Seven stone struggle

A shiny new bike for me has meant that my teen daughter has been given my Trek Remedy 8.

The bike has been returned to mostly standard trim, and is running a Shimano triple chainset at the front 42-32-24 and a 10sp 36t cassette at the rear.

My daughter is plenty quick enough downhill, but as the bike is a large percentage of her weight, she struggles uphill. We have 26″ Hope hoops running tubeless 2.4 Conti Mtn Kings.

Our local trail is the Marin in Betws Y Coed, which she loves, but she seems to spend nearly all her time in bottom gear. She is lean and muscular but doesnt have the power to push a bigger gear. So im looking for advice on how to get a lower gear. Im not a pushy parent and im quite happy just to spend time with her, but watching her struggle at 10/10ths with a relatively heavy bike is tough 🙁

The easiest solution seems to be going to a 22T front ring and perhaps removing the 42T at the front. I could use the front limit screws to prevevent f mech shifting too far, and still have a reasonable set of ratios for the flat and downhill bits. Im running a medium cage XT rear mech, so im guessing ditching the big ring at the front will mean I need less chain capacity and may be able to remove a few links.

So other than me telling her to ride her HT til she is stronger, is my proposed idea workable, or have I missed something?

Any alternative ideas or public outing of my stupidity is greatfully recieved.

stick mk2 2.2 tyres on it.

2.4 Conti tyres are probably part of the reason, what year Remedy is it?

22 tooth on the front, should be no problem.

2.2 race speed x-king on the rear, and 2.2 racespeed mountain king up front. I wouldn’t normally recommend the racespeed carcase (for an adult), but for someone that light they will be fine.

Its a 2011 Remedy with the dual chamber shock but normal Fox 32 talas forks.

Her HT has 2.25 Schwalbe Smart Sams on it.

I also have some new 2.14 WTB motoraptors in the garage if they will improve matters for her….

I wouldn’t bother making small gains with chains etc. You’ll probably be better off making sure you carry the spare tubes, food, tools, pump etc. as that’ll save quite a bit of weight. Try weighing your pack and see.

Helium in the frame and bars?

Get smaller and lighter tyres. You don’t puncture much at that weight. 2.1 is fine. I’d struggle with 2.4!

Surely she’ll just get stronger on a heavy bike?

You could always get a tow for longer days. Get a dog lead and attach it to the back of your saddle 🙂

you are not going to gain much with a 22 on the front. Sitting in 24-36 must already be miserable enough.

Lighter tyres and tubeless if not already.

Your gains per £ by getting a new RD will be tiny so just wait until the current one gets smashed off. Carbon bars could save >100g if the ones on are OEM but it depends on the original spec. Still small gains though and things to do after wheels/tyres etc IMO. http://www.trekbikes.com/uk/en/bikes/2011/archive/trek/remedy8/#/uk/en/archive-model/details?url=uk/en/bikes/2011/archive/trek/remedy8

You say hope hoops – which ones?

And at the end of the day it is a 150mm travel full susser so it’s not going to be the lightest of bikes.

She has Hope evo pro hubs with stans flow rims.

I wasnt really proposing weight loss with new components. She has an XT rear and Easton Haven carbon bars. I cant really afford to make it much lighter….

I think the big hassle is the rolling friction of the tyres, so I will source some narrower tubeless that will be lighter and faster rolling.

Curently the Aladdin’s cave of my garage can also conjour up a pr of Maxxis Ignitors UST, or a pr of Schwalbe Racing Ralph pacestar evos. All of which are 2.1.

My g/f is not much heavier and lacks power in the same way. She’s running 9 spd with a 22 chainring and 11/36 out back on a Trance. Works well for her, after she struggled with 11/34 and 24 on her older trek hard tail.

Hi cakefacesmallblock, can I ask what tyres your gf is using? Being tiny makes pedalling a 150mm full susser a tough day for her. She loves it on the downhills so much tho…..

Mountain Kings aren’t exactly heavy, slow rolling tyres to begin with. I would spend my cash elsewhere.

The conti mtn king 2.4 tubeless has just shown 990g on my scales, the racing ralph 2.1 is 441g!

Could you swap the forks for something lighter? After the tyres that’ll likely be where most weight loss can be had. Not sure how the geometry would cope with Rebas or SIDs?

Its a taper headtube frame, so I dont have anything spare to fit. To be honest, im not convinced the weight of the bike is an issue, as much as rolling resistance and rotating mass of wheels.

I’ve always found 2.1 maxxis xc tyres fine for UK riding. I’ve got a bigger tyre on the front at the mo but will go back to smaller ones for the winter.

I’ve just worn out my 22t ring. I spend my life in it but I quite like a triple as you can get up speed on road.

Seriously though, sort out tyres and chuck out the crap from your rucksack and you’ll save loads of weight.

For £300 you could get some Hope on Crest….. Save quite a bit of weight too but an expense.

Make sure you get the shock/forks right too. No suspension is designed for that weight I’m afraid. Also you might want to mess about with tyre pressures too.

How old is she? If she’s growing quick she’ll quickly get stronger and be beating you up the hills.

I’d try some 2″ beavers on there. I’ve got some on Flows on my HT and they are just great all round tyres, in my opinion. Light but strong, grippy but shed mud, not awful on the road.

So other than me telling her to ride her HT til she is stronger, is my proposed idea workable, or have I missed something?

Is she struggling to push the 24-36 gear uphill? If so, swapping to 22/32/bash might help yeah.

Otherwise get her to persevere on the HT for a bit until she’s stronger.

Really good to hear you’re out riding with your daughter.

🙂

Does she need the Remedy for the stuff she is riding, or could you get rid of it/put it in the garage for a year or two and get a decent hardtail built up?

Or, as suggested, get her on some lighter, faster rolling rubber.

Those tyres are massive for her! I find them pretty hard work – they’re really draggy and as you’ve said are not light. I’d imagine a pair of racing ralphs will make a huge difference. In fact at 7 stone I’d probably go for the lightest tyres you can find – maybe something in 1.8″ or similar? I doubt she will be coming close to the limit of traction at only 7 stone.

The Flows aren’t light either but I suppose changing them is more expensive.

What about geometry and finishing kit? Can you make her life easier by changing the bar / seat position?

Breninbeener : my flyweight g/f uses Maxxis Beaver rear and HIgh Roller up front, not the easiest of rolling combos , granted,the Beaver rolls well though, HR gives grip. Biggest disadvantage on her bike is the Tora coil fork . It’s way too heavy. I m waiting yo afford a decent air fork, maybe a Reba or Rev to get a kilo at least out of it ! Altering the gearing, does at least allow her to spin happily over stuff.

She is 16 and really fiesty. She loves the thrill of a downhill section of singletrack. She doesnt complain, but im just looking to make the uphill a bit less of a slog for her.

The Trek website has allowed us to sort 30% sag which seems to work well for her “death before dishonour” style of descent 😕

If it is a case she needs the bike altered to push an easier gear try the Hope 40 tooth rear conversion and 22 tooth front ring. You can also probably ditch the big ring for a bash.

What size is the bike and how tall is she? It more a case that the geometry of the bike doesn’t suit her. It may well be too big. If it is she will struggle on the uphills but the longer frame will still be stable on the downs. Did it fit you well and what size height is she relatively?

If you think the frame fits then what about crank length? Are they 175’s? You could swap for 165’s or 160’s. it may help her spin better.

Personally I would be wary of changing her tyres for a completely different style if she rides them well and likes the way they perform. It may spoil her ride. Or, even worse, they may not stick where she expects them too. My son is an all out attack style rider and the downhill bits are what he enjoys, especially the Marin BTW :D.

Definitely get some lighter tights, Specialized purgatory are light.

I would go lighter on the rims too.

I used to run UST 2.4 Rubber Queens (they’re 1kg) on my stans rims tubeless, they were extremely hard work up hill!!

These days spesh purgatories (I guess they’re about 700-800gish) are a lot easier to ride around.

Go for some arch ex rims and lighter tyres.

+1 on cranks, max 165. £30 for a pair [Rutland] of folding Geax AKA TNTs, tubeless. 670g ea. Durable, grippy [in the dry] and SO fast rolling.

Changing an ISIS X5 double chainset for a carbon DH X0 single with Hope BB knocked a pound and a bit off my son’s bike.

The crank was remaindered as it’s a 165mm and I had the BB so not actually that expensive.

Losing the front shifter and mech, and shortening the chain lost a fair bit more.

Might be worth a look.

rolling resistance makes a massive difference. I was running ridiculous tractor tyres last winter (2.5/2.3) and when I put on xc tyres for the summer I was 1 or 2 gears higher everywhere.

Those tyres are on the skimpier side for a Remedy anyway, and fast-rolling.

I wouldn’t change too much at once, start with a lower granny ring and then report back.

I’d remove the big ring on general principles, most people have little use for those, she certainly sounds like she doesn’t. Saves entire grams that.

Lighter people don’t need as strong stuff, so thinner/lighter tyres, wheels etc aren’t the sacrifice they are for us. If it was me I’d be trying to do a no-cost swap to some quality but lighter duty wheels.

Tyres, getting some speed on the back makes the biggest difference- I’m really liking the Captain Control 2.2 just now, it’s a fair bit faster than a mountain king and not that much less grippy most of the time, still works with moderate mud etc, and not delicate. Excellent trailcentre tyre but more than that.

Hi All, thanks for your input.

After all the input I opted for putting the 2.1 Maxxis Ignitor UST on the rims. That dropped about 900g off the rotating mass! The trails were still dry and dusty yday, and she said the tyres were easier to pedal.

They seem to have sufficient grip too, as despite my warnings regarding their less grippy nature, she set a couple of Strava PRs.

Next on the list is a 22t granny and something extravagent from Light Bicycle 🙂

Shame my new bike is 650b, as I will now need two pairs…..

But of an old thread but a brief update. …

we have fitted some Easton ec70 carbon wheels and some racing ralph evo tyres. Its running tubeless and im pretty sure the front wheel and tyre now weighs the same as the original tyre.

oh, and she is loving it 🙂

Goblet Squats

*three Yorkshiremen*
In my day teenagers rode 30lb rigid steel bikes with a 28:28 lowest gear and canti brakes and were grateful. And all this were fields.
*/three Yorkshiremen*