my confidence on the bike(and level of grip). If it grips i’m happy. i do fiddle with the knobs on the trails but can’t tell if it helps or not and usually just go to the middle ground with the forks. conversly have never touch the rear shock except when i lock it out.

I get anal over setting a bike up. It has to be set up proper, with minimal bodge (unless the bodge is in fact, not a bodge but a stroke of genius). It has to be DIALLED.

But after that initial setup I rarely touch things. I know what I like and how to get it so once it’s set up it’s done as far as I’m concerned.

I think the only thing I’ve undone on my BMX in a year has been the valve caps to top up the tyres.

four bikes all different frame sizes, seats, wheels, bar , grips brakes etc
In fact the only common thing between them is me.

Not anal at all as I can magically adapt to the different feel of each of these as if it were my own
I do the torques of all bolts as its all at ” Yep that will do” as is the tyre pressure

Yes and no.
I ride bikes. If I think something can be improved, I’ll improve it.
Usually its me.

I changed my shock position last night to the position it came at from the previous owner (who had a slackset headset fitted). It made the bike steep/HORRIBLE. How on earlth did he have it in ‘xc’ setting then fit a 1degree angle headset?! 😆

It goes back to lovely setting tonight 8)

I sort of know what you’re on about OP, I tend to find I identify some issue or another and start thinking about what might be the possible causes, I tweek, adjust and experiment until I think I’ve solved the issue or I’m at my wits end and then resort to interweb searching.

Tyres, tyre pressures and suspension settings on their own can take up a silly amount of your time if you let them, better to go with the guidelines if your not sure and only adjust once you think you’ve actually identified an issue.
Getting a bike to fit and feel right can be even more confounding IMO and you have to look at bike fit as a whole bike sort of thing, you don’t ‘just’ move your seat a bit, it’s never that simple…

That said some bikes seem to be magically just right from day one with minimal adjustments, My SS for instance was thrown together from spares and cheap used parts, I’m almost scared to change anything on it now as its just about perfect for the job it does…

I learn to adapt to whatever components/geo is on the bike at the time..

As for suspension tuning, I know enough to alter the settings – but usually it’s a “tune once and forget” approach, as opposed to “re-tune it for different terrain”.

Having 4/5 quite different bikes helps in the mental adjustment too (BMX, DH, FS, HT, Road)