Spesh Pitch – is it just me or…?

…does anyone else find the bottom bracket waaayyyy low?

I’ve heard and read so much good stuff about them that I was looking forward to renting one for some Spanish mountain bashing last week. I felt very at home on it straight away. It was OK climbing and confidence inspiring on the downs BUT try and pedal it on rocky terrain and be prepared for impact. I’d need shares in DMR if I rode one 🙂

…does anyone else find the bottom bracket waaayyyy low?

yes, it’s brilliant!

you soon learn to pedal over rocks, not into them.

my saddle is always much higher than my handlebars, a lower BB means a lower saddle, this is a good thing when you’re tall and trying to ride in a way that suits a pitch.

haha low bb’s is never a negative it means it’ll corner well better

too much sag, perhaps?

Mate of mine has an FSR XC and when he first had it used to complain about whacking his pedals all the time.
He’d left it as it was set up in the shop, and is new to mountain biking so had no idea about what to fiddle with/adjust with regards to suspension settings.

While waiting for some mates to meet up with us, I spent about 10 mins helping him set the bike up – I reckon he weighs 3 stone more than me, but I was using over 50% sus travel on sag alone when sat on his bike. I played with slowly increasing amounts of shock pressure & a few more clicks of rebound damping and he reckoned once we got riding again that it completely transformed the feel of the bike for the better.

My wife rides a medium pitch which I do wheelies on in car parks (to fettle her gears obviously, not just showing off).

Can’t say I’d noticed the BB being super low, but bloody hell the wheelbase is loooooong! sticks out a good 3″ either end of the bike rack past all our other bikes.

Doesn’t seem to slow her down, I think the stability for her is a good thing since she isn’t manualing or jumping like a loon all the time.

Dave

funny how times change isn’t it…

I remember reviews of the Stumpy FSRs and very first enduro (before the monocoque one) slating them for having a BB too low, now apparently you can go low enough.

horses for courses and all that, low CofG, better conering etc but you clout your pedals more, you do get used to it and adapt but depends how you ride as to whether you appreciate bikes with higher or lower BBs.

I like to flip between different shapes of bike, reminds you about benefits and drawbacks and how to adapt rather than chasing the one ultimate setup all the time

anyway tangent over – yes, i generally find most spesh bikes to have a low BB, especially the pitch and enduro, sometimes I like it other times it annoys the hell out of me

too much sag, perhaps?

I was running 25/30% which I had thought was about right.

You do get used to it – I’ve never had a pedal strike on my Enduro!

Its 14 inches on the Pitch, thats not low its a high bottom bracket!

An Epic for example is 13 inches.

yeah but a pitch has more travel than an epic!

in fact it has 40mm more travel than an epic and only (by your numbers) 25.4 mm higher BB.

While that roughly equates to a similar sagged riding height it does mean at full travel you are closer to the ground

You do get used to it

Mmm, I was out for 7 hours riding and never quite got the hang of it. I was OK if the terrain was flowy enough to get the pedals out of the way, but I’m used to keeping the pedals turning. Mind you my usual bike is quite “leggy”

Built up a Pitch a few weeks ago – the BB height seems fine to me – it certainly corners well. I’ve clipped pedals on the odd root, but I just adapt to it – I came from riding a Prince Albert which has a high BB.

I tend not to pedal in sections anyway.

as with yesterday’s low BB/pedal strike thread, sort out your riding.
it’s not that low at all.

I’d consider anything above 14″ a high BB height even with 8″ travel.

I thought sag should be about 20% or so?

Hmmm, this: http://cdn.specialized.com/OA_MEDIA/pdf/manuals/2010_Pitch_Manual_r1.pdf
seems to suggest a recommended set-up of between 18-33% sag. Seems like quite a wide range! Perhaps running it a bit firmer would stop reduce pedal strikes, but maybe at the consequence of squidge.

I used to pedal strike quite often with my old Stumpjumper fsr. When i replaced the crankset I went for 170mm cranks and it virtually cured the pedal strikes. I didn’t think that 5mm shorter cranks would have made such a big difference, but it really helped.
Obviously not something you could change on a hire bike, but perhaps something to bear in mind if you were thinking of buying.

I wasn’t thinking of buying one. Although on balance I did quite like it, I do have enough bikes already 🙂

I’m sure if it was my bike I could have experimented a bit more with set-up to cure the strikes. I suppose it’s hard to know for sure how it compared with my other bikes, since it is some months since I rode my full susser. Maybe GW is right and I’ve forgotten how to ride full sussers through rocks 😆

Which year was the pitch? I’ve owned an 09 and now a new 11 one.I used to strike the 09 one regularly but it seems far better on the new one.it’s was the first thing I noticed when i started riding it

Dunno. It was bluey purple with a *cough* pink linkage.

Think that’s the 09 pitch comp

13″ is about right 😉

14″ BB, 33% sag = 12″ which is pretty much the default. Bear in mind the BB drops over rocks and through corners too, where a hardtail is more consistent.

The ’11 is subtly different, slacker, higher, shorter chainstays, they cynic in me would say that was just a result of the longer fork, but they have shortened the headtube as well so maybe it is an all new frame.

Just bought one to blend in more at Swinely, can’t wait to give it it’s first thrashing next weekend.

‘spoon – overbiked but not overtaken 🙂

Stilltortoise, Can I hazard a guess that you were riding with Joyriders?.

lol

How did you know?? Were you there? I was the loner who turned up for a day whilst his wife went sight-seeing in Cordoba. Had a great ride but for the looonnngggg climb.

I was on the same hire bike from 9th-16th of april! and I also had a fair few pedal strikes on the first few days. I put it down to the fact I’d never really ridden a FS, but I defo learned where and when to pedal after a couple of rides.

Joyriders are fantastic, Both Mark and Pete are excellent guides, but in very different ways. Where did you ride? Cordoba or the Subbeticas?. I’ll definitely go back there, one of the best holidays I’ve ever had.

I was actually on holiday with my in-laws an hour east of Granada. Some friends were riding with Joyriders that week so I joined up for a day’s ride. We rode from Zuheros, coming down those switchbacks that are pictured on their website.

Mark and Pete were really good blokes, although I do need to get out of the habit of trying to play keep-up with guides on their home terrain! My problem was that the rest of the group had asked for more climbing, so we had a long drag of a climb on the ride I did. Pretty much all doable, but it didn’t half go on. I’ve nothing against climbing, but when I’m on holiday I’d quite happily get uplifts everywhere 🙂

I rode in the Sierra Nevada 2 or 3 years ago and I think the terrain is a lot better there. It’s a lot more varied in the “real” mountains, but all the Spanish riding I’ve done knocks most UK riding into touch. If you’ve not been to Sierra Nevada I strongly recommend it.

I’ve just booked a day with Joyriders whilst on a family holiday in early June, can’t wait, have ridden a few bits of Spain and loved it! I’ll also be riding one of their hire Pitch’s!

An Epic for example is 13 inches.

My Epic is about the only bike I ever pedal strike on, and even then only rarely. I don’t recall ever doing it on either of my Enduros. The benefits of the low BB height on the Epic definitely make up for any disadvantages though.

I’m pretty sure the reason I get more pedal strikes on the Epic is only partly due to the low BB. I think it’s also partly due to it makeing you want to go fast all the time, meaning I’m more likely to still be pedalling on it in places where on other bikes (including longer travel FS bikes) I’d have stopped. When I compare GPS traces of rides on my Epic compared to traces of the same routes on other FS bikes I wasn’t at all surprised to find the Epic was faster on the flat and uphill, but I was surprised to find that it didn’t loose much (if anything) downhill.

I used to strike pedals all the time on mine, now very rarely. Mind you I have 36s on it now which may have raised the BB height slightly – GW can you confirm? 😉

I’m a bit puzzled though, the OP is talking about sitting down pedalling on rocky stuff – you mean on climbs?