Viewing 36 posts - 1 through 36 (of 36 total)
  • What's it like to ride a superbike? (Bicycle not engine)
  • geologist
    Free Member

    No in not talking about your Amsterdam victories
    The closest I have been is a carbon Bronson and a carbon Time road bike. Both 4K . Would a pro level bike make me quicker, are they substantially better to ride than an average 2k bike ?

    Rubber_Buccaneer
    Full Member

    Thought you were talking about a litre sportsbike in which case the answer is fast and fun. More expensive bicycle? Not for me.

    geologist
    Free Member

    Ah oh yes I can see the chance of confusion , edit title 🙂

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    njee20
    Free Member

    I think so. I have one top spec MTB and wouldn’t change it for two cheaper ones. Ditto road bikes. They’re not far better, but they are better. Whether it’s enough is entirely subsective.

    swanny853
    Full Member

    Some years back I rode a top end colnago. I finally understood a comment I’d heard about the pedals not so much propelling the bike forwards as sucking the horizon towards you. All those little bits of marginal gains really did add up- I was as surprised as anyone!

    singlespeedstu
    Full Member

    Yep XTR and carbon made me so much faster.
    Instead of training I can now sit in the pub.

    stewartc
    Free Member

    All my recent bikes have been carbon & XX1/XTR equipped (TRc, SB66 & Mach6) but I wouldn’t call them superbikes, just expensive.
    Now riding a couple of lumps of steel/alloy (a 601 & a Switchback) which are both considerably cheaper than what went before them, the major difference, they are slightly heavier, that’s all I have noticed.

    grtdkad
    Full Member

    Now here’s the thing, I owned a couple of lovely carbon HTs then last spring I was offered the opportunity to buy a cannondale Flash Ultimate – possibly considered a super bike. It was an ex-demo bike, low mileage and a fraction of the £6.5 / £7k list price….(£1400).

    Did I need it? No. But it was a ‘bargain’ and I love riding it, it goes like stink even with me piloting it. Light, responsive, capable – everything that I’m not !

    stevemuzzy
    Free Member

    Before i bought my nomad i rode a canyon strive. Loved it. Thought it was awesome. I demoed about 10 bikes when looking to change and realised it was better than some (alpine 160 urg!) but miles behind the santa cruz and nothing felt as good as the nomad. It was like the strive had its brakes on in comparison and all my mates who had a go thought the same. Thankfully i got an ex demo as I would be divorced and still paying for it if i bought new!

    Ambrose
    Full Member

    I have been lucky enough to have a top spec Nicolai Helius for the last few years. I periodically change components to suit my changing riding style but it is essentially the XC frame married to a FR rear end.

    And to be honest it is simply the best bike I have ever had. It just does everything I point it at, be it a 60km welsh Bog-fest or a week hooning down the trails in the Alps. It never, ever fails. It always does what it is meant to do and what I want it to do.

    It was a bespoke frame and is now ‘outdated’ due to it having 26″ geometry and a straight steerer but unless I somehow get a lot of money I’m not likely to change it soon.

    TiRed
    Full Member

    Have two road bikes with pro-level frames and bits. They are very nice to ride. The race bike is faster. And the sports bike is lighter.

    There is almost no difference to the 2k almost pro-level race bike and a skinsuit was the biggest speed improvement.

    no_eyed_deer
    Free Member

    I’ve demoed a 9k Bronson and 9k 5010… Both a bit meh if you ask me.

    Technically, I own a couple of ‘Superbikes’, from their era, just snapped up secondhand and oh-so-retro-it’s-a-wonder-they-can-even-handle-a-trail… Blinged out 2012 ASR5c and 2011 Ibis Tranny… Both are amazing bikes.

    IMHO though, it’s a rapid law of diminishing returns once you get past £2.5k for a new bike, such that by the time you reach 9-10k the gains really are minuscule.

    This said.. I was watching in awe as one of my riding buddies was clearing 30ft gap jumps at Pitch in absolutely filthy conditions the other week – on a £10k Spesh Enduro. So I’m sure the bike may have helped a tad.. 😉

    So there you go, a waffly imprecise answer!

    tomhoward
    Full Member

    They are incredible to ride, but they won’t make you much faster.

    You’ll have just as big a smile on your face at the end of a ride on a £2k bike as an £8k one.

    You won’t be 10 times faster on an £8k road bike than on an £800 one.

    You may have a crisis of confidence that you aren’t getting the most from a super bike/worried about mincing round for fear of ‘all the gear’ sneering from envious bell ends.

    Don’t get me wrong, they are very lovely things, but its the rider not the bike.

    somafunk
    Full Member

    Mate has a C59 Colnago art decor with campag super record eps, campag shamal wheels and a set of enve’s, it’s apparently very nice to ride but my short bimble on it was painful as i can’t ride a roadie in the drops never mind one with his low position.

    In my opinion any off the shelf bike is not a super bike as i consider the very high end uber exotica if you have to ask then you can’t afford it to be into superbike territory, I doubt my kinesis tripster, cove hummer or new scott e-genius 710+ could ever be called super bikes as they are either off the shelf frame sets i’ve built up or complete shop bought bikes – albeit very nice bikes with the choicest of parts fitted.

    My custom steel soulcraft hardtail might be considered as it is a one off to speak but even that is stretching the super bike classification in my eyes.

    Mbnut
    Free Member

    Top end suspension set ups are more likely to make a weekend warrior slower…. some bikes just suit some riders, a good fit and geometry that suits what you ride and how you ride are the important things.

    As sss said…. you get out what you put in, the bike is a tool, the rider is the key.

    That said I’d like some new bikes ;-D

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    Back in the day….

    I demo’d a heap of bikes and ended up with a frame only of what was then up there in superbike teritory for me

    Unfortunately I could never give it the build it deserved but for that year it really felt head and shoulders above the rest of the field

    After that is was all used and abused second hand bikes till I got the chance to build up one of the last Blur LTc’s in Red!
    It’s taken a little while but with a SRAM 1×11 Drive train, custom dampered Fox 34’s, thompson bars and stem, KS dropper, hope moving bits and a set of mallet DH’s on it.

    Feels a bit like a super bike from a few years ago before Enve and the rest hit the market.

    It’s a massive step up from my hecklers and other bikes. It works well and for the weight it’s versatile. I’ve just done a great ride where it wasn’t out of it’s depth on the climbs or descents. It’s still a bike that turns heads some days as locally most people have off the peg builds.
    [url=https://flic.kr/p/zq9y1q]IMG_20151003_144825[/url] by Mike Smith, on Flickr

    Does it make me faster? Yeah a bit, Faster than an equivalent specced similar weight cheaper bike? Probably not, do I care? No

    chakaping
    Free Member

    Closest I came was a carbon Trek Fuel EX after an insurance settlement a few years ago.

    Cue cries of “that’s not a superbike”… but the custom build I ended up with would have cost £5k to £6k RRP and probably only been eclipsed by Santa Cruz and a few top end Scott or Spesh trail bikes.

    Anyway, it was impressively light, tremendously quick, great fun and on my rare visits back to my old home trails I can’t get close to some of the strava times I set on it.

    Unfortunately it didn’t really suit the trails up where I live now and I now prefer a longer frame – but I hope it’s still making its new owner happy.

    Personally I won’t be buying any more “superbikes”.

    davidtaylforth
    Free Member

    To start with, a pimped out trail bike or enduro bike is not a superbike. It’s just an expensive skill compensator. It will always get beaten up a hill by a proper XC superbike, or down a hill by a downhill superbike.

    maxtorque
    Full Member

    The difference:

    1) you probably will be going faster when you crash, and it’ll be much more expensive to fixe when you do…..

    😆

    andysredmini
    Free Member

    A pro mtb level bike may still be very different to the best you can buy off the shelf. The main difference being the suspension internals. The pro rider may have spent hundreds of hours with the likes of fox tweaking the mechanical internals and settings and testing on a dyno and on track using data logging. Some riders use prototype internals being tested for general release and some have fully custom. Have a read about the fox rad program. Other riders use different suspension linkages which are not available to the public. Some riders use completely off the shelf bikes anyone could buy which either means the bike is right for them, they are not fussy or the budget doesn’t stretch to customisation.
    There is a good article on pink bike at the moment about a guy who rides two pro dh Scott bikes and doesn’t get on with either. All this means is that they are not set up to his liking and he felt that at they would come onto song at the higher speeds a pro would be riding at.
    So my thoughts are that you could end up slower.

    Macavity
    Free Member

    aracer
    Free Member

    If we’re allowed to include ones which were superbikes when purchased, I’ve got a couple – though they’re 10 and 20 years old. The older one is a TT/triathlon bike and TBH probably still cuts it amongst anything modern, though it’s not UCI legal and hasn’t been for 16 years! Built up with the best standard kit you could get at the time – had one of the first 9 speed (!!!) groups in the country, and possibly the very first 9 speed shifted from the tri-bars as I had to import the shifters for that from the US (and waited for them to get stock). Yes it is still very nice to ride, and it does always feel 1 or 2 mph quicker than a normal road bike, but that’s mostly down to the body position (and the main reason I went quicker on it at the time is that I felt the need not to embarrass myself so it made me train harder). Mountain bike is a 22lb susser which was state of the art, with a few very bling parts, though of course being 10 years old it has those old fashioned small wheels. I still love riding a light stiff bike, but of course being short travel it’s not much more capable of riding extreme stuff than I am.

    TBH though whilst it’s nice to ride those expensive bikes, it’s not night and day and one won’t transform your life.

    Rorschach
    Free Member

    Like riding an ok bike but with fewer excuses for being rubbish, more worrying about breaking it and more expense from it wearing out (which it’ll do faster as everything is lighter).
    There is no direct correlation between cost and enjoyment (unless you get your jollies from smug self satisfaction and feeling superior in the car park).

    solamanda
    Free Member

    I had a custom build £7k+ carbon Session 9.9 for a couple years, (due to working in the industry) and it was a step ahead of any other DH bike I had ridden at the time. The overall performance was probably only marginally better an bike that would have been 20-30% cheaper but there was definitely noticeable increased stiffness with the carbon frame. It wasn’t much lighter that a well spec’ed alloy bike to really make a difference. It held a line in the rough stuff like ‘heavy planted’ dh bikes like v10s or glory’s of the time, but it was much more maneuverable in the tight stuff. I didn’t treat it with kids gloves as I’m not like that, but I doubt I’ll own a bike of that value ever again.

    Now I have an alloy session and with the updated geometry, despite having a lower quality rear shock to the 9.9, it’s definitely faster and only 1-2lbs heavier than the carbon bike.

    trusty
    Full Member

    Just buy it Scott, you know you need it 😉

    ghostlymachine
    Free Member

    Just means spare parts/repairs are more expensive.
    A lot of road pros ride bikes which are cheaper/heavier than you’ll see on a sportive.
    A lot of mtb pros ride what they are told to, and what they know is reliable.

    What makes the biggest difference to both is how well they are set up and maintained.

    Can’t believe someone put a Colnago forwards as a superbike. They are just expensive.

    Trimix
    Free Member

    Lose 5kg in weight and do a skills day. Then the bike you already have will be a super bike.

    chakaping
    Free Member

    You forgot having a poo Trimix. Tsk tsk.

    antares
    Free Member

    To start with, a pimped out trail bike or enduro bike is not a superbike. It’s just an expensive skill compensator. It will always get beaten up a hill by a proper XC superbike, or down a hill by a downhill superbike.

    But will beat both of them when you’ve gotta go up AND down 🙂

    tomhoward
    Full Member

    You forgot having a poo Trimix. Tsk tsk.

    Would a really long wee suffice?

    Lionheart
    Free Member

    I have a Merlin, probably a Superbike in its day. The older it gets, the faster it remembers being… : ) It was super light compared to others, it was very direct compared to others, it felt fast compared to others. Now it’s an interesting ride thats down right scary on ‘modern’ trails. Good fun a couple of times a year and still feels like cheating when ridden uphill.

    Lionheart
    Free Member

    Bit like supercars, only really super (still great and I prefer them) in their age. A modern diesel Beamer/Audi/Merc is faster than a supercar of the nineties.

    aracer
    Free Member

    But will beat both of them when you’ve gotta go up AND down [/quote]

    How come the XC pros don’t ride those then?

    antares
    Free Member

    How come the XC pros don’t ride those then?

    Coz the downhills they ride aren’t full on dh tracks

    aracer
    Free Member

    Just like all of the trails most of us ride then.

    teamslug
    Free Member

    I’m lucky enough to have had too end bikes for a few years now. All were top side of 5k. Did they make me a better rider? , not sure , but it makes you conscious that some people will look and think’ all the kit can’t do sh*t’. So you have to try and justify owning it by making yourself better.

Viewing 36 posts - 1 through 36 (of 36 total)

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