Just spent half a day on an uplift ride whilst on holiday, bike was an AL Jeffsy a year or two old but in good nick. Bike was great fun in the rough and descending but absolutely totally knackering uphill (700m) it just sapped my energy and nearly runied the ride. Shock pressures were OK but seemed to sit quite deep in the rear travel when climbing despite sag being set at 30%.
I ride a 26ht and I'm looking to add a 650b fs for longer / bigger rides and trail center type work and thought a Jeffsy might be an option and is well reviewed but I'm now doubting the whole plan. How does the YT climb in relation to other platforms / suspensions systems? I'm not that familiar with current designs, having last ridden fs to reasonable degree 10 years ago. Is it likely i need more patience in setting up a bike or am I looking at the wrong kit? Whatever I get will need to cover all aspects of a ride.
One other element I thought could be a factor is that I'm a heavy chap and generally torque my way up hills, how do fs bikes tend to react to this?
Any thoughts or observations greatly received.
I haven’t ridden a Jeffsy but have got a similar travel fs (Bird Aeris 145Lt which has 160mm rear travel / 170mm front).
I think it rides uphill ok - I tend to sit in and spin the cranks rather than really torque my way uphill. For a 30t chainring and 10-42 cassette. Occasionally I wish I had a slightly ‘spinnier’ gear (big long day rides) but most of the time I don’t. I think it climbs on for a long travel / reasonably weight.
That said I also just moved from a 26er hardtail to a 650b hardtail and both of those felt a lot easier uphill. Probably only 3-4lbs lighter but no rear bob at all.
There are fs bikes that are a bit easier to go uphill on if you look around the 120-130mm rear travel mark.
Morning, 6ft2 and 90kg here and find my 29er Jeffsy good up and down. Running 150 Lyriks and Fox Float shock and seems solid on the ups. Never going to be as good as a short travel FS or HT but then I bought it for the fun down. Running 1-10 (30-42) and haven’t had much I can’t get up.
cheers
I spent 10 years on a longer travel bike ( Santa Cruz Nomad ) ..and when I bought my current bike a couple of years back it totally transformed my climbing ability ( Whyte T130rs) ..
Sometimes less is more ..especially for the type of riding you have described you are wanting the bike for ..
Edit : 1x11...32( oval)-46
I have a 29er Jeffsy and climbing is not a problem (at least sitting and spinning - it does move around a bit if you're up in the pedals and powering your way up).
What tyres were on it, out of interest? I find that really draggy tyres make a helluva difference.
As above- if it was an uplift hire bike I suspect it’ll have been fitted with 1.2Kg ish DH tyres at either end, which you’ll certainly notice on the climbs!
Having ridden/demod a load of bikes in that category I found Jeff27.5 to be one of the better climbers. I suspect the ‘flip-chip’ was in the slack setting, which can impact climbing a bit
I've just got a Jeffsey, I think it's a 2017.
Climbs a lot better than the T129s I had before it, that's for certain.
I'd suggest taking a look at your rotational weight as that seemed to make a huge difference for me.
My 2016 CF Pro climbs fantastically well - as well as my carbon hardtail. Using 30t AB oval and 10-42. But I would agree with the tyre comment up there - on the original 1.1kg Onza Ibexs it was a struggle on the flat, let alone a climb. I suspect the DT Swiss XMC 1200 wheels they put on those early bikes don't hurt the climbing ability either.
Set the sag to sag less.
Stay seated and spin your way up, that's far more efficient than stamping slowly on the cranks. Crank length wont change, but more revs = more power.
My CF Pro also climbs very well, but it has the Fox shock with three settings, so for long climbs I flick it to a firmer setting. However, even on its non firm setting, I found it out climbs my previous similar bikes.
However, my sag is not at 30%, its probably around 20-25%.
It also has carbon rims, so they are very light and spin up fast. My seatpost is fully expended when I climb, so check you have that set properly.
I have the flip chip in slack mode, I suppose in the less slack mode it would climb even better, but its fine as it is.
Also to be fair, the fitter you are the easier it is to ride up hill.
Sadly no equipment or technique can help with fitness 🙂
Not a Jeffsy but I had a similar issue with my Stumpy when I first got it. It climbed like it was made of lead.
A few things - if you're an out of the saddle, power up stuff HT rider...you will have to adjust technique!
Shock...this was my biggest game changer. - I rarely go for lock...but I do always select pedal over "open" (even on rocky tech climbs) to add a bit more of a platform - both in terms of pedal strikes and wallowing.
Even then, I played around with a few PSI in the shock, and changing the rebound rate. I think I ended up dropping a few psi, but quickening the rebound a few clicks.
The bike now surges up climbs and on many climbs am bang on par with the hardtail!
I also lowered my bars by 10mm. Just made the climbing position more efficient for me....but the shock was definitely the alteration that moved the needle by the biggest amount.
I have a Minion and an Aggressor on mine. Still climbs super-quick. Weirdly I'm having the opposite problem: descending! My other bike is an Alpine 6, which feels infinitely more tough, playable and manoeuvrable. No surprise as it's considerably heavier with a bigger fork, but the Jeffsy requires that I have to be very mindful of keeping weight forward and good body position. I wonder if a shorter stem would help?
The bike climbs fine.
All bikes sag more when sat down climbing. Jeffsy's are quite progressive. running 30% sag might be a tad too much (it is on a Capra) especially for a heavy bloke.
generally torque my way up hills, how do fs bikes tend to react to this?
What does this mean?
torque my way up hills
I took it to mean that the OP is a freehub destroying beast.
I took it to mean that the OP is a freehub destroying beast.
Guess yes.
And if so, uphill with lots of force: this might force the rear suspension of some bikes to drain the energy out of you.
Possible.
HT / FS: huge difference anyway when going uphill. Difficult to beat the HT there.
Does depend on the terrain you are trying to ride up though. If its bumpy, scrabbly or techy, then my FS always out climbed my HT.
I had a Scott which allowed me to lock out the suspension, I found locking out only ever made it better when I was trying to sprint up the road. Off road, even in the mellow Chilterns, in its mid setting it climbed better than locked out. It just tracked the ground better, each bump acted against the shock rather than against the bike, so I could just sit and spin.
If its smooth and you stand up and mash the pedals, then you are on a one way ticket to frustration station.
Less sag, sit and spin.
Thanks for the thoughts and advice, to answer some questions:
Think tyres were possibly Maxxis high roller 2.4, so yes, not light.
Fitness, I'm no athlete but happy with 30 mile rides including 1k climbing, on consecutive days.
I climb with low cadence generally, I've got big legs that have no problem generating power but don't like to be spun too quickly. I don't stand and mash unless necessary though. Run CK hubs and never had a freehub problem 😉.
Uphill terrain was hardpacked steepish and reasonably technical double track.
Sounds like the solution here is multifaceted, check the bike suits me as much as possible, better set up (though I was running 300 psi on the shock out of a maximum 325), so perhaps a coil shock could be an option. Consideration of rotational equipment, bike fit and then add more fitness and most importantly, technique. Smooth out the power delivery.
On the the last point, it's easy to be lazy on a HT here, as generally whatever you plough in sends you up, unless you spin out.
I need some re-education, ride a few bikes back to back with a shop who knows their stuff and pay attention to what I'm doing. The answer is out there and in the main I probably need to evolve my riding style to get the best out of a fs steed.
