I’m interested to hear from people with multiple mountain bikes as to whether there are descents that they will ride on one mountain bike but don’t feel comfortable riding on one of their other mountain bikes. E.g. will you take your hartail down anything that you ride your big bouncy bike on (just a bit slower) or do you avoid certain routes?

In order to avoid the more extreme cases (e.g. riding your road bike down a DH track), lets limit it to bikes that can take the same tyres.

I’ll ride anything on any of the bikes.
How fast or how competently is a different matter though..

Just down to how I’m feeling at that time and perhaps who I’m with.

no, it may effect the speed, success and grace of my attempt, but I enjoy being on the ‘wrong’ bike as much as the ‘right’ one 🙂

Probably the other way round. I’ll look at the area I’m planning on riding, then take the appropriate bike.

Jumps and drops are the main thing for me. they have to be smaller and have better runouts when I am on my standarg ridgid inbred. Otherwise no difference.

If I’m going to go out an try a line or a section I’ve never tried before I would only do it on my 5-spot

Flat pedals and better suspension makes it a bit more comfortable for pushing my limits. Once I know I can get down a section I’m generally happy on any other bike (albeit maybe not as fast or smooth)

I’m equally the other way round, I choose a bike depending on where I’m riding, what tires I think I may want, occasionally one I’ve not ridden in a while.

Then I ride whatever is in front of me at a speed that I feel happy with.

I tend to not ride proper modern DH stuff at all.

Nope, I ride the 130 hard tail on the same stuff as the 160 full sus. What normally dictates which bike I use is the state of repair/how clean it is rather than the capabilities or design intent.

I’ll ride anything on any of the bikes. How fast or how competently is a different matter though.

More or less this ^^

Two in particular feel almost identical but one is a lot more gravity-capable than the other which has led to an number of oh shit moments

Only have one mtb, but happy to ride anything other than downhill courses on it (it was a HT, now a rigid).

I may not be as fast as some, on some routes, but I’m not having any less fun and don’t feel “restricted” by only having the one bike.

nope. but what tyres I have on will influence my choice of route sometimes.

Thanks folks. It sounds as though, for most people and within reason, the bike makes very little difference, which is somewhat counter-intuitive. Geometry should matter, so you should feel more confident on one bike than another, which means that there should come a point where you don’t have the confidence to ride something on one bike that you would on another.

My own experience here is closest to that of richmtb. I’m more likely to try something new on my Five, but once I’ve ridden something once I don’t mind what I’m riding it on. I suspect my brain isn’t that smart. I look at something and am trying to decide whether it “goes”, but I’m not really thinking does it go on this bike.

I’ll ride anything on any of the bikes. How fast or how competently is a different matter though.

Same again. Though if it’s a significant gap with a dirty landing, i’ll tend to avoid it on the little bike, just to avoid breaking for no real reason.

Being old and fragile I sometimes “talk myself out of” certain bits/types of trail declaring the hardtail unsuitable. If that is the case I’ll go back and ride it on the full suss, where I talk myself back into riding the obstacle/feature. On many occasions , having ridden it on the susser I have a word with myself to the effect that it was only confidence that made it hard on the hardtail, and go back and ride it again on the hardtail. OK, by the time I’ve finished using the susser to “un-demonise” the trail, I discover more and more of what the hardtail is actually capable of, but it teaches as much about myself and my confidence than it does about the capabilities of the bike.

THIS
However i would ride everywhere on any bike but some would be a lot less fun and a lot slower.

On the bikes I have that will take the biggest tyres – yes, will ride pretty much anything on both big bike and hardcore HT. Not actually at a hugely differing speed.

XC hardtail has a non-QR seatpost and semi slicks on, so what with the “summer” we’ve had, I haven’t yet taken it down the sketchy stuff I was planning on exposing it to earlier in the year – but it won’t take the same tyres so comes under your “sillyness” exemption.

I wont ride my cx bike down some of the local trails I’ll happily launch my 6″ FSer at.
Conversely I won’t take my 6″ FSer out on a 50mile towpath bimble.

But a bit more seriously, there’s local trails that I’ve spotted and not ridden until I’ve been on my gnarpoon, once I’ve ridden it a couple of times on that and I know the line and know it’s doable, I can then normally make it down ok (but not as comfortably) on a hardtail. I’m mainly talking steep rooty/rubbly/steppy sections here.

IMO suspension and slack angles give you a much bigger margin for error, so if you’ve got a bit of trail totally dialled it doesn’t matter what bike you are on, but if you’re still sketchy on your gravity sled it might not be the best idea to take the twitchy xc race bike down there.

Oh I’d draw the line at rigid, that definitely reduces what I can ride, even with the same tyres. Not as much as you might think, but any mistake will be punished on rigid.

All my bikes are what you would call XC so only have one type of clothing.
To all the multi discipline cyclists (DH,XC,road) , do you dress accordingly?
There’s no real reason you can’t wear a peaked helmet on the road or Lycra downhill.
Does your attitude change with your clothing? Do you hang loose in bright green baggies and become all serious in Lycra?

For unfamiliar trails or obstacles I always take my big bike. It has enough handling and brakes in the bank to let me ride almost anything and if there’s a problem I know it’s me and not the bike

Speed is the main difference for me. Bouncy bike can be thrown at certain technical things much faster. I’ll take it a bit easier on the hard tail, but it’s perfectly capable of doing the stuff the bouncy bike can. It’s the bone shaking I get that’s the issue 😀

I do pick bike based on location though more in that the bouncy bike is a bit OTT for some places. I can ride it there, but a lighter bike is just easier, especially with climbs.

For me it more about which wheel/tire combo I have. Stans Olympics with Conti’s original Spped King Supersonics are great locally but would be trashed at a rocky trail centre.

It’s complicated. I won’t bother doing easy stuff if I’m on the big bike, it’s just more fun on the harder stuff… On the hardtail, I’ll do pretty much anything.

When the scandal’s suspunded it only really gets used for xc mile munching but ironically when it’s rigid it gets used for pretty much anything- rigid bikes on silly terrain are fun, when it’s got suspension I just think “this is like my other hardtail but shit” There’s really not much I ride, that I wouldn’t be prepared to do on the rigid, I want to bounce it down fw world cup some time… But I wouldn’t want to do that with the rebas, it’s just a bit pointless

Tyres play a big part too though. The Ragley’s still in pure trailcentre mode after a week of welsh trail centres and uplifts, I wouldn’t take it up the golfy or to fort bill tomorrow without changing that, frinstance

I’ll ride anything on any of the bikes.
How fast or how competently is a different matter though..

This, you can ride a rigid CX bike down some pretty steep and nasty trails, you just have to be careful and slow.

I know I’ve said it before on here, but I kept my fs for riding on stuff that I wouldn’t have done on the ht. However I’ve yet to find anything where I ride that the ht won’t handle.

It really is my ‘go to’ bike. I’m happy for it to be my only my now.

I don’t really dress for the occasion, except that I can’t bring myself to ride the big bike without baggies over the lycra, and I’m unlikely to ride anything on the XC bike that would justify pads (which I don’t usually use on the ohters).
This may change soon, as the baggies are on their last legs.
Oh, and peakless roadie helmet for everything except when I’m using a full facer.

in the depths of winter (sept to june) I use the IGH hardtail, the rest of the time I’ll use the FS.

I only own different bikes to allow me to do different things. I have a 7″ travel bike, an XC race bike and lately a rigid 29er. There’s no way I’d buy another rigid 29er or another XC race bike.

So if I’m on the Patriot I’d do stuff that’s most fun on that ie trail centers or local woods, likewise if I want to do a Valleys loop I’ll take the 29er because of the amount of road involved.

HOWEVER I’ll do trails on the most ‘wrong’ bike at least once just to be perverse. I’ve done Cwmcarn downhill on my XC race bike for instance.

I certainly ride harder or less hard depending on the bike though. Some things are just too steep for the XC race bike to feel secure on, but not many.

Oh I’d draw the line at rigid, that definitely reduces what I can ride

I WILL do most things on the rigid but ridden completely differently ie slowly carefully rather than hitting flat out. You don’t really have a choice when it’s really rocky or rooty.

molgrips – Member

I WILL do most things on the rigid but ridden completely differently ie slowly carefully rather than hitting flat out.

I still hit things flat out- it’s just that flat out on the rigid is sometimes really slow 😆

I’m still a bit confused by this. If a bike with slacker angles is easier to ride downhill then there must presumably be bits of trail that you could get down on a slack bike but not on a steeper angled XC bike. Or do the slack angles only really help with stability at speed i.e. is an XC bike just as capable as an Enduro bike at low speed?

Do skills coaches ever say “oh you can’t ride down this bit on that”, for example?

If you’re thinking about low speed, you’re getting into trials territory, for that stuff, id much rather be on a rigid than a FS.

A bike does what you tell it, a bike does not prevent you from doing anything.

I tend to avoid drops now I only have a hardtail. Other than that I ride where I can, at what ever speed I can manage (I.e slow)

29er HT for commuting and clocking in the miles for fitness.

26″ AM for my proper riding at weekends.

there must presumably be bits of trail that you could get down on a slack bike but not on a steeper angled XC bike

There are probably some but not many. It has to be almost vertical to be too much on an XC bike. However normal very steep stuff, of the kind.of which there is lots, can be pretty sketchy on an XC racey bike and much easier on a slack angled bike.

Back in the day going OTB used to be far more common. Especially just after front suspension became popular 🙂

OK, maybe low speed was a bit misleading as I’m not really thinking trials speed, I’m just trying to understand whether slacker angles actually make it easier to ride stuff or just easier to ride it fast.

A bike does what you tell it, a bike does not prevent you from doing anything.

Fair point, but some bikes are easier to ride down tricky sections than others right? So, for a given skill level, you’d think there would be some things you could ride on one bike but not on another. Yet that doesn’t seem to be the case from the responses above.

However normal very steep stuff, of the kind.of which there is lots, can be pretty sketchy on an XC racey bike and much easier on a slack angled bike.

Back in the day going OTB used to be far more common. Especially just after front suspension became popular

Thanks. I think this is what I was getting at 🙂 It’s mainly the fear of an OTB that stops me riding anything. As long as I can rule that out (in my head) I’m good to go.

Is this getting into the realms of irrational?

Validating excuses?

If you convince yourself you can’t do something because of the bike, you won’t do it, if you treat it as the bike doesn’t matter, one less thing to validate bottling.

There’s a quote i’ve heard so many times since a young teen riding BMX through to now, riding is 90% mental, the other 10% being made up from technique and maybe a little tiny bit being bike set-up. (yes bike influences the mental aspect, so i try to remove it from the equation.)

Does anyone actually ever ride at 90%? Let alone 97,98% where gear actually starts to make a difference, ie at the very, very sharp end of the sport.

I believe the same can be said for strength and fitness too, mainly mental.

PS, you won’t go over the bars unless you tell the bike to put you over the bars, whether that be intentionally or unintentionally on your part.

Is this getting into the realms of irrational?

Validating excuses?

Quite possibly 🙂

you won’t go over the bars unless you tell the bike to put you over the bars, whether that be intentionally or unintentionally on your part

I’ll try to remember that next time I’m lying in the dirt 🙂

Seriously, I agree that rider attitude and skill are far more important than the bike, but some bikes are more forgiving of mistakes than others, which must have an effect on how confident you feel going into a tricky section.

Validating excuses?

I eventually gave up having a big bike, because when I bottled stuff while riding it, I felt like an utter failure. Whereas anything awkward that I nail on the hardtail gives me a massive achievement-boner.

🙂

Only three factors

– Frame size

– Brakes

– Tyres

If any of these are sub-par for the job I’ll tend to ride elsewhere. ie a gate with poorly adjusted Vs and semi-slicks isn’t coming down a muddy mountain with me on it. Whether HT or Full sus