Please help me make an informed decision. I’m tempted by getting a Freeride or Downhill bike.

I’ve been using my trail bike for uplift days, alps trips and even did a dh race on it. However I feel more and more that it holds me back on this sort of riding and I would have much more fun (go bigger and faster) on something more suitable.

I’m not looking to replace my trial bike as it’s right for what I ride most of the time, but for just over £1k second hand there seems to be lots of choice for a FR or DH bike.

What would be a good bike to consider? or is this a silly idea and I should just stick to using my trail bike.

It would help to know what your trail bike is? Many can be fitted with a burlier fork for Alpine trips.

Can you borrow a DH bike to try?

I suppose that would help! Current bike is Santa Cruz Blur LTc with 160mm Fox 34s on the front and 140mm on the back. Now has CCDBair.

I was tempted to put some new 36s on the front. But for that money I’m not far off this £1k (ish) FR or DH bike. Hence the dilemma.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/orMvnw]Drop[/url]

I’ve got one of these coming next week…

http://www.canyon.com/en/mountainbikes/bike.html?b=3671

I knew it was going to happen ever since I had to hire one when we went to pila with the white room (left my norco sight back at the chalet by accident!!). Expected to get a heap of s*it but they wheeled out a brand new transition tr500. It was unbelievable. I never got as much out as I thought due to my fitness and hand cramps, but the ability to go faster and hit bigger was obvious from the off. You just go off stuff and barely had to worry about the landing. Thoroughly recommend trying one!

I picked up a Commencal DH frame and an extra large DH bike for the parts. Made a cheap build. In the £1k budget you are looking for no (big) cracks and expect it’s had some use.

I’ve had fr and dh bikes and have now gone back to a 180mm mini-dh style bike with single crown fork.

It will be my last ‘big’ bike and should be shot on for the Alps, UK uplifts and local push up fun.

Worth trying a few bikes if you can. Dh bike are definitely not for everyone, and you need to go really fast to get the most from them IME.

2nd hand Giant Glory. The older ones are absolutely bomb-proof and go for buttons these days – perfect intro to a DH bike

I bought a 2010 Cove shocker.
Absolute monster of a bike. One of my mates wont ride it as he thinks it encourages him to ride it too fast.

A proper DH bike on a proper dh trail is just awesome. Bit crap on more boring trails, but at high speed somewhere like antur black and double black they are just amazing things to ride.
Buy second hand and cheapish, that way you don’t care if they take a kicking on the less good uplifts

From experience it’s quite easy to do it wrong- I did, first time round. I had a really kick ass trailbike and bought a cheap dh bike, and though it was the more appropriate tool for the job it was just much less good. In the end, I gave up on it and built a better bike that didn’t get left in the garage, after I decided to take my trailbike on an uplift day. I’m basically a spoiled brat 😕

At this price, there’s good bikes but there’s also shagged out disasters being dumped because they’re not economic to fix, or old bikes with orrible geometry… So buy clever

I’ve stepped down my riding from a DH bike to a trail bike and it’s very different – the DH bike is far more purposeful and lets you hit stuff much harder, get away with more and is more stable.

For uplift on proper DH tracks, Alps tracks and DH racing, the tool you want is a DH bike. Anything else is a bit of a compromise, which many people make and enjoy. For maximum speed though, DH bike all the way.

Saying that, I ride everything on my Mega/Pikes these days and just settle for being slower. I really should sell my DH bike (2007 Commencal Supreme DH, Boxxers, Chris King, Saint, pretty mint, email in profile if you want to chat!)

Depends how often you ride stuff that would be more suited to a DH bike. If you are at it every weekend, crack on. If you are riding uplifts 6 times a year I wouldn’t bother.

Why not? It’s good having a bike that you know is absolutely the right tool for those 6 times a year that you get to kick the arse right out of it

It’s irrelevant what your trail bike is.

Get a DH bike, the difference you’ll experience is amazing. And so what if you only use it 6 times a year – buying a used DH bike means you’ll get back most of what you’ve paid. A day’s hire of a dh bike could be £100. Ten days of use ans you can consider you’ve got some form of value from it.

I had a 2011 supreme DH and LOVED it but I got the small/medium and at 6ft found it too small.I’ve now got a 2008 Giant Glory, sent the shock and fork to TF tuned and it’s running nice. I slackened the head angle by 1.5 degrees (using a 2 degree set).

To be honest though, I’m on the hunt for a large/XL supreme as it was simply a better bike I think. The glory weighs 48lbs which is a bit nuts, but it’s stable and rides well.

Mates have had good deals on Yeti 303s, Supremes, Glorys, Demo 8’s, the Canyon Torque’s look great.

Generally, they’ll have a bit of a bashing but it should be easy to spot any major issues (cracked frames, bent hangers). Get the shock and fork set up right and you’re most of the way.

Go for it, you’ll not regret it.

It should also be pointed out that one bike being better than the other is very subjective. I had a 2007 Glory then a 2011 Surpreme DH – the Glory was the better bike I think 🙂

How much difference does a beefier fork make? Also how much extra travel would you expect to get away with and what is the effect on the geometry?

The only thing i’d say is get a dh bike. A freeride one isn’t different enough to be worth it. If you want to dh stuff get a dh bike.

Beefier forks makes a huge difference. Looking down at a dual ply 2.5 muddy mary underneath huge 40mm stanchions that go all the way up to your bars does wonders for your confidence.

Not sure what you mean in the second question? DH bikes are mostly 200-220mm. And will be slacker than your average trail bike which makes things more stable on steep stuff.

To me, a good’ dh bike is one that makes the trail feel as smooth as possible while retaining control.

timidwheeler – Member
How much difference does a beefier fork make? Also how much extra travel would you expect to get away with and what is the effect on the geometry?

Why not? It’s good having a bike that you know is absolutely the right tool for those 6 times a year that you get to kick the arse right out of it

IMO a downhill bike is something that needs to be ridden regularly and flat out to be worth having. My experience was that it would take half a day getting used to the bike and then i’d start enjoying it and then put it away.

I’d probably be faster on my trail bike for the first part of the day as that was what I was used to.

I’d have agreed with that if I’d only had my Herb, which felt exactly the same- always took a run or two to figure it out and start making it work. But my 224 Evo was much more intuitive and straightforward, I literally didn’t ride it for 6 months, jumped on and went, it still took time to get back up to speed like any bike but it didn’t have that steep re-learning curve.

Mind you it was also tons slower and just generally less good… I think the Herb took longer to learn, just because it was doing more stuff

it still took time to get back up to speed like any bike but it didn’t have that steep re-learning curve.

That’s the thing, I felt like it would take me most of the day to get up to the speed where it was fun and…… then I’d put it away again. Perhaps some DH bikes are easier to jump on than others, but the speed needed to get them working well remains the same.

If I lived near a decent uplift in wales or scotland i’d have one for sure.

You can’t go wrong with a Trek Session, don’t do anything weird, just feel right.
I’ve got an 88, my lad has an 8. Totally raised both of our riding to another level.

I did the whole having a trail bike and making it a DH bike, was always compromised, made normal riding ponderous and slow, when never really be burly to go all out on DH tracks.

Was my best decision in terms of bikes to have a dedicated trail bike and “big” bike, have more fun in both situations.

I tried out a DH bike, didnt gel with it though, felt too removed from what was going on, now on a slightly smaller bike a kona entourage and love it, no adjusting time either between bikes. I cant really say about adjustment time between DH bike and trail bike since i never got on with the DH bike.

From the sounds of it buying a DH bike will be a bit of a waste of time and money for you. But you’ll never know how or why until you do, so you should probably buy one just to see what they are like.

In my experience if you are capable of riding a certain trail or trail feature then you’ll be capable of doing it on any bike you are comfortable with, more or less. You just might need some time on a DH bike to give you the confidence to discover that you can actually do it.

If you aren’t racing, or regularly riding DH tracks then a modern DH bike is a pretty pointless and uncompromising tool. And they take a fair bit of getting used to. If you are taking the plunge just be sure and get something good, which is meaningfully different from what you have. Trail/AM/Enduro bikes have come on so far in recent years that many have superseded Kona Stinkys and the like in terms of DH capability.

Get a secondhand nukeproof scalp, great bike.
should be a few on pinkbike

I built a Orange 224 bought the parts from ebay and some new from LBS
cost around £1200 , Fox DHX5 with Ti spring, Fox 40’s , new set of Hope Hoops with FlowEx , 2.5 ST minions, Saint cranks, new chain ring cassette, chain , new Zee mech and new saint shifter, some amazing Hope Tech V2’s with floating rotors, new Hope head set……

cant get the picture to work grrrr

jimjam – Member

From the sounds of it buying a DH bike will be a bit of a waste of time and money for you. 

Eh? He mentions uplift days, alps trips and even a dh race. How do you figure a used bike that’ll hold most of its value will be a waste of time and money?

Do it. Although I’d probably find another few £££ and get a new YT or canyon.

I came from a cotic rocket, which I rode everything on and actually got quite good on, then I bought a YT tues and never looked back. It’s been incredible.

glasgowdan

Eh? He mentions uplift days, alps trips and even a dh race. How do you figure a used bike that’ll hold most of its value will be a waste of time and money?

He can do all that on his current bike. I thought my post would have been clear, maybe not. In my experience most people who buy DH bikes with the intention of racing them, ie doing a season, get the use of them. People who don’t end up punting them on a few years later. And unlike gold and classic Ferrari’s, they do continue depreciating.

When I was selling bikes that was my advice, people often came in just asking opinions on this old dh bike, or that old stinky etc for just what the op described and I generally told them what I’ve said above, generally adding what they really need was amodern 160mm bike. Virtually all of them came back and told me I was right and they should have listened to me.

People who don’t end up punting them on a few years later. And unlike gold and classic Ferrari’s, they do lose their value.

A £1k DH bike doesn’t have much value to loose, thrashing the tits off a nice trail bike at it’s limits will drop you more value on that.

mikewsmith

A £1k DH bike doesn’t have much value to loose,

Assuming he doesn’t have to spend £500 on bushings, bearings, a fork service and a shock service when he gets it home and realises they are toast. Which a lot of these “bargains” are. Also it’s debatable how much better the typical £1000 dh bike will be compared to his current bike.

Unless he gets a bargain or snipes a low bid on an auction that puts him firmly in the realm of old Stinkys, Big Hits etc. Pointless.

thrashing the tits off a nice trail bike at it’s limits will drop you more value on that.

Or he could just ride it normally? The last DH bike I had was a Glory, and it took me weeks of practice to get comfortable enough on that bike to approach dh race speeds. When I finally started to scrape the surface of the bikes performance, where it actually felt engaging to ride, I realised the consequences of crashing at those speeds could be huge. The added focus and impetus of actually racing dh puts people into the right frame of mind to push these bikes and improve as riders. The occasional bit of dicking about does not.

I’m tempted by getting a Freeride or Downhill bike

Yup do it. I started in 2010 it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done

The combination of geometry, suspension and brakes on a bike big means you can ride it like your trail bike and when you’re ready to move on there’s a huge safety net. Bricking it moments on a trail bike are simply arse-puckering on a proper big bike and the skills you learn transfer to your trail riding

And you don’t have to rebuild the bike after every run

I have an Ltc and one of the main reasons for getting the cheap DH bike was that I could ride Dh stuff faster and looser than I would on the LTc and not care about it. It’s blunt object rather than a precise tool. Fork servicing on most of the more basic DH forks is easy, a shock may need doing and bearings are something you factor in when you look at it.

I did the whole having a trail bike and making it a DH bike, was always compromised

Quite handy to have the DH rig in the garage ready to rock if the mood takes you, instead of having to faff with the trail bike and make it burlier for the odd weekend here and there.

he doesn’t have to spend £500 on bushings, bearings, a fork service and a shock service when he gets it home

He really doesn’t! I’m presuming not everyone has to employ a world cup mechanic to do a basic suspension service…

The added focus and impetus of actually racing dh puts people into the right frame of mind to push these bikes and improve as riders. The occasional bit of dicking about does not.

The actual experience of racing local DH could also make you want to confine the bike to the shed for life – would you rather have a whole day of dicking about, or a whole weekend waiting to do 4-5 runs?

He really doesn’t! I’m presuming not everyone has to employ a world cup mechanic to do a basic suspension service

Ask your local bike shop to do you a quote for a bushing/bearing kit, plus fitting, plus hub bearings and fittings, plus fork and shock whch might need god knows what. I love to mention the 2nd hand Sunday that needed £1200 to make it safe. And that was bought in person. Over ebay/pinkbike it’s a lottery.

oliverd1981

The actual experience of racing local DH could also make you want to confine the bike to the shed for life – would you rather have a whole day of dicking about, or a whole weekend waiting to do 4-5 runs?

Or it might be a great experience. If you only get 4 or 5 runs in a weekend then you need to have a word with the organisers.

Well, I’m going the other way. Since moving back to the UK and living in Oxford I find I never ride mine. So I’m selling it and thinking about a long travel trail bike.

That said, I did love riding it. On the right terrain they are a lot of fun.

Blatant plug: http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/intense-m3-downhill-bike-1

I bought a used DH bike a few months back (IH sunday) for the purpose of a holiday next year which will be 2 weeks in a bike park. Was told by nearly everyone that it will be more forgiving in the bike park for 2 weeks.

I will admit though that I haven’t managed to get out on it enough so far, which is bad because it still feels very different to my trail bike so I need to be comfortable on it by next summer.

Because it didn’t cost too much, Im not too bothered if it doesn’t get used a lot though.

so, yes get one.

I’ve always wanted to own or at least ride one. Not enough room in the garage though!

If you’ve got the space and money, buy one. You obviously want one. Just don’t expect it to get ridden a lot, and enjoy it when you do without feeling guilty about that only being 10 times a year plus a week on holiday.

I remember my first day on a proper DH bike – an old Giant DH at innerleithen. Thought it was fun and that set the seeds for bigger and bigger bikes, culminating in a DH bike. I used to do the dragon uplifts and a few races, plus took it to canada etc. I don’t want one now (kids, time, old), but I’m glad I had one. I bet modern DH bikes are absolutely insane fun.

If you want to progress what you are riding trail wise, and improve how you ride then put the Blur back to being a lighter trail bike and get a proper DH bike with triple crowns & good tyres.
I did the same with a Heckler, putting coil shock and long forks on it when getting into riding DH, mates had DH bikes so I eventually got a Spesh Bighit, loved it and started using it regularly, then bit the bullet and got a proper DH bike. A trail bike with longer forks is a world away from a DH bike, if you have time and get to locations to use a DH bike and put the effort in mentally you can greatly improve your skills and confidence. Everything is different but IME its mainly down to geometry, grip and solidity, my heckler feels like a bouncy wet noodle when I take it on trails I normally ride on my DH bike.
DH scene is really friendly, even the proper fast kids will take time to help you out giving you advice on tricky sections, a lot of the time you wont be able to replicate what they ride but you’ll see lines and ways of riding sections you hadn’t noticed before.

Get on Pinkbike, get one bought 😛