a.funks profile

Motors have been accepted in mountain biking since the dawn of mountain biking, that’s what an uplift vehicle is. So is a chair lift or gondola. You literally use a motorised device to turn some of the energy from its motor’s fuel tank or battery into potential energy stored in the bike and rider, which then provides the dominant power source for the bike as you ride downhill.

This same thing happened with skiing too, except skiing began cross-country, whilst MTBing actually started with downhill!

There’s also the strange attitude that it’s ok to drive a car to the start/finish point of your ride but not ok to ride an ebike - when my ebike rides are 99.9% from my house. It’s all very odd.

@BarryW - you never replied to my question - if I can ride my ebike with the motor off (which I frequently do), what then is it? I’ve never seen a motorbike that can go uphill with the motor off - but my ebike often does.

If you turn the motor off and it still works, is it then a bicycle? Just saying because if I’m with a group I ride my (full power heavyweight) Levo turned off. Or I ride my singlespeed hardtail. And they’re both bicycles. 

I don’t have the space for two full-sus bikes and I commute on this electric one as it’s faster, more fun, less tiring and I can go the long way via the trails.

Thanks! I’ll use a steel rule because I’ve not had much luck with my cheap chain checker - suspect only those fancy ones that cancel out roller wear are really worth using!

It does feel more of a utility or commuter bike thing.

But then again, one thing I like about riding a singlespeed is not thinking about shifting. Could an auto-shifting eMTB help get that flow state when I’m too time-squeezed for the normal bike?

Ebikes are such an important part of the future of urban transport - even letting the bike do almost all the work, it’s better for your health and the planet than sitting in a car or on a bus. If you want to pedal hard, then you can do that too.

Did Mick H say if he was running multiple chains per cassette or running one chain and cassette until dead? On my Levo with HyperGlide I never had any success trying to swap chains frequently to reduce cassette wear, a fresh chain would never sync with the cassette. I now have LinkGlide and don’t know what to do!

I’ve been thinking about getting some of these since breaking a finger last summer and despite it being a really clean tidy break (according to the consultant) I’m still noticing it feeling not as good as normal when playing difficult bass lines. MTBing is a hobby but playing bass is a critical part of my life, for work as well as art. Looks like these could help me avoid further damage!

Any idea how they fit with Tech 3 levers? I’d want the outer edges of them to be barely any wider than my grip ends because the trees are so tight around here. Do you have any measurements for the min and max length from clamp to end of guard?

Plenty of room on the bars on my singlespeed but fitting them on the Levo would be more of a juggle with the remote and shifter. How much bar space does the clamp need?

The boss at my LBS said that too - he was talking about smoothness and I think that’s true. I guess I’m used to noisily but quickly banging up and down on knackered HyperGlide XT. 

Almost solely commuting use the last 8 months had worn out the smaller six sprockets and left the biggest barely worn, to the point it wouldn’t even shift to the the biggest two because the chain was so out of whack with them (not ideal when trying to pedal up something almost too steep to walk up!)

It’s not about better shifting, it’s about being tough enough to withstand ebike power. I’ve been on HyperGlide XT 11 speed for a few years and found cassettes start shifting worse at about 600 miles and are wrecked by 1200 miles.

Just ridden home with a brand new LinkGlide XT 11 speed drivetrain on my Levo commuter/MTB. I’ve been through so many chains and cassettes over the last four years - normal drivetrains can’t handle full power from a motor and someone who likes to pedal hard. Over half of that mileage has been done with less than ideal shifting due to the cassette wear being annoyingly fast.

On the plus side, I got so tired of bad shifting and replacing parts on the Levo that my new hardtail (and main MTB) ended up as a singlespeed!

I suspect the cassette weights will put a lot of riders off - but as rotating mass goes, it’s very close to the axle so angular inertia isn’t significant and as unsprung mass goes, yes it’s a few hundred grams more but it’s not a big percentage change when you add the whole wheel and tyre (over 3000g), under 10%.

Everything about LinkGlide looks reassuringly chunky, so I’m hopeful of a big increase in durability!

There’s some really nice looking bikes on here!

Mine is now a bit less pretty as my fear of more broken digits (I’m a bassist) has finally coaxed me into fitting handguards. The Moxie also now has bigger discs for easier wheel / parts swaps with my Levo. If it wasn’t for the lack of gears this would be a fully enduro hardtail!

It was one of those rides where the mud doesn’t stick to your tyres but instead coats the rider from head to toe!

“Are those other hardtails yours? If so, what are they?”

Sadly not (although probably fortunately not because I get confused if I own more than two MTBs!) I think the carbon one is a Scott (also singlespeed, running something like 34:16 - ouch!) and the titanium one is either a brand that no longer makes MTBs or doesn’t exist at all - either way I can’t remember!

There was another hardtail on the ride but his chain snapped on the first climb and none of us had a 9 speed quick link so that was the end for him - that was an aluminium 29” singlespeed so we covered all the frame materials! (Also an Evil full-sus but this is the wrong thread for that)

“Your hardtail (Moxie?) is awesome! Mullet?”

Yes Moxie, no mullet, just perspective. Yes, v awesome, thanks!

We had a hint of snow but sadly it didn’t settle - however we’ve had a few very spring-like sunny dry days with perfect trail conditions too. Sadly I can’t post pics from one of those rides because I was on my very not hardtail and rather electric Levo!

Triple leaning hardtails - apologies about the unaesthetic road cone:

Steel 29”, carbon 27.5”, titanium 26”.

I like this bike so much! 

However I’ve noticed that I’ve not been attacking with as much conviction of late, and having done some suspension tweakery of the Levo I’m thinking that the fork has got too soft on the Moxie - and not having enough support is causing me to stay back a bit because I’m don’t like the front dropping and steepening so much when I get forward.

My brake disc cheapness caught up with me last ride, had the back brake dragging all ride - the well worn discs and equally worn rear pads seems to have stopped the pistons retracting properly. Have decided to upgrade to some of the new heavy duty Hope discs - I’ve got them on the Levo and really like them. Are 220/200 rotors silly on a hardtail? Matching wheels convenience has led me that way…

"The best exercise scientists are the athlete's themselves. Who through trial and error have found what works for them"

That only holds true if you want your “exercise scientists” to train one person - themself.

In my field I constantly see talented and experienced people saying a + b = c and making that a blanket statement without considering aspects d, e, f etc that are complex and personal and critical to getting the right answer.

Change the angle of some grips and all discussion of bar rise etc gets totally disrupted because the grip angle sends your elbows off in a different direction which means the feeling of the fit and steering is different due to your shoulder angles and how you load the bars.

It’s really really complicated.

Finding what works for YOU is the answer. And then if you want to advise people on what may work for them, don’t over-simplify and remember that every person is unique in their proportions, strength, flexibility, riding style, weight, etc. Blanket statements are good for marketing and very common in journalism but rarely helpful in coaching (beyond the most basic level).

There’s a lot of misunderstanding about bars, rise, sweep, stems and spacers. It doesn’t matter how the grips gets to where they are but the steering feel and fit relate to their 3D location and their angle only (ignoring flex). It’s both steering geometry and fit geometry.

I continue to see talk of “spacers eating into reach vs high rise bars”. They don’t. Run a high rise bar with the rise vertical then you’re effectively lengthening the stem. Run a high rise bar with the rise in line with the head angle and you’re keeping the effective stem length the same but losing reach, just as spacers would.

I have the same bars and stem length on my hardtail and my full-sus. On the former the rise is slightly forward of the head angle and on the latter it’s slightly behind. That suits the steering feel of each best (calms the hardtail, livens up the full-sus).

You can’t defeat the fixed nature of reach and stack (unless you’ve got a reach adjust headset!)

Posted by: BC_Nuggets

I truly am the princess from the Princess and the Pea… …Is anyone else this particular?

Me!

My last three rides, I had the tyres at 17 and 19  (too squirmy as it had dried out), then 20 and 23 (too skittery on wet roots - rain took us by surprise), then 19 and 21 (great!)

My fork felt odd a few weeks back - turned out it was under 5psi too soft. I could feel that the geometry felt wrong when just riding along as well as the behaviour when Riding properly.

If I was (a lot) quicker I’d be a great development rider!

Moxie leaning against a tree. I presume it’s not an ash because many of these are being felled in these woods right now due to ash dieback - thankfully the trails are mostly only being temporarily blocked by the logging.

I removed the chain guide and bash a couple of weeks ago because I don’t need the former as I’m still loving singlespeed life and the latter collects too much mud in the winter - and this bike isn’t as crazy low as my old hardtail.

Posted by: Vikb

Wow! She's dirty. With mud like that you must really appreciate the SS drivetrain.

Less muddy-looking than last week - this ride it was that sticky mud that mostly stays on the ground rather than splattering you from head to toe. Fortunately rain, abrasion and vibration (and a bit of poking with sticks and fingers) gradually removes the mud as I hate washing bikes…

I need to take the chain guide off as it’s pointless on a singlespeed and just collecting mud (but I was scared I’d find singlespeed too hard and need to put gears back on and then want the chain guide!)

Forgot to take a photo whilst out riding yesterday and it’s hanging up out of the way after commuting to work now, so this will have to do as the Moxie state of 2023!

Posted by: sverdrup

Rode a DoctaHawk for the past year and half, now on a Stylus.  For my 5'7", turns out I prefer 27.5 wheels.  Combined with the 210mm dropper, I am able to move around on the bike much more freely and that has translated into more speed & smiles. 

“Yes, I need ALL the fork on my hardtail.”

Looks wicked, like the illegitimate offspring of a BMX and DH bike!