I moved over from a Hardtail to my first FS towards the end of the year. Love the bike, but there’s one thing troubling me. On technical trails that traverse the hill I just find myself being pushed out to the edge of the trail. My brain is saying turn up hill but it doesn’t seem to happen. I don’t remember having this problem with my old Rockhopper. I appreciate this is likely to be a talent issue, but is there anything my cockpit I should consider changing.

I’m 6’2, rising a large. Front tyre is a high roller 2 which I loved on the old bike, and I’m running Havon bars at 711mm. Stem is the standard 80mm.

Is this happening when you ride in a straight line or when cornering? Has the suspension been set up properly?

I’d have said a HR2 is a bit square-edged to be a good off-camber front tyre but then if you liked it on the hardtail I guess that’s not it. What stem length/bar width did you have on the hardtail? Might be worth trying a 50mm but not sure if would definitely help with what you’re describing – as you say it’s mostly in your head.

Stem and tyre lined up properly?

*whispers* is the frame straight?

but is there anything my cockpit I should consider changing

The rider 😉

Once you’ve checked everything is straight, it’ll be down to you. There’s no reason unless the tyres are slipping down that the bike needs to be changed to go where you want it. Just will handle differently to your HT so adjust a bit and you should be fine

Only sounds like a problem if you’re crashing or it’s causing you to go slower than you’d like. If I’m on a trail that has a steep drop to the side I just concentrate on what’s ahead of me, not where I don’t want to be going. I’m a firm believer in if you think you’re going to crash then you probably will.

Does it have a lower bottom bracket leading to more pedal strikes? On a traverse it would mean you’d be trying to keep away from the uphill side of the trail.

what are you doing with your feet at this point?

Fork packing down?

@johnellison If I’m traversing the hill with the top of the hill on my left, I feel like I’m pushing out to the right. The instances of it yesterday were on the straights. Suspension is setup using recommended PSI in the fork, and used the SAG meter for the rear.

@FuzzyWuzzy I had a narrower bar and 90mm stem.

@tomhoward Yes and Yes ;o)

I think I probably just need to man up. Had a big crash towards the end of the year and I might just be struggling with confidence.

i’d expect your just going faster as its smoother on the full sus your not really noticing the added speed. This would definately make it appear harder on the off camber sections, but should work both ways.

Adjust your stem so its always pointing uphill. That way, even when you think you’re going straight, you’re actually pointing uphill slightly.

I struggled to commit to turns, and weight the front properly after a big stack last year.

Look where you want to go, not where you don’t.
Weight the downhill pedal.
Lean on the uphill bar to turn up the hill.

A neutrally weighted bike will want to turn down the hill.

Do you still drift downhill if your traveling the opposite way?

Also I would recheck the stem alignment with the front wheel. It does sound like its a degree or two out.

Weight the downhill pedal.
Lean on the uphill bar to turn up the hill.

That. It’ll need more body weight techniques similar to cornering to steer a slacker bike in that situ, than something like a rockhopper.

If I’m traversing the hill with the top of the hill on my left, I feel like I’m pushing out to the right. The instances of it yesterday were on the straights. Suspension is setup using recommended PSI in the fork, and used the SAG meter for the rear.

If the sag is set up correctly, try adjusting the compression damping and rebound damping. It may be that you have too much compression damping (i.e. it’s taking a lot of effort to get the suspension moving) or too little rebound damping (i.e. suspension wants to extend too quickly once compressed).

One click at a time until you find a happy medium!

Thanks, body weighting tips are good. I’ll have a practice at the weekend.

Stem is quite long for bars that wide.

ChristoGinger
i’d expect your just going faster as its smoother on the full sus your not really noticing the added speed. This would definately make it appear harder on the off camber sections, but should work both ways.

I would concur with this. You’re going faster but not necessarily noticing the extra speed until you try and commit to something difficult.

Countersteering is your friend.

If you turn your wheel up the slope it’ll send you down instead.

If you’re cornering on a nice smooth piece of ground at a good speed, and freewheeling, just try steering out of the turn. It’ll tighten it (and lean you over more.

I developed this problem after a big crash. The solution in the end wasn’t anthing to do with bike set up. I was concentrating on trying not to crash and looking at the edge of the trail so much that I ended up going towards it. Once I relaxed and looked down the trail more towards where I wanted to go the problem vanished almost instantly.

Much cheaper than changing set up 🙂

I moved last year from a Cannondale Prophet with Lefty to carbon Zesty & also find similar things.

Changed to a Spank 777 wide bar & 50mm stem, bike is more confident and better balanced, can really get weight down on the front wheel in any corner….

agreed

moving from HT to FS led me to the same problems as the OP but as others have said, its more noticeable because you’re going faster

I’ve had to try and relearn how to ride a bike properly, using bodyweight and pumping to weight and unweight it

(shorter stem and wider bars definitely helped tho)