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Surely people are only overbiked sometimes
When racing Enduro i'm perfectly-biked. But when i take the same bike to the cafe, i'm underbiked, or over-suspensioned.
But when you have 1 bike it has to do the 1 thing you REALLY need it to do best... it can do the other parts fine, ok, acceptably...
Sure, not all my rides are fully gnarly... but enough are that i want and need the bounce.
Do people use the term overbiked mainly when referring to other people?
I don't think I've ever heard anyone use it in the real world, only on the internet. If the normal bunch of us were riding tonight we'd be on anything from a 100mm xc HT to a full enduro bike. Occasionally people will turn up on DH bikes, gravel bikes, jump bikes, retro bikes, cross bikes and I seem to remember at least one BMX (when his main bike was in pieces). There is often amusement and ribbing about the bike being ridden, but not because it's 'too big'. Normally it's related to the state of the bike/tyres/brakes/trailside rock hammer repairs...
So if you believe that someone is 'over biked' is it your moral duty to tell them so?
The extra weight and grippy tyres
It's possible that those riders who can't cope with grippier tyres are underlegged? 😀
What’s travel?
Erm... The thing you are doing on your:
Rigid steel SS 26er with carbon forks
Sorry. Couldn't resist. #poorjokealerti'llleavequietlymovealongnothingtoseehere
@IdleJon you have just described me perfectly. And I am most definitely over-biked and under-skilled.
My "Big" bike is a Gen 1 Flaremax. I'm sure most people could ride my gnarliest route on a 100mm hardtail, so by that measure I'm "over biked". However, I couldn't ride my gnarliest routes on much less so I don't think I am over biked. I also wouldn't be riding anything gnarlier if I had a much longer travel bike.
I'm a rubbish technical rider with balls the size of a hamster...
In the spirit of what the OP was about, yeah I'd say I was over biked slightly. I ride a 160/150 Bird AM9 with a a coil and beefy parts but would be fine on something shorter travel for the majority of my riding. I think people, me included, often buy a bike for what they think they'll ride all the time, not what they actually do.
But I'd also say if you can afford a nice bike and you want a longer travel then F what anyone else thinks and ride what the hell you want! 🙂
25 years ago I was was riding a fully rigid claud butler with canti brakes.
Now I ride a 170mm yt Capra or a 160mm ebike.
I ride the same trails now as I did back then, I just do the downhill bits faster these days - and crash less.
I did have some bloke on a rigid singlespeed ask me if I thought I was overbiked when I was riding round Cannock chase once,
I think people with a different bike for every kind of trail are overbiked.
When racing Enduro i’m perfectly-biked. But when i take the same bike to the cafe, i’m underbiked, or over-suspensioned.
But when you have 1 bike it has to do the 1 thing you REALLY need it to do best… it can do the other parts fine, ok, acceptably…
What you've said makes sense to me FWIW. OTOH, what if someone's local loop is pretty flat, but they (plan to) go to the Alps for a week once a year? Should they buy a DH bike (which would be the best tool for Pleny laps) and ride that all year, or actually is that a bit silly? Where do you draw the line?
In general, it's a recognition that more travel is not necessarily better; that shorter-travel bikes are probably more fun on the stuff that people ride most often. #Downcountry etc. By buying a bike that can 'cope' with absolutely everything you might plausibly ride it on, people are doing themselves a disservice.
OTOH, what if someone’s local loop is pretty flat, but they (plan to) go to the Alps for a week once a year?
In that instance it comes down to "what is the person comfortable doing"... in his instance, i'd probably hire a DH/Enduro bike for the time in the Alps.
In that instance it comes down to “what is the person comfortable doing”… in his instance, i’d probably hire a DH/Enduro bike for the time in the Alps.
Because to ride the DH bike year-round would be being overbiked, right? We're in agreement, I'm just posing hypothetical to try to understand what the question really is.
So where does one draw the line? Should you buy an Enduro bike that you can ride in the Alps (perhaps not quite as good as a DH bike for that trip) AND while at home for mincing around your local pan-flat trails (also not the optimal bike for that). I know that's a false dichotomy and for most people it's more grey than that.
I reckon the 'overbiked' question is really "Are people persuaded (By marketing? By an inflated sense of their own adventurousness) to choose a bike with excessive travel, and would they be happier overall if they went with something with less travel?"
I reckon the ‘overbiked’ question is really “Are people persuaded (By marketing? By an inflated sense of their own adventurousness) to choose a bike with excessive travel, and would they be happier overall if they went with something with less travel?”
It happens the other way as well. Most people who buy a road bike would be better served with a gravel bike, or similar hybrid thing. Road bikes are only really a great choice if you have lots of smooth tarmac to take advantage of those quick, narrow tyres. Less so, if you're pottering down the seafront for a pint with your mates, or trudging up the muddy cycle-path to work. But I won't look like a pro-racer if I'm not on a carbon framed aero bike.. 😀
So, yes, people are persuaded to buy the wrong bike, whatever that is, every day. That's part of the fun, normally.
Do people use the term overbiked mainly when referring to other people?
Not me, I know that any bike I ride is much more capable than me. You could stick me at the top of a WC downhill course on a Brompton, and I'd still be considerably over-biked 🙂
There are a couple of other variables.
1. Your fitness to skill ratio and how it differs from your riding companions.
2. What you actually find fun.
I'm local to swinley, my inlaws are close to dalby. both get mentioned as dull easy trail centres that certain people only find fun when on a gravel bike.
I've ridden a gravel bike on holiday, and I've ridden a rigid 29er locally.
I have no doubt I could complete the red route at both swinley and dalby on a gravel bike without falling off or chickening out.
I also have no doubt that I would not enjoy the experience anywhere near as much as on either of my bikes, which in modern parlance would be a hardcore hardtail, and a heavy duty trail bike.
But I'm trying to pump out of corners, bunnyhop some roots/puddles, double up some rollers; rather than caring about my fastest full lap time.
I’m a rubbish technical rider with balls the size of a hamster…
Hamster per ball? Am impressed.
Hamster per ball? Am impressed.
Hamster ball per ball. Even more impressed.
Don't hamsters have rather large testicles in comparison to their whole body size? They must be good on a bike. Any bike.
I don't give a damn under most circumstances. even where I am in the Surrey Hills, there's plenty of chunky stuff to stretch a 'big' bike if you go looking for it. But - true story:
I do start to care when someone starts badmouthing a nice twisty singletrack trail I helped build ~15 years ago because it isn't challenging on their 150mm 29er. Of course it's going to be tame. We built the trail to be fun for all abilities at the time, and I know plenty of people who ride it with their kids who are happy riding it at warp speed when they're out with their mates. It's still a go-to trail for many people, and ridden at speed it's still quite hard work. Then there's all the people who gave their time and sweat to build it.
Maybe all of that whining from me is because someone is acting all entitled, though - rather than about them being overbiked or otherwise.
My biggest bike is a 150/135mm Orange Stage 5 and I run out of skill far before it does so I'm maybe over biked but saying that, I had a Segment before that and sometimes thought I'd like a bit more travel so maybe not? I have a rigid Whippet for tamer stuff so think I'm just about covered.
Someone was making the assertion that being "overbiked" will make trails easier, I make the polar opposite claim, being overbiked for the terrain not only makes it harder, but also makes it less fun and harder work than it need be, hence why being overbiked makes no sense to me, except if I refer back to an earlier point I made, that there's illogical "safety in plushness".
edit. yes you'd need unlimited funds for the perfect bike for every ride, which isn't practical for most. this is where I really see ebikes bridging the gap since they really are more versatile.
It's just about fun, isn't it?
I don't think there's any such thing as over or under biked. For me at least.
My current bike is a hardtail and it's a shed-load of fun. I'm riding the same stuff I always have, XC to enduro to DH, and I'm having a great time. Maybe I'm slower, maybe I spend more time hanging on for dear life but it's still fun. That would suggest that being 'under biked' isn't a thing (for me).
When I've had big bouncy bikes, on the same type of trails, I've also had fun. Some of the bumps vanished, so I went a bit quicker and it was swoopier and flowier. I could concentrate on things like cornering and jumping more. It was still a shed-load of fun, just different. I guess I've occasionally wanted a slightly more spritely bike on XC stuff but, really, I was still having a great time. So I don't think I could apply the term 'overbiked' either.
I guess some bikes are more fun than others on certain trails. A fat bike will be sluggish on the road and a cross bike might feel like it's out to get you on a DH track. But that's a question of having the 'wrong' bike, rather than being over or underbiked.
Bikes are good.