Do you ever feel like you’re riding someone else’s bike?

I went for a ride yesterday. As soon as I jumped on the bike it felt weird. The bars felt like they were in the wrong place, the whole front end felt too high. The saddle felt like it was the wrong height and at an uncomfortable angle and I spent most of the day feeling like I was wobbling around, perched on the top of the bike.

It’s my only bike. Well, it’s the only one I ride. Nothing has changed on it since last week other than bleeding the brakes. It just felt wierd for some reason. I even got off after a mile or so to check the pressure in the suspension to see if I’d lost air and it was sagging too much.

Nope. Exactly where I’d left it.

I’m used to having good days and off days in terms of my riding but this literally felt like I’d hopped onto a totally unfamiliar bike.

Am I weird? Does this happen to anyone else? Or does my garage have some kind of bike tinkering poltergeist?

Am I weird?

Very.

Does this happen to anyone else?

No. You are unique.

Or does my garage have some kind of bike tinkering poltergeist?

It’s not beyond the realms of possibility.

My take, fwiw, is that when riding, the body unconsciously  functions in a very precise, regulated way. Stuff like balance is pretty much automatic/regulated by the autonomic nervous system, it ‘just happens, you bypass the conscious mind by and large’. Something only has to be slightly ‘off’ for things to start ‘feeling’ very off. My guess, fwiw, is that once you start focussing on how your bike feels ‘wrong’ you start to bypass the automatic stuff and focus on the ‘wrongness’ of how something feels and that reinforces it. A bit like noticing, say, the background hum of a fridge or a heating pump, which you’d normally filter out. Once you focus on it, it becomes front of mind.

That’s my very unscientific guess, that you’re maybe in a sort of feedback loop. Something feels slightly off, you focus on that disprorportionately and it snow-balls from there, maybe.

I have the odd day when I feel crap on the bike and other days when the bike, in exactly the same trim, feels perfect. My conclusion is that the difference is probably me and my perceptions of what the bike is doing. I try to ignore it and just ride the bike to ride the bike and not think too hard.

That said, the last time I went out on a very infrequently-ridden Levo, it felt awful. When I got home, I checked the rear shock and found the rear damper was set on max. No idea why, or how, but it was. Poltergeist maybe? I Put it back to something sane and the bike was transformed to something more normal.

I get this once every couple of years. Usually after new glasses with a tweaked prescription!

I used to get this quite a bit.  It happens a lot less now that I check my fork, shock and tyre pressures before every ride. 1 or 2 psi is noticable for me. Makes even more difference if you’re somewhere with large altitude and/or temperature range. Making sure suspension is regularly serviced is important too. A lowers and air can service doesn’t take long after a few goes and really helps keep the bike feeling consistent.

I also keep a log of the pressures I use when I ride somewhere much different to normal e.g – I normally ride quite slow, steep tec. If I go to say, BPW I’m going to want different pressures – but, because I’m moving faster and hitting things harder the bike is still working in the normal range so it still feels right.

ish…

Been riding a 26er last couple of weeks. Jumped on my 29er yesterday and it just felt wrong!

Are you sure you have it set up in the best way for your body? Maybe you’re used to it and this is the bodies way of telling you it could be better? Perhaps your subconscious is tuning into your inner G Atherton?

To be honest, I spend far too much time wondering about whether the setup could be better. Even when I get everything feel good I’m thinking about whether it could actually be great if I add a psi here or twiddle a clicker there.

I’ve experimened enough to at least have a basic feel for what works and doesn’t.

Fork and tyres are pretty sorted at their respective settings.

The rear shock still needs some tweaking but I can’t really do too much with it at the moment.

I’d like to be able to run slightly less rebound damping but then it wouldn’t be balanced with the fork where I’m already at full open.

Either a new shim stack or lighter oil will be happening fairly soon.

This wasn’t so much a setup issue, it just felt like the bars and saddle were in the wrong place and the bike just didn’t feel comfy. Or I didn’t feel comfy on it.

BadlyWiredDog makes some good points. It’s probably just me focusing on the realisation that something wasn’t quite right and then all of a sudden, nothing feels right.

I might take it as a sign that I need to start again with the positioning in the bike and see if I can improve things.

Every day,  but I’m a bike thief*

*I’m not but it was an obvious response, that I’m surprised no one else beat me to

🙂

Yep.

She was worth it though.

I think this could be down to your body just been a bit less flexible that day, which meant the bike felt a bit big. Or maybe your seatpost slipped down a bit.