It not just the type of riding it's even bikes that are in the same discipline depending on how there suspension works and feels. Also on a E bike typically it's a little longer. Suspension is getting longer in general these days.
yeah i agree with you. if you are doing long distance or riding a lot with tech/jumps/decents in between then 140-150 (rear 130-140). if you are mostly only doing downhill then 170 is plenty for most cases. but a proper downhill course will obviously require a downhill bike
In 2002 I got the 130mm Z1 freeride on my Sugar 2+ my friends were all stupefied by it, I'd even say mesmerized. "You can't ride that you won't climb" 🤣😂😂
I've swapped out my 140 mm trail bike for a 120 mm downcountry bike for my all purpose bike so that's my sweet spot it seems. Then again it's not just about the amount of travel as my new bike does declines pretty equal to the trail bike, and everything else significantly better, so I'd say that the quality of the suspension plays a clear part there as the new bike cost significantly more.
I had 150mm YT Jeffsy. And now I have 170mm. Propain tyee. It doesn't climb harder. More suspension compensates my lack of skill. I love it. Also nice for some park laps. I'm from the Netherlands. I also ride it there sometimes.
I have a 170/160 bike now and it’s perfect for bike parks or big hits but would love to have a 130/140 trail bike for the local and day to day riding as well Too much travel depends on where and what you ride The optimum amount of travel depends on where and what you ride
I have 2 bikes - enduro ebike (170/160) for riding around my area and DH bike (200/215) for bikeparks. DH gives me confidence, today I cleaned 3m drop and 8m gap :)
Its weird that we always talk about travel, but not geo. I get that travel roughly correlates to geo but there are 130 bikes with the same geo as 150 bikes and also 130 bikes with the same geo as 100 bikes. I find that the trails you ride dictate the best geo, and personal taste and riding style dictate the best travel.
The more the better, the question is only what you give up to get it. In terms of pedaling efficiency, you don't give up anything, because most modern forks have a lockout. So the only things are really just weight and cost.
120 rear 130 front, I used to own a 150 rear 160 front enduro bike, but the excess travel removed a lot of the trail feel, making a lot of tracks kind of boring, short travel bikes are fun and poppy and still very capable.
Depends what you're riding. With your correct sag, if you're not bottoming out a couple of times a run, you're over-biked. If you're bottoming out more than a few times, you're under-biked. Personally I'll suffer a 170mm bike on a gravel ride because I also take it DH uplift/park riding where it's perfect.
Easy: hardtail low travel for long rides without technical descents. Enduro for short routes with hard downhills (DH if you are only going down) 130-140mm double sus for a little bit of everything
The optimal travel IMO is determined by what you’ll mainly do with your bike and what you’ll dare ride. Actually most of us already know what that travel is based on our capabilities and if you don’t know then perhaps stay at the low end.
Anywhere from 130mm to 170mm will be about right for most riders... but it depends on the terrain you ride. The steeper and rougher your trails the more travel you will want... but don't go overkill or you may be suffering on longer flatter rides dragging extra weight around. The middle ground of about 150mm suits me best.
When I have my mushrooms, I become Super Enduro Bro! 180mm is the one for me, because tonk dudebro! I didn't go to the gym to run on treadmills, much like I don't ride FOD because I enjoy the climbs! Giga is still capable of doing 30 miles around the FoD and give me more smiles than when I did on the remedy. Wifey also likes her Mega vs her old Remedy. If you eat all the burritos at Bazz' van at Pedalabikeaway, 180 or go home! That being said, Rach at Pro ride did say that 150mm was the optimum travel range, even for FoD and South Wales
I rode a 100mm hard tail for a while. I recently finally got a will squish with 130 front and 120 rear. I rode a few different bikes and felt that 150 was decent but not great to lug up steep climbs. The 170 plus bikes I rode were not something I would be able to ride all day or ride my local trails. I feel it’s all about context, my local trails are pretty rough with lots and lots of climbing and tech sections. Maybe some day I’ll get more suspension but this feels perfect to me for long rides plus I can still hit the bike parks as well. Just a little less aggression than my buddies with enduro rigs
I ride a 110/100 xc bike. Handles all my local trails with ease. If I lived somewhere else, I might need something with more travel but for what I ride, 120 is my max.
I have 150 and I don’t think I’ve ever bottomed it out. It seems like that’s plenty for me. In the first World Cup downhill races in 1993 a fork over 50mm was considered burly and cush. All the way up through at least 1996 my 150mm air spring fork would have been considered an elite DH component. You just have to put some things in perspective. It took until 2000 for anyone to hit 200mm and then it was a couple more years before it was the gold standard size. Those guys before were still having plenty of fun riding their bikes. As far as average guys not racing DH, 150mm would have been a long travel bike up until at least 2010 or even later.
Definitely 150-160 mm. Usually, 160 is the starting point for forks with chunkier stantions, too. Unless you're riding a DH bike with a triple clamp fork.
160 for me is the sweet spot. Can still use it for your regular trails, but also has more than enough for park days or shuttle laps. Modern enduro bikes pedal well enough that I was able to do a 24mi 3700ft gain alpine ride above 10,000ft here in Colorado, nothing quite like dropping in on the top of a huge mountain on a big bike, knowing that you have miles on end of crazy fast downhill ahead of you.
I have 2 bikes. HT 140 and Full Sus 150/160. For some trails I feel I get too much suspension on the fullsus. In fact, I take the fullsus out only on the gnarliest trails.
I have a 200mm downhill bike that I’ve just gotten used to pedaling and for long distance. Yes it might not be as easy as an xc bike, but it’s perfectly fine to be honest. Just get used to it 🤷
Hilarious ending. I think it honestly doesnt matter. All bikes are amazing and each accentuates different parts of the mountain/park. Buy all of them… or just one.
I have just as much fun on my 0mm travel bike as I do on my 160mm travel bike - they are just different tools for different jobs. But if I only had one bike, it would be a 120mm rear 140/50mm front 'trail' bike.
For me the perfect bike is 150. With a long travel you only have to add pressure on the fork to ride well on flat terrain. 100 or 120 is ok on flat surfaces but you Will find the límit too early. Ther's no perfect bike but for me is better to have a long travel. Enjoy the ride ✨
And what type of bike would be the best if you have to do hours of climbing on mostly smooth terrain and then descend on a very gnarly and technical trail?
That question is impossible to answer without context. For the same reason we have so many different fork designs. For hardcore chucking on a pump bike , I could eat up 220mm of travel. On a Gravel/XC bike pushing the limits of speed and pedaling efficiency, 100mm of travel is too much. 60-80mm of travel just for the roughest parts of the trail, would be ideal. If you were riding mostly smooth trails, a stiff 40mm fork would get the job done.
Honestly I’ve had 130 trail bike , 160/170mm enduros and the 180mm I have now n I like the 180 most by a long long way but it all comes down to what you’re riding. I like off piste tech/dh. (I don’t care for climbs much anyway 😂)
I run my Stumpjumper 160/160 and for my skill level it works even at Snowshoe which is a pretty rough Bike Park. But I've been eyeing a short travel trail bike to add on top of my hartail which has 150 up front for my local mellower trails... or a titanium gravel bike... but an XC weapon would be fun too🤔 Someone hide my credit cards.
I have never tried a 170mm+ enduro bike, so I dont know how good those climb. I would imagine that you can make do with those on climbs, just a bit more effort is required, perhaps locking the suspensions? But what I do know for certain, that Trail bikes climb really well, in fact my 2023 Orbea Occam H20 (150front/140rear) climbs better than my previous 750$ Merida Big-nine XC-bike.
I had Spindrift CF 190/180mm, and that was too much for my type of ride. So for the local trails/downhills etc I would rather go for 160mm travel or maximum up to 170mm (170mm I have rn on new bike), but still I would like to try the bike that has 150/160mm travel. For the Bikeparks and super crazy trails I'd take 170mm or more.
170mm is perfect for me. Enough travel as I'm heavy and it's a ebike, perfect position and capability here with the mountain. Before, I was on a Scott Genius 150mm and I was limited and not as confortable as with my 170. I suppose it's different for everyone. Some with 75kg will have enough with a 160 or 150 with a good geometry
I have 170mm, and its a bit of a pig to climb. I pedal everywhere I go and my riding style fits into the "all mountain" category. I don't do huge jumps, drops, and gaps. I almost never have used more than 150 of my available travel on my hardest rides. So it's probably fair to say that 150 would be optimal for me. However, I never feel bummed on a descent with all that travel; but the slugishness pedalling around can get tiring.
I have no idea, 140/130 on big wheels rides as good as 150/140 on 27,5 wheels. it's the wheels that make up for the difference for my perspective. too many variables makes this vid just a clickbait, so job well done Rich :)
as little as you can get away with, as much as you need! Fod is great on a 120-140mm as there's nothing to choppy and short track, Ft. Bill is choppy, big and long, you can make it down on a 120 bike but you'll be better on a 170+mm bike.
Santa Cruz Tallboy. Decent for trails, and occasional under biking is good fun - tests your skill. Then for the rest of the time you have a bike that can cover ground fast without punishing you.
I think it depends much more on the geometry than on the pure suspension travel. Ok, weight also plays a role. I love my spindrift with 180mm, it climbs very well and I can do great touring or enduro races with it. at most I feel over biked on very flat and rather undemanding trails.
Rode the lot apart from the monster truck 200mm over the yrs and can ride most things on 100mm travel that I'd ride on my enduro rig so there are so many variables to consider here Richard. ..Great question so here's my optimum travel range.... 140-160mm on hardtail hardtail 120-180 on full sus... Yeah 😂 vague I know. ..cheers Richard...
Cheers to that lady on the end of the bench and the guy with the Slash. No such thing as too much travel. Lol. More specifically though, my only bike for trails is a 200mm DH bike. I ride with sheer brute force and belligerence and have come to the conclusion that if God made the terrain too steep for me to ride up, He intended me to push that section. Lol.
Careful Rich that dude looked like he wanted to have a go. 150/140 trail bike here. #ASKGMBN A great video would be a comparison of DH vs Super Enduro vs Enduro on some downhill tracks. Times and comfort. Does the average rider really need a DH bike?
Diamondback overdrive-100 hardtail 29er gave back to my father in law who got me started Santa Cruz Bronson 160- a bit taxing to climb but manageable have used on all day climbs. Is now My lift/shuttle park bike. Giant e trance adv x 150- use for climbing bike parks and to scout new trails. Enough suspension to get rowdy at the bike park. (Use for warming up in the morning or cool off rides in the afternoon. Trance fuel ex-140 my new trail bike,upgraded and full of aftermarket part suspension, bigger beefed up rear shock with modified mounts. Climbs like a dream, and handles even the bike park. It’s a bit sketchy at some times but not wild. Might have to be careful or the wife might make me sell some
In Ohio there are a lot of ups and downs mixed with a lot of tech roots and rocky drops and sections. I’m currently on a 130 140 trailbike which does really well for the varied terrain but I wouldn’t be upset about a 150 160 setup either 😂. Personally the geo and fitment are definitely more important to me for how I ride than mm of suspension. A shortish rear end and slacker hta( around 64-65 degrees) with a decent reach and slightly taller stack height wins for me.
I would say that unless you are going to bike parks all the time then a 120mm full bounce is the ideal. A good enough rider should be able to get that down 90% of the trails outside a bike park and down two thirds of them at a bike park. But it would also be more than capable of the all day adventures.
You obviously don’t know what you are talking about and haven’t ridden many Black or Double Black trails outside of the Bike Park. Why would anyone want to ride a 120 bike if they don’t have to? Plenty of good Trail or Enduro bikes in the 140-170 Range that do it all well other than Green or Blue type trails. Please validate your comments
My comments are based on over 20 years of riding off road. Just because you don't agree doesn't entitle you to be rude in saying the other person doesn't know what they are talking about. Look at videos that have been made where hardtails or even road bikes have been ridden down some very technical trails. The majority of mountain bikers I expect will be riding locally on natural trails rather than trail centre trails. In the past I have ridden sub 100 mm bikes of drops and the like and I don't consider myself a great rider, just an average one. Validated.
@@outlawisildur8121 why on earth would you want to ride a HT down very steep terrain unless you have to? 120 is definitely not enough for rough trails where I ride. Especially if you are a heavier rider. You can ride any bike down any trail but the confidence enjoyment and safety of riding the proper bike down the proper trails is the point. So If I have a choice for black or double black trials and not at a Bike Park you say that all I need is 120 mm travel? I’m 54 years old and have been riding in Canada, East and West Coast since I was a child on many bikes and I can tell that when it comes to Steep Technical trails I’m going to be riding a Modern Trail or Enduro Bike. Period Full stop. They are much more capable than some 120 XC Bike. Sorry but my comment stands that you don’t know what you talking about. back it up Buttercup where do you ride ? And again why on earth would some chose only a XC or DC bike if they don’t have to And the majority their riding is more suitable with a Trail or Enduro Bike? Also, where I currently live in Eastern Canada we have few XC style trails and 90% of the riders, both experienced and beginner ride Trail or Enduro Bikes. You obviously know better than us?
Depends on where you live, all day wales or peaks rides then the spur with 130mm forks for me. Getting into a bit more knar but still wanna pedal then a 140-150mm bike will do the job. Then if you like having bp days at say dyfi then a park bike with whatever you like on it. But maybe stick to an enduro bike so you can peddle bits on say bpw. And a hardtail to ride the filthiest of days in mid winter 😊 so that’s 4 bikes 😆 I could go down to 3 bikes and have a 140mm fork hardtail, say a transition smuggler and the new Atho aluminium bike. 😅
I LOVE my DH bike, wether if its for actual downhill, trail or bikeparks. It such an overkill bike, it just eats everything you throw at it, also your mistakes.
Since I have been going up 10 mm travel with every new bike, optimal travel is not constant and is a function of time f(travel optimal, mm) = (year - 2024) x 2 + 145
I don't have a clue about the correct amount of travel. I have a 140mm thavel hardtail. With 150mm Roch Shox Domain forks. Last weekend I did a Last Saturday I did a 40km XC style ride in the Forest of Dean on Pinkeye. I did Do some of the trails at the FoD. Somehow I ended on the "advanced skills" section. I know my jumping is crap. So I did the drop off line. It turns out I'm not much better at drop offs as well.
there used to be a guy who hang out in our group who rode downhill trails with 150mm and he was as fast as the guys on downhill bikes. there was another guy in the group who rode in the elite class of enduro races with 127mm rear and 150 front. he did massive jumps and was top 15.
I’ve just landed in Nelson NZ 2 weeks ago and it is mega steep and techy here. A lot of younger lads are happy to send 130mm bikes down double blacks all day long. I’m on a 140/160 bike and I don’t feel I’d go any bigger but a lot of us older guys seam to go the 160/170 bikes aye.
@@watmey1but why would you want to? If a longer travel bike can give a less experienced rider more confidence and capability then why go with a short travel bike with geo that is not meant for steep rough terrain. Most riders be want to be safe and have fun on their bikes. A 150 bike with the sane GEO as a 170 isn’t going to be that much different anyway. It’s not all about the amount of travel
