I was over at Laggan at the weekend doing a skills course and we were having a bit of a chuckle at the people riding “big” bikes around a trail centre. Now clearly this makes no sense. You don’t need a 160mm plus travel bike to ride anything at a trail centre and a lot of these bikes were clearly pretty compromised going up (judging by the number of people pushing them up what was really a pretty gentle climb) and even just riding along.

But I got to thinking when I got home “why not?”. OK they aren’t sensible, but we’re talking about adults messing about in the woods on bikes. Sensible doesn’t enter into it. OK, you might feel a bit silly when you get overtaken on a downhill section by somebody on an XC hardtail, but so what. Big bouncy bikes are probably quite fun and not really any more silly than a fully rigid or even a fat bike.

So, apologies to those I sniggered at on Sunday. I hope you had fun 🙂

Don’t worry, they were probably sniggering at you for being so rubbish at riding as to need a skills course!!

Never knowingly underbiked so apology for your moment of perceived superiority accepted 🙂

Don’t worry, they were probably sniggering at you for being so rubbish at riding as to need a skills course!!

Touche 😀

roverpig – Member

You don’t need a 160mm plus travel bike to ride anything at a trail centre

Everything at Laggan rides on a rigid (looks terrifying though in places). Were you on a rigid? No? OVERBIKED!

Meanwhile, other people controversially ride it on the bikes they have, rather than the Laggan-optimised 137.2mm bike they don’t. And if they get overtaken by a better rider on an XC bike, who cares? They’d still be overtaken if they were on identical bikes, they’d just probably be having less fun. No idea why you expect them to feel silly about it.

160mm bikes these days are mint- we went up north, I took the Hemlock. Fort William red and downhill on friday, nice sunny XC ride on the whw on saturday, finished with laps of Laggan on sunday. “Overbiked” for some, “underbiked” for others, enjoyed it all massively on my very nice bike.

Sorry roverpig, couldn’t resist! 🙂

Mate of mine bought a Coiler to take to Spain and it’s a bit of a brute in terms of build

He uses it at trail centres otherwise it wouldn’t see the light of day for 99% of the year.
It’s bloody quick downhill; can keep up with him (pretty much) when he’s on his E-120, but don’t stand a chance when he’s on the Coiler.

For the climbs, we normally ride with a fairly mixed fitness group anyway and he’s never the slowest so the ‘penalty’ of the bigger bike is largely irrelevant.

I often feel overbiked on my Meta AM, mainly when riding trail centres/XC.

However, I have the bike as a jack of all trades, master of none, am happy to accept that, and love the fact that I can ride XC/trails/DH/jumpy stuff on it.

I mostly don’t even register what bikes other people are riding. I’m quite choosy about my own bike, but that’s only because I’m the one who has to ride it.

I’m more bemused by the new generation – or maybe I’ve only just noticed them – of very serious-looking middle-aged mountain biking blokes who give you the evils if you deign to say hello to them. What’s that all about?

The expression ‘overbiked’ is very annoying indeed… 🙄

Especially for those of us that don’t have the luxury of having loads of bikes so that they can pick the ‘exact right bike’ for the given type of ride. Ever consider that?

I imagine that everyone finds themselves slightly under or over biked quite often unless you are lucky enough to have a bike for every occasion.
I quite often ride my Covert down the pub. No one has taken the piss as yet, but I could just about manage the journey on my mums old Raleigh shopper without breaking my neck.

The smallest bike I have is my alpine 160, I can’t afford or justify any more bikes, still have fun though.

I’ve only got one bike (160mm travel) and I ride that everywhere because I have to. I can keep up with mates (just) on shorter travel bikes on the climbs but end up waiting for them at the bottom. I’m an adult and I like ‘playing in the woods on a bike’

you’re only over or underbiked if it’s not fun anymore. Too heavy to pedal up the hills, too noodly/rigid to ride down the hills etc. but of course riding an unsuitable bike can be a barrel of laughs all by itself hence the popularity of CX 🙂

I ride a 160mm bike most of the time at the moment, its so much fun on the downs I don’t mind not being the fastest on the ups! One thing I’ve found is the guys who go on about this “overbiked” rubbish are often the same ones that sit out when we find a fun jump or drop to session on a ride.

I’m more bemused by the new generation – or maybe I’ve only just noticed them – of very serious-looking middle-aged mountain biking blokes who give you the evils if you deign to say hello to them. What’s that all about?

+1.

Even more blood boiling when you do give a cheery hello and are graced with a snarly grunt in reply.

Generally though, like what has been said before, not everyone has an arsenal of bikes they can choose from. Trail centers are for anyone. Whether they have to push the ups or not doesnt affect you, i can guarantee they are having fun. Hell…ive even seen road bikes belted around Leigh Woods. Granted its not the gnarliest trail, but they were skipping around nearing death at every turn. Grinning none the less..

Myself and a friend did twyrch on our 4x bikes a couple of weeks ago. The climb was pretty awful with seats that didnt go up, road cassettes and near solid forks, but thats the bikes we had with us on the day, so we just got on with it.

Oddly enough, a group of guys on full sussers made some under the breath comments about us while we pushed up a slight slope. Nobs.

You know what, we enjoyed ourselves. Isnt that the point of bicycles?

I’m overbiked and proud!

I use my SX Trail for everything aside from road riding and mucking about in the local woods (road bike and a jump bike respectively). It’s a slog up long hills bit I’m rarely the fastest but neither am I the slowest, on the other hand it’s a hoot on the way back down!

I know what you mean about the grumpy gits…I thought it was supposed to be roadies that blanked each other but all of the ones I’ve come across have been much more friendly than most of those at Cannock on Sunday (mainly aimed at the chap who didn’t even acknowledge me when I held the gate open for him at the railway crossing).

If people think you are over biked, they aren’t riding the trail fast enough! 😆 8)

I don’t view it as being “over biked,” rather “under trailed”.

Its a shame trail designers have to cater for the mincers who ride hardtails and xc bikes aswell.

It is definately better and more fun being overbiked. OK it does make the climbs a bit slower, but so what? – you’re quicker everywhere else, sit back and enjoy the fact you’re outside. Given that most of the people who complain about people being overbiked are over-something’d in their life then who are they to sneer? They’re probably over-housed, over-PC’s, over-car’d, over wrist watched etc.

I think I’m another one whom many might consider over biked from time to time.. On the days out in bigger hills, like last week in Torridon, I take my big bike, a Cove G-spot. It weighs about the same as a large anchor but that rarely seems a hindrance, as I’m not actually racing and am unlikely to be last to the top of anything.
What it gives me is a reassuring safety margin for errors on the trail, of which I’ve been known to make one or two. I also have less than perfect vision which compromises depth perception a bit, so having a rig twhich copes with hitting some obstacles is quite handy. Finally, it is a whole load of fun on the big descents, maybe not particularly nimble but I don’t care; I’m still not racing.
Fun in the woods, and overbiked..? Now you’re talking. This trip we stopped off at Aviemore on the way home where I borrowed a Surly Pugsley from Bothy Bikes for a couple of hours blast in the steep woods nearby. What an absolute hoot, space hopper meets xc.

Surely though, if you’re riding a bike that won’t get you up a hill that’s underbiked, if you’re riding a bike that flattens the downs too much you’re overbiked! So really these people just have the wrong bike?

Although the only way to actually have the correct bike is to star in a Chris Acrigg video!!

I carry four or five bikes with me on every ride and swap over depending on the suitability for the section of trail I happen to be on at any given time.

I love how the OP explains that he got to thinking that judging others as “overbiked” is silly, and even apologised for doing so in the past, and yet the (overbiked) STW collective instantly begins mashing him for what he just explained to have reconsidered and changed his mind about. It’s not internet if it’s not overly defensive I suppose.

I carry four or five bikes with me on every ride

Fair enough , a sensible solution.
I hope you have quality wheels on each bike, or do you use one
excellent wheel set for all the bikes you carry?

Thanks svalgis. I was beginning to wonder why I was being slagged off for apologising, but actually all the comments are pretty accurate really and I did start it 🙂

There will always be hills you cant ride up/down, whatever bike your on.

Ive only got one bike, so trying to find one I can do a XC race on then do an Alps DH run on is always going to leave me in a compromise.

However, its always fun, thats all that counts.

It can be great fun having too much bike on certain trails, but they are in the minority. Riding a jump line on a big bouncy bike can be a laugh as you can get away with a lot more and ride big jumps fast, without having to think too much about being smooth.

Apart from that I prefer to have less bike as it makes the majority of rides more entertaining and fun.

Never knowingly underbiked

🙂 🙂

svalgis – Member
I love how the OP explains that he got to thinking that judging others as “overbiked” is silly, and even apologised for doing so in the past, and yet the (overbiked) STW collective instantly begins mashing him for what he just explained to have reconsidered and changed his mind about. It’s not internet if it’s not overly defensive I suppose.

Well said. I was thinking the same thing.

never knowingly over skilled- thats me 🙂

Oh FFS.

1) It’s got nothing to do with need.

2) People don’t necessarily have the perfect bike for every occasion in their garage. Maybe they live in Fort William and only occasinally go to a trail centre.

3) It’s not about travel. Longer travel bikes often come with bigger tyres, bigger brakes, more relaxed angles, wider bars and so on, and this can help you go quicker even at trail centres. That’s the reason I often take my Patriot to Cwmcarn. I don’t need the travel, I’ve ridden it on my XC race bike enough times, but the Patriot is WAY more fun on the singletrack and descents.

Hi Roverpig. Hope it didn’t appear that I was slagging you off. It was not the intention. I was just making comment and sharing experience, sort of agreeing with what you were saying. I haven’t always ridden a large travel trail bike and my own perception of seeing riders on bigger ‘rigs’ on relatively pedestrian trails has been similar to yours. I went through a very long thought dilemma process before committing to a larger bike after my older 2006 Heckler that it replaced was fine for a lot, save the roughest of trails.
Horses for courses. Buy the bike that makes you squeal like a pig with excitement whatever your favourite type of trail is or whatever you want to get from it and you wont even hear the haterz as you whizz buy grinning from ear to ear.

I’m over car-ed – most of the time I don’t need seven seats or the big boot but when we’re carrying other peoples kids around or carrying 5 peoples worth of camping gear it’s nice. And that 6 th gear doesn’t see too much use either

I’m over motor-biked – most of the time I don’t need a KTM 990, but when I load up with gear 2 up it’s nice

I’m over mtb’ed – most of the time I don’t need a 130mm plus darn saarfff, but when i go to the Lakes / Spain / Alps it’s nice

Do you think if you had a big bouncy bike, you wouldn’t need a skills course? Or if you concentrated on riding instead of worrying about what other people are doing you might improve?

whats with the skills courses, didn’t anybody jump, wheelie and ride down mountains on BMX’s and grifters as kids?
for what its worth i use a canyon strive for everything and find the whole under/over biked thing quite amusing.

Jef Wachowchow: Hi Roverpig. Hope it didn’t appear that I was slagging you off. It was not the intention

Thanks Jef, but don’t worry about it. I seem to have struck a nerve in some people and some of the responses have come as a bit of a surprise (I didn’t expect the casual mention that I was on a skills course to have been so controversial), but I prefer to assume that anything I read online is meant in a light hearted and friendly manner. It usually is to be honest and when it’s not it’s not worth worrying about.

My main bike is an enduro , it goes out on rides I could and have done on a rigid
But I like riding it.

If any one proper complains I just ride away from them lol

I have done a couple of skills courses in the last few years in spite of the fact that I have been riding mountain bikes for over 20 years, BMX before that and my brothers Strika before that.
It was a great way to highlight all the bad habits I had picked up, mostly from riding FS for the last 12 years, I had gotten lazy. There is no substitute for having someone watching what you are doing and genuinely feeling the benefit of the tweaks that you make under instruction. I now get more out of my 160mm bike on a less than Xtreme trail than I ever did on my smaller travel bike, purely because my skills and technique have been worked on.
I would challenge anyone that has not done a course to try it out before they say they didn’t need it. Upgrade yourself pretty much sums it up.