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Having a bit of a dilemma with how my bike is set up and whether I should change things round to make things better. As this is something I've been pondering for ages, this post is probably going to be quite long and rambling, just to warn you!
The situation is that I used to happily ride my DMR Trailstar for a bit of everything and it's quite short with a 50mm stem and a 21.5" top tube. Bars are also really wide as this makes it much more stable to descend with. It's perfect for jumping on and also really fun for downhill despite the steep head angle of 71 degrees.
Since getting a road bike (specialized langster) I feel like I've been introduced to how a bike should feel to pedal properly on! When I get back on the Trailstar for a local road/bridleway ride it feels so sluggish and short to the point of where pedalling feels really inefficient. It also makes my back ache a lot as I'm cramped. Some of this can be resolved with a longer stem and narrower bars (which I have available) but I don't really want to be constantly changing to these when I want an xc ride and vice versa with the shorter stem/wider bars for a dh ride.
So do I keep the Trailstar as more of a play bike then get a longer, steeper seat-angled "do-it-all" LT frame such as a 456 or mmmbop? I've also wanted to try a slacker head-angled frame for downhill, and could possibly replace the Trailstar for everything but dirt jumping with the do-it-all frame/bike. I don't want to sacrifice descending comfort but also need something that doesn't feel so bloody inefficient on flat and uphills.
Thoughts/opinions/tl;dr??
sounds like a good excuse for another bike!
A few hours on any of my bikes and the bike I'm on feels natural and any other bike feels wierd... My XC merida feels twitchy next to my 456, bargelike next to my Larkspur, utterly wierd compared to the singlespeed. and vice versa.
Mountain bike in not as fast as a road bike shocker.
Have you tried it with the longer stem and shorter bars? You may find after a bit of getting used to it its still loads of fun downhill. If not, new bike.
Try a cotic bfe. Short stays like the dmr so it feels pretty nimble, but there a bit longer in the TT so you'll be able to run it with a 60mm stem and it should be ok for xc and dirt jumps.
Mountain bike in not as fast as a road bike shocker.
Well obviously and I know some of it is going to be the weight and tyre/pressures but the more forwards riding position helps way more than I thought it would. Everything feels more of a struggle when you're sat over the rear wheel on a short bike. I have tried the longer stem/narrow bars and it helps but its just not as good for going downhill.
BFe looks nice but quite expensive for just a frame. Seems pretty good though, might have to look out for a 2nd hand one.