If you could have one mountain bike, would it be a trail or XC bike?

[Fred van Vlaanderen]

3 minutes ago, Robbie Stewart said:

This is what I ride on Rapidé TR29-36 SL wheelsets which I replaced my Spez Roval Traverse wheels with. I also shortened the stem to 50mm and increased bar length to 780mm. My bike, Spez Camber Comp has 120mm front and rear and I have no issues with getting it to stick to whatever I ride. I have slowly learnt the art of trusting my tyres and now they dig in on the side knobblies when I come blasting down a DH line into any berm, switchback or turn.

I don't find that my front wheel washes out like it did when I was riding with a longer 100mm stem which the bike came with originally. It was like I got a new bike after those changes.

What tyre pressure do you run on them? 

[Robbie Stewart]

3 minutes ago, Fred van Vlaanderen said:

What tyre pressure do you run on them? 

I'm a big fella, so around 1.8 - 2.0 bar

I find any less than say 1.5 ~ 1.6 and the tyres start sounding like they want to burp off the rim when I ride hard

[Headshot]

I ride XC on my Enduro bike 🙂

[Hairy]

2 hours ago, Headshot said:

I ride XC on my Enduro bike 🙂

Some people ride #Trail #Enduro on their Gravel bikes too
 

 

[Headshot]

Those gravel riders are way too gnarly for me. I need my 180 forkses.

[LazyTrailRider]

4 hours ago, Hairy said:

Some people ride #Trail #Enduro on their Gravel bikes too
 

 

I've done the Snakes and Vasbyt on my gravel bike.

Won't do it again 😜

[Fred van Vlaanderen]

7 hours ago, Hairy said:

Some people ride #Trail #Enduro on their Gravel bikes too
 

 

I used to be one of them, but I sadly sold my Cotic after nearly dying… lol. V-brakes and gnarly descents don’t mix well. 

[Fred van Vlaanderen]

Just want to share a bit of silver lining after my bad experience. So part of why I was so bummed out was that with fall no. 1 mentioned in my OP, I broke my rear derailleur and had to replace it completely. 
 

Sunday’s fall had me seriously worried, as my hanger was severely bent and I only had a couple of gears to work with and thought that the derailleur must’ve had significant damage as well. Replaced the hanger today and gears are running smooth. Wanted to go and hit the turn I fell on this afternoon, but got held up with work. Will definitely go back over the weekend and give feedback. 

But I had a massive sigh of relief when everything worked, so wanted to share the good news. 

[Jan Myburgh]

XC bike for me. I might be getting old, but when that gun goes off I go nuts like my dog when she chases the Checkers 60 delivery bikes. 

Modern XC bikes have come a long way. I ride a Norco Revolver, which has the mind of an XC bike and the heart of a hard charging trail bike. 

[Heinrich Hattingh]

Sold all my bikes and kept the e-bike. Burn me at the stake now. 

[DieselnDust]

3 hours ago, Jan Myburgh said:

XC bike for me. I might be getting old, but when that gun goes off I go nuts like my dog when she chases the Checkers 60 delivery bikes. 

Modern XC bikes have come a long way. I ride a Norco Revolver, which has the mind of an XC bike and the heart of a hard charging trail bike. 

Can’t see the point in buying a 100mm travel XC bike unless you’re racing regularly or are an investment banker entering the cape epic (where people seem. More keen to ride what the pros ride than buying a bike more suitable for long days in the saddle

[EtiennevdMerwe]

On 4/25/2022 at 4:15 PM, Super Sywurm said:

I ride a Rapide Tigre, which I classify as a trail bike.  I built it with a 100mm fork and 2.4" tyres and I ride just as far and just as fast as the XC bikes.  The only thing holdinge me back is my personal fitness.

I still want to see what the Rapid can do with a 120mm fork on XC rides.

I also have an extra wheelset with slicks for fast road rides. 

Nice to meet other Tigre's

Was the only slack steel frame I could find in SA.

To mirror your sentiments, I had a fox 32, 100mm fork on the rapide, it was awesome on the trails.Then my xco son borrowed the fork so I fitted a rigid for urban rides. It sucks, needs some travel

Added a pic below.

 

Back to the thread about trail vs xc :

I ride xco with my son, I ride a trek fuel ex.

Yesterday I replaced my fork to increase travel from 130mm to 140mm.

I weigh 85kg and the 200g fork weight penalty I'll gladly take to recover and rest on the downhills while closing the gaps.

That's my theory anyway, first race this weekend with the new fork in Limpopo, let's see if it works for me.

Edited April 27, 2022 by EtiennevdMerwe
Spelling

[DJR]

21 hours ago, Hairy said:

Some people ride #Trail #Enduro on their Gravel bikes too
 

 

Just love the "David Attenborough" narration 😀😀

[SwissVan]

I'll take the XCO bike with dual suspension

Front 120mm / Rear 100mm is more than enough for me.

If I need more than the above then I'm riding on luck / out of my skill set and its time to to take a reality check (throttle back a bit) 😁

[Hairy]

3 hours ago, SwissVan said:

I'll take the XCO bike with dual suspension

Front 120mm / Rear 100mm is more than enough for me.

If I need more than the above then I'm riding on luck / out of my skill set and its time to to take a reality check (throttle back a bit) 😁

"I remember when 65mm elastomer forks were ample" 

Edited April 27, 2022 by Hairy

[Yyyy]

DC bike for me

suitable XCM, XCO, long adventure rides and the odd enduro. Can pretty much handle most of what the Western Cape can throw at you