[Closed] 650b - feel alittle underwhelmed

Either they are not the fast DH boys or you need to get you and that bike up into North Wales sharpish in the mornming

My next door neighbours, uncles, mate rides a hardtail and is faster than the top guys on DH bikes. Oh and the fish was this big 😀

yeah I once kept up with Rachel Atherton (for 4 corners dropping about a second a corner - about 9 years ago)

Dump the brakes, big tyres and suspension then. You don't need much to live on the edge

That is exactly what I did for the last few years. I was using a brakeless fixed gear track bike with 24c tyres and riding the exact same routes than I ride on my MTB.
I still haven't beaten most of the times I did on the track bike since moving back to MTB this year.

Why did I move back? Riding the MTB is just more fun...

That is exactly what I did for the last few years. I was using a brakeless fixed gear track bike with 24c tyres and riding the exact same routes than I ride on my MTB.
I still haven't beaten most of the times I did on the track bike since moving back to MTB this year.

Into some epic willy waving territory now

Well, I have different bikes, and they are faster and slower up and down hill pretty much in alignment with what you'd expect according to the stats. So there 🙂

This is so typical singletrack world.
A bunch of middle aged mincers moaning about bikes.

The fast lads are riding there's lmfao.
It hasnt changed, it doesn't matter what aspect of a bike is changed, there are always the singletrackworld officionados, moaning that it doesn't suit them.

A poor workman always blames his tools.

A goodworkman revels and excels with the best tools to hand...

A good workman will excel with what they have.

Yawn 🙄

This is like a sword fight in a sausage factory. Enguard!

Ok, I propose this as the bottom line.

Fast riders are fast.
Slow riders are slow.

Fast riders will be somewhat faster on a bike that's more appropriate for the terrain.

Slow riders will still be mincers on any bike.

Fast riders are fast.
Slow riders [s]are slow[/s] blame their bike.

There fixed it for you.

Should have added that on terrain that warrants a big bike, fast boys on DH bikes leave for for dead when im on the trail bike. Plus the DH near me isn't exactly DH, which means a DH bike is normally the wrong tool and a trail bike is the right tool.

I guess the points i was attempting to get across is doing stuff right gets you 95%ish of your speed, right bike for the job maybe gets you that last 5-10% and that what most people i see out riding/what i imagine a majority of STW think is the right tool for the job, is most probably the wrong tool for the job, typically going on the overkill end of the spectrum, IMO becoming a hindrance.

And I guess most STW'ers wont be grrat riders, some maybe XC/race gods and some trail centre warriors but a rare few that can ride techy smooth.

I dont many stw'ers who would podium in amateur non-XC race. So anyone who claims others are mincers, your claiming you arent overbiked then?

Alll righty-then

doing stuff right gets you 95%ish of your speed, right bike for the job maybe gets you that last 5-10%

That depends entirely on the terrain. A good rider on an XC race bike would probably take twice as long on Ft Bill than on a DH bike. You'd just have to back off.

Anyone care to try it out? 🙂

your claiming you arent overbiked then?

No such thing as overbiked. You ride the bike you want to ride. You can still enjoy it even if you are mincing.

Dean, you make a lot of good points but you fail to consider that a big part of riding well (and thus fast) is having confidence in your ability to execute the moves, confidence that you can balance a bike on the limit and confidence that when you don't get it right you won't immediately hit the floor. Bikes like BMXs are easier to execute moves on whilst bikes like DH bikes are easier to balance on the limit and better at looking after you when you get it wrong.

If you get two riders with similar skills but differing innate confidence the more confident rider will get more out of the shorter travel and less slack bike whilst the less confident rider will benefit more from the bigger bike. I speak from experience as someone who owns two bikes which overlap in character, struggles more with confidence than ability and is quicker on a bike which someone like you would consider overkill for my local trails. Another aspect could be strength vs timing - my timing on the bike isn't as good as I'd like but I'm a fairly strong rider who will get quite physical with his bike, so I can manhandle the bigger bike whilst the travel blurs my temporal imprecision...

I knew I shouldn't have looked at this thread.

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Ignore the new Reverb dropper cable that I fitted in the carpark (since sorted)..

Back to 26'er

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I kinda hesitate to do this, but I'm curious: how's it going?

🙂

Been a week, he must have swapped it for something else by now.

Well I decided to swap my forks over to the Marzocchi 350's. They are about 5mm shorter than the Fox's on A2C which surprised me as Mazz always come up quite long don't they? Anyway I thought would it affect the BB/pedal strike combined with 'the wrong sized wheels'? Maybe the 40mm offset (as opposed to the Fox's 44mm) helped as the steering is also a smidge sharper and the bike abit more playful. Different- I prefer it like this. (On faster trails maybe the Fox would be better). I might also retry the different wheelsizes with the Mazz to see how it feels but I'm not really in that much of a rush as I'm enjoying my bike. It feels very much 'in'. I'm not sure it'd work on all bikes or all sizes as designers will prefer higher/lower BB's etc and wheelbases so yours might not work...although it may actually suit your taste more.

If I go to the Alps this Summer I'll definitely take the 650b front though. Its a fantastic 67.5'er. For all day to day trail though- 26'er is spot on.

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The 40mm offset is more 'right' for the 26" wheels than 44mm is. Shorter offset increases trail which slows down steering (like slackening head angle does).

Ah that explains why it feels soo good 8)

I'm surprised the 350 is 5mm shorter I thought they were same length as rock shox and slightly longer than fox.

I just compared the travel of my 150 RS sektor and supposedly 160 350 cr and the 350 only has 2-3 more travel. I need to get something to measure them.

Yep - I didn't break out the ruler but side-by-side it was very obvious that the Fox 160's were a clear almost 10mm heigher. I can't find any A2C measurements online. Very weird, as I said historically Mazz have always come up long for some reason.

^Fair play that descent looks slick!

v666ern - Member
^Fair play that descent looks slick!

The Beast ?

More likely Gores / Lockerbrook

^Fair play that descent looks slick!

It's gritstone, it's much grippier than it looks, even when wet.

[s]Lockerbrook[/s]

bit late

How many rides have you actually done in 650b mode?

Should of just bought a 26er !!

Should of just bought a 26er !!

A 5 spot ?

Hope you don't get here with it 😉
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What a stupid thing to put on a sign!

yep somebody has got round all the signs in the Redwoods in Rotorua on the quiet 😉 Seems to infuriate those with no sense of humour

ah, it's not official.. thank f.

Should [s]of[/s] have just bought a 26er !!

But you know that would have been wrong in some way too. These bike companies have no idea of what they are doing.

The 350CR 160 27.5 is 547mm A-C. The same Pike is 552mm. I believe the new Fox 36 is shorter than the Pike too.

Haha that sign is brilliant. I recently had an invite on Facebook for a group ride to some new trails that had been built near me, jumps, drops etc . The event organiser stated 'no 29ers'

No idea what sort of stone that is as I ride the same everywhere. All I know is theres a chicken line to my right that I avoid as 26'er wheels handle anything funnily enough and it feels more fun.

'How long did you try the 650b's'?

Long enough not to like how it makes you go quicker at the expense of other aspects and smooths out the trail.

I dont want it to smooth everything out or make things easier to ride. Refer back to my second line of this post.

One day I'll switch to 650b (as Ive bought a decent 650b hope/stans). But not today or anytime soon.

looks like lockermouth?