honzo and slamstem content
I agree with drwelby - they’re not that different in cramped-ness, but the bars are higher - and if you have even more rise on the bars on the murmur vs the epic, then it’s exaggerated.
however, you already mentioned it feeling like you had a lot of weight on your hands, so keep in mind this will get worse when you lower your bars.
Is that necessarily true? I feel like you eventually get to the point where pressure on the bars is mitigated by flexibility–like you don’t lean forward/over enough to actually weigh the bars. Easier to imagine on a road bike with deep drop, where you’re hunched over but your lower back muscles are keeping you from continuing to hunch. Maybe I’m completely making this up, but I’ll throw it out there.
I wish I felt like I had more weight on my hands. Keep thinking “gosh do I need to stretch more?” This has gotten better with new fork internals but I catch the front wheel washing out in turns more often than I’d like. Maybe it is the 2 yr old tires, maybe form? I dunno.
is what part true? lower bars being more weight on your hands? seems like basic physics to me.
absolutely flexibility comes into play as you can bend your elbows more to get your weight more on the bars, but you can’t really easily take weight away from the bars from like a neutral/straight arm position (without moving the saddle back, which isn’t an option in this case).
I don’t know a thing about mtb fit besides “athletic position” since it is so dynamic, but for road bikes: it isn’t your arms/elbows/hands that are keeping you from smashing your face into your bars. It is your core and lower back, right? And (maybe most importantly?) saddle setback relative to pedals as you mentioned. I can’t argue with basic physics but I’d say there are at least half a dozen moving parts at play here. I’m not sure it is a rule that lower bars = more weight on hands, though that may be the case in most situations. Anyway, I have almost no idea what I’m talking about. Can someone just tell me if I should waste a stans dart on this sidewall hole.
As you lean forwards you engage more back muscles too, so there’s some weird back angle zones where you have more weight but less support. When your position is too short you can end up shrugging your shoulders to try to get more engagement or doing other contortions that feel like heavy hands.
do you have any bacon? much cheaper experiment.
i have like 7 bacon strips in my tire right now, divided up between 3 holes. they’re all holding fine, though one at the center of the tread kept getting ripped out by riding, but currently it’s been staying fine (2 strips in there, trimmed down as much as i could).
two of my holes were from a pinch so one’s right on the bead and the 2 bacon stripes worked fine and it’s been sealed up for a month or so.
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right so on a road bike yes you engage core of course, but also youre behind the bb and youre doing a hip hinge…here’s like your hip angle is a lot more OPEN so youre not hip hinged at all
yeah - this is why i don’t ever lower the bars on my mtb. i tried it once on my old trail bike (non progressive angles) for an xc race… installed a 90mm stem (i think i had a 60mm at the time) slightly lower than my usual height. did 1 lap (17 mi)… back was excruciating. it was so painful. didn’t bother my hands so much, but the additional extension of my back muscles wrecked me.
I’m telling you this because it’s what I ran into with my Honzo with a steeper STA and too tall bars.
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When I last did a fit, my fitter mentioned this was the most important part of a MTB fit.
I’ve understood it as step 1 of road bike fit as well.
Road bike seat angles in a given size vary by one degree. MTBs by at least 5 these days. At 700mm seat height thats 60mm horizontal difference. So I don’t know how you’d “fit” an MTB on any consistent rule.
Given that with droppers your hip position matters even less I’d say your bar position is more important, and is too dynamic of a thing for a traditional bike fitter to get right,
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and as a bonus there’s basically one offset head dropper and it’s $450.
This is why I don’t understand mtb fit. I’m just holding on for dear life mostly. Somewhere between the wheels lol.
I like the idea of modern mountain bikes being fitted based on riding style rather than human size, within reason of course.
Yeah, he did acknowledge that fitting a MTB is a lot harder than a road bike.
The pedaling platform is an important starting place if you’re doing a lot of pedaling in the saddle (enduro, XC). For any time you’re standing, the pedal platform obviously doesn’t matter.
I also have a longer torso, so I buy all my frames off of reach. I have my saddle height and setback in the same place on my enduro and XC bike, even though the BB height and bar height are different.
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Getting to ride 2 times a week all summer has been really good. Im riding faster than ever with much better technique and confidence into difficult stuff. Including blasting blind into V steep technical trail at a “secrect gnarly DH zone” that I had never gone to before b/c of its intimidating rep and hitting a big ol PR on a trail Ive ridden a bunch even though it was dusty and blown out.
Also… I got a new dropper last week with 30mm more drop and OH WOW it matters folks. If you can drop more… DOIT.
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i dont think i could ever go less than 175mm drop… i’d do 200mm if it fit (doesn’t quite). would prob be buzzin’ my butt/fanny pack all the time with 200mm though.
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lol I’m at 170mm on an XL. Guess I should look into this.