Jump to content

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


Craig Armstrong

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

208 members have voted

  1. 1. If you could have one bike, would it be trail or XC?

    • Trail
      129
    • XC
      79


Recommended Posts

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? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 162
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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. 

A3A319BB-ABED-4AF6-A234-FF5BC09EDF7C.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

IMG-20220418-WA0028.jpg

Edited by EtiennevdMerwe
Spelling
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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) 😁

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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 by Hairy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Settings My Forum Content My Followed Content Forum Settings Ad Messages My Ads My Favourites My Saved Alerts My Pay Deals Help Logout