I am 6’3″ and ride a hardtail, trouble is, if I leave my seatpost up I cant go down hill without feeling I am about to be launched over the bars. I usually loer my saddle for this stuff on social rides, but I am about to do a few races and wonder if anyone has any advice. I ride a steel 19″ hardtail with a layback post, 90mm stem.

thanks

im your height i ride a scott scale with a 120mm stem and no layback seatpost up very high….truth be told is practise,ride more,to race you need to be confident to go over anything so practice with whatever feels best.
Bruce

Same as at any size I would have thought. Are the race you are going to that Gnarly that you need to drop the seat? Just get right over the back with set in your stomach if you need to get the weight back or put higher bars on??????

6’5″ here. Arse out over the back wheel on the downhills, always standing on the pedals rather than seated on downhill sections although i am finding my 29er feels less like i am about to be pitched over the bars. Also try pointing your heels towards the ground helps i find.

If you can’t get off the back of the saddle then it could be you have your saddle a tad too high so try lowering it a smidge or your stem is too long so maybe try a slightly shorter stem 10-20mm can make quite a bit of difference.

What races will you be doing ?

get a gravity dropper or similar?

I’m 6’4″, maybe even a bit taller, I often get the pitched over the bars feeling, I’m sure shorter riders don’t get the same top heavy sensation

bigdan – Member

I am 6’3″ and ride a hardtail, trouble is, if I leave my seatpost up I cant go down hill without feeling I am about to be launched over the bars. I usually lower my saddle for this stuff on social rides, but I am about to do a few races and wonder if anyone has any advice. I ride a steel 19″ hardtail with a layback post, 90mm stem.

thanks
Exactly the same height and problem Dan & I have exactly the same problem on any of my FS bikes. If you find an answer tell us mind

TandemJeremy – Member

Same as at any size I would have thought. Are the race you are going to that Gnarly that you need to drop the seat? Just get right over the back with set in your stomach if you need to get the weight back or put higher bars on??????
Not in my experience TJ, most of the short lads I ride with have bars way above the saddle, yet mine (even on the slack angled 160mm forked skill compensating bike) are all lower than the saddle when its in a position that I can pedal anywhere other than downhill.

paulosoxo – Member

I’m 6’4″, maybe even a bit taller, I often get the pitched over the bars feeling, I’m sure shorter riders don’t get the same top heavy sensation

Much better put than my last effort Paul

Which races are that steep?
6’4″ here and never come across long steep sections on races.

practice.
6’3 here. not a problem doing it. my race bike has bars 7 or 8″ lower than the seat.

ride it down plenty steep stuff with no real problems.

and boxelder, if you come up to scotland you may get some proper courses. the winter/summer tt series at inners finished down the dh tracks. great fun.

For me, it’s steep rolls into stuff that does it. At chopwell there are a couple of stream crossings that by the time my front wheel gets to the bottom, my center of gravity seems to be infront of the front wheel, no back brake at all as the wheel just skids, and touching the front has the back wheel coming up instantly. I can’t do them at all at speed, all I can do is try and gently roll in, almost stop at the bottom, and try and shift my weight enough to get up the other side.

Point taken Mr overshoot – but my XC bike has bars no higher than the saddle and I rarely bother to drop the seat. I sometimes find myself on a downhill with the seat right tucked into my abdo with my arse hanging right over the back wheel as a result. Higher bars / shorter stem?

simply……

What suggests I haven’t been to Scotland? Most recently was last W/Es 10 under…. I’d just be surprised if there were any sections where this was a problem for a correctly set up mountain bike. If you can’t hang off the back with your belly on the saddle, then surely the reach to the bars is too long?

Seriously, try a 29er. I’m finding it so much more stable on climbs and decents, also rolling off of ledges you don’t get that pitching forwards feeling. You don’t get that ‘sitting on top of the bike’ feeling

I can clear stuff on the 100mm 29er hardtail that i couldn’t on the Blur LT with 130mm up front 😯

For taller riders it HAS to be the way forward. Anyone who is going to Mayhem or 24/12 this summer is welcome to have a quick spin on mine if they want 8)

Ummmmm .

Suck less at teh ridings? Do what 99.9% of teh shortarses do and put your sadle down on teh kgnharl? Ne fait pas le monkey up a stick?

Probably not much help, but when braking make sure your toes are pointing upwards, heels down, so thatthe force goes through you feet into the pedals, as opposed to just launching you over the top. Also, bum behind saddle in extreme circumstances.

some people will find it a problem on bits others don’t.
to be fair, the 10 under course was quite shit. (imo). So there may not have been on that track, but other race courses are different…

the recent dalby nps had a section where you needed to get your arse back a bit…

(i know i know, the shock of a technical race course in England!!)

I’m 5’11”. I wish I was 6’4″ so I could easily move about on the bike with my lanky legs and crazy arms. I would have thought the bigger you are, the more scope you have to move about and get your arse back.

I’m currently attributing the problems you’re experiencing to your body spending more effort developing length of bone rather than brain power. I’m assuming in the future we’ll weed out genetic oddities like yourselves and everyone will be normal sized and yet have large brains.

I’m 6ft 4′ and ride a 20’Inbred 456 so the cockpit is quite long. I run a shorter stem to throw the bulk back slightly and have the seat height slightly down not much 3/4′ so I can hook my arse over the back of the seat when needed, it doesn’t take much. I am not after ultimate efficiency when pedaling I’d rather have a bit of leeway on the rough stuff. The front can be prone to lifting slightly on really steep bits but the seat angle helps a lot. Try a layback post to shift the bulk back but make sure its not stopping you from dropping over the back. I got a FSA carbon post with 20mm of offset for £22 from on-one.

Does putting a shorter stem and layback post on a 456 not put your weight where it would have been on a standard inbred?

Not being awkward, just curious

Short stem feels better for me, with 120mm marzocchi fork that’s long anyway and slack angles it keeps the steering sharp. To try and maintain the cockpit length (I’m long in the back bit like an APE!) I am using the layback post. Its not perfect more like a work in progress. Feels very stable and planted on the descents. Have to move around a bit on the climbs and try and shift the weight forward to stop front end skipping up. I’d rather do this than feel like i’m going to go over the bars every time I go downhill.

6’7″ here and another big shout out for 29ers. Used to feel fairly unstable on my FS (despite it being a 22″ frame) and went over the handlebars a few times. Was ok on my 21.5″ Trek 8000 though before i sold it.
Got a Rockhopper 29er at Xmas and love it. So much more stable on downhills and also climbs way better than any of my other bikes. Never feel like i’m going over the bars now even on very steep descents. The 29er will be my weapon of choice at Mayhem despite the fact my FS cost over 3 times as much.
Will probably get a FS 29er at some stage in the future too. My days of 26″ bikes are over.

6’3″ here and yes having a higher centre of gravity is not ideal on some trails and I always used to struggle of steeper suff compared with shorter friends. I can get off the back behind the saddle but I often feel stuck there and can’t move about enough, this isn’t really a problem on race courses which aren’t that technical but is for general riding. I’ve tried lowering the seat an inch and I’m amazed how much faster I am going down but it’s just not fun climbing for more than a minute. Hence I just bought myself a multi drop Gravity Dropper post; not so much for the full 4″ drop but for the 1″.

Short arse here ( well 5’10 ish). I can’t ride steeps with proper speed with the seat up. I don’t know anyone who can be they midget or giant. Sure you can dawdle down stuff with the seat up, but that’s hardly the idea. Get a gravity dropper.

If you are taller, you have the bike set up with a higher mass than the little people, just to get a proper leg position. I found a slightly shorter stem coupled with my risr bars makes a good difference – even on my 29er (which is the obvious choice for non-BMX riders over 6’2″).

Slacker head angle here, along with 70 stem and arse over rear tyre. Works for me and I’m SUPER-slow down technical DH’y bits!

I am also 6’4″. I used to ride a 17″ hardtail and I never had a problem with the feeling of going over the bars, but now I have a 21″ hardtail and a long stem it made it hard for me to get my little balls past the seat with out felling violated, I now have a shorter stem and my bike feels ace 🙂 I think it is something to do with the length between the bars and saddle. So as already has been said putting a shorter stem and no layback post could help you get back over the back wheel easier.

Also practise works wonders 🙂

@ MrTall – Amen brother 😆

6’3″ here and never really noticed this,been riding for twenty years plus(from early teens so was not always as tall)dont know if it comes down to experience!
Anyway cant be height look at Steve Peat 😀

Another nod for the 29er thing…try one,you get used to the pointing and laughing thing honest.