^ cheers mate.

after 9 years in the peaks i cant really see what a big ring is for any more on an xc bike. it made much more sense in lincolnshire….

I like to blunder clumsily through rock gardens. Also in the Lakes you get loads of rocks flying up off the front wheel. My bash guard is pretty beaten up.

I've also gone had the bike land on me and gouged my leg before so I prefer to cover up pointy chainrings.

I never used my big ring anyway apart from on roads.

Moved to a double and bash in June. Due to general incompetence in rock gardens and over logs etc its now well battle scarred with 3 gouges and loads of scrapes. Gives me a bit more confidence in those "oh sh*t, should I be attempting this?" moments.

And don't talk about the pedals

I bash mine less on DH stuff than I do on climbs – big steps, logs that kind of thing at slow speed where you can't. DH, again, its the slow techy trialsy stuff that catches you out – alpine singletrack, Hebden tech etc.

Second the point about not having spiky things to rip your legs to shed when you crash too.

I have a double and bash on my FS (36t) and thats mainly to stop the chain falling/bouncing off the ring and to stop the apperance of any more scars on the inside of my right leg. I still have a triple on the HT though and wouldn't want a bash on there but i use my bikes for different riding.

First time at Afan I dropped it awkwardly off a step on the black run and folded the big ring over. I've run a bash since. The triple is pretty redundant except for things like the HONC when it goes back on. The extra clearance/protection for when you cock something up or are testing the water (smacked it at the Cwmcarn DH course road roll in the first time) is nice…

The naysayers just need to Gnar-the-**** up a bit 😉

Oh, and there's a massive log crossing near abbots pool in Bristol that unless you are riding god status, basically requires you sliding over on the bash with neither wheel touching the ground for a split second. 😀

I bash mine on lots of things, by the look of it. The biggest bonus is the shorter chain means less chain slap on the swing arm.

People's experience of the usefulness of these seems to vary a very great deal. It's impossible to judge on the forum people's skill level and degree of gnarl and whether the guys who don't hit their bashes are very skilled or just mincing, whether the guys with wrecked bashrings are particularly 'core or just very clumsy.

I ran one for a while, and it certainyl got some knocks in it, although I don't remember how. That led me to suspect that it was quite soft and was getting gouged by impacts that wouldn't necessarily have done the chainring any harm. And I found the jump between 22 and 36 rings slowed me down when climbing. So I'm back to a triple at the moment, although I don't use the big ring much. So I may end up changing back. Surrey, some tendency to mince. 🙂

I moved away from a bash to save weight and because I found I did use the big ring. Being in the big ring helps the chain stay on, and if you do clip anything with the ring, which I rarely seem to do anymore, even in places like the lakes, the chain and the ring combine to stop any breakage.

I'm pretty convinced most people fit them for aesthetic / fashion / fitting in reasons

People's experience of the usefulness of these seems to vary a very great deal. It's impossible to judge on the forum people's skill level and degree of gnarl and whether the guys who don't hit their bashes are very skilled or just mincing, whether the guys with wrecked bashrings are particularly 'core or just very clumsy.

Surely skill level has nowt to do with it? If you fit one, and it's useful, then that's all there is to it! 🙂

Some people hit their legs off their big rings, where a Bash ring would have done so much less damage!

If all you ride is trail centres – you do not need a bash ring.

I'm pretty convinced most people fit them for aesthetic / fashion / fitting in reasons

You could just as easily say most people have a big ring for those reasons.

EEwww, I feel strangely light-headed…

If I had a bash guard I'd hit it off 1 particular step on the 1st half of GTress black (goat track??) – it'd save me some bent / broken teeth. 💡

Surely skill level has nowt to do with it? If you fit one, and it's useful, then that's all there is to it!

On the pure point of "is it useful?" this is obviously right. But these discussions are always conducted on the basis of whether you should need one if you're riding "properly". 😉

Mine are pretty much beaten up, the 3 off them.
On the switch beatn up from rock flying and big step and all.
On the hoss it have been scratch on numerous occasion on logs as peter said it was nice to go over it when jey-hey Xc boys got stuck with the big ring.
On the HJ same as the switch.

Compared to my mates who seem to break stuff every ride, my bikes survive pretty well. I think I ride with a bit more 'mechanical sympathy', mainly cos I know if I break stuff it will cost me £££s. So maybe I'm just avoiding the stuff that will scrape my bike to bits. GTFU = $ 😛

I can see if you live somewhere rocky they are a good call. djglover you're right about using the chain itself to protect the big ring. Trouble is I found the only time I bash things is when I'm not in the big ring, and going slowly!

1 possible plus of a bigger bash ring despite it sticking out more, is that it has a larger radius, so creates a straighter path for whatever it's rubbing against. What do you reckon?

Also what about this for triple bashs….would save weight but perhaps better for log crossings than rock strikes?

But these discussions are always conducted on the basis of whether you should need one if you're riding "properly".

🙂

If I have one, I can ride over big logs. If I don't and I do the same, I damage my big ring. 'Properly' is nowt to do with it either. To ride MORE, maybe….. 😀

My bash rings get bashed a bit, admittedly less now I only ride HTs, the old MRP on my DH9 was mullered by the time I got rid of it, generally it was rocks that did any real damage, anything where you’re landing onto a field of rocks does it in DH, not so much slow techy stuff as the suspension isn’t compressing enough, I remember a few years ago (3 maybe) I did a dragon at Mountain ash where they’d changed the start, one pedal stroke and off a smallish drop and right in the middle of the landing was a nicely buried protruding rock, I watched 50 other riders all plop off the start and put their bash straight into that rock, and I did the same… Gethin is good as well if you want to give your bash ring a bit of a workout…

I don’t actually have a bash on my current DH bike at the minute, the BB on my Exalt doesn’t get quite as low as a bouncer would, and the Middleburn ring fitted is quite chunky so it’s not an issue, although I did bend the previously fitted shimano ring (somewhat thinner) by putting it straight into a tree in a crash.
The 32t bash on my trail bike does catch the odd log or stump despite being quite compact, and gets dragged over stuff on the ups/woodwork I guess it all comes down to how adventurous you are, I’ve never bent a triple, but then I never really attacked stuff in the same way when I used a triple…

As for the triple Vs double thing, it’s a pretty pointless debate, it horses for courses really.
I have been considering either upping my 32t to a 36t or getting a triple with some form or bash, I will say this though on group rides the fellas with triples only seem to use them to chop along on smooth flat (Boring) sections, and higher gearing doesn’t make them any faster on the DH bit’s, plus we’re all effectively pushing the same gears for the up’s so the net benefit is pretty minimal…