- [Neil] Mountain biking has evolved a lot over a history of about 40 years.
There's all sorts if disciplines now that fall under that mountain bike umbrella.
So we thought it would be a good time to explain all the different types of bikes,
and what their intended use is.
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So let's start with cross-country bikes. This is the Canyon XC,
the cross-country race bike. This is where weight is really important.
So it's a carbon fiber frame. These bikes are often 29ers because they've got that
extra rollover. So once you're up to speed, they'll carry speed really well.
Like I say, weight is really important, so it's all about being as light as possible
because fitness and speed is really important.
The tires are fairly lightweight so they're really fast-rolling.
They don't offer great puncture resistance, but more importantly,
they're really fast tires. The bikes have relatively steep head angles,
so they're agile at low speeds, also good for climbing. You've got that long stem
and low handlebars to keep weight on that front wheel,
so you're not wheelie-ing too much when you're climbing.
This is a full-suspension cross-country bike, something that people would race in
marathon races, probably longer distance than the pure thoroughbred cross-country
bike. The full-suspension is a more comfortable ride, you're going to get
slightly more grip on the rear tires. The tire tracks [inaudible 00:01:29].
a little bit better. Obviously the payoff is slightly more weight.
They tend to have single or double chain rings, probably more likely to have a
double than the pure cross-country bike, because you're going to be riding this
bike for longer. Again, the idea is a light, fast bike still.
- [Marc] So moving up to scale a little bit now, what I would call a
general trail bike. They tend to be anything from 120- to 140-mill travel,
which this bike is. With a trail bike, they tend to be overbuilt.
You can see it's a lot chunkier here around the head tube and also here
around the pivots to take that punishment. Also, compared to a cross-country race
bike, has a longer wheel base and therefore more stable at speed, able to
ride a descent more comfortably, but yet again, it won't climb quite as well.
Most trail bikes tend to come with a dropper post, really cool feature also.
- Moving up the scale again slightly, this is a 160-mill travel.
This is the area that a lot of bike manufacturers are trying to throw their
resources at finding that one do-it-all bike, so you've got a really good downhill
bike that also climbs. Again, the bike is to be designed really aggressively,
so to help with that, we've got bigger, chunkier tires, more puncture-resistant,
but the payoff, again, is they're heavier.
- Slopestyle bike. Main factor about these is companies are still developing
bikes around 26-inch wheels, so old technology as far as trail bikes and
downhill bikes, but these guys are still riding 26. There's no need for bigger
wheels. I guess it makes the bike more maneuverable in the air,
having the smaller wheels.
Short amount of travel, probably only 100 mill, just to take the shock out of those
massive jumps when they're landing heavy. As you can see they have a low standover
height, small frame which means it's easy to move around the bike to do all the
tricks that they do. Really low seat, just getting it down and out of the way.
- A fat bike. Originally these bikes were designed for riding on sand like we are
today and on snow. The huge tires give you that floating ability.
These tires are 4.8 inches wide. Compare that to your average mountain bike tire,
maybe 2.2, 2.4. So they're twice the width. You don't even need a bike stand
for it to stand up on the beach today. The bikes are designed solely around
these wheels, really. They're so wide that the front and the back ends of the fork
is wide to fit in that larger hub and that huge tire. More often than not, these
bikes are hardtails or in fact fully rigid like this bike, and they're becoming
more and more popular. You see these out on the trails and away from
the snow and the sand.
- Downhill bike. Definitely a very limited use as far as what you can do on this
bike, purely designed to go over the roughest terrain, top though bottom,
down a hill. As you can see, extremely overbuilt, all the way from the front
forks, which are a triple clamp, very similar to a motorcycle, very large
aggressive tires, super strong, often tubeless. Two hundred mills of travel,
front and back, is usually about the ballpark. A very slack head angle,
so you feel comfortable going down steeper descents, really long wheel base
so the bike is super stable at high speeds. Also, wide handlebars, up to
800 mills, all help give the bike that extra stability. Usually find a 26-inch
wheel like this one here, or more recently, manufacturers are making
them in 27.5-inch wheel.
- A hardtail. They come in all different shapes and sizes, 26-,
27.5-, and 29-inch wheels. Steel alloy, carbon frames, obviously no rear
suspension, and they do often have a suspension fork. They're quite often the
cheapest mountain bikes and are such the most accessible way to get into the sport.
More often than not, people ride a hardtail as their first bike.
And they're still really good fun. I want to say the humble hardtail,
but there's still a place for these bikes.
- So there you go. That's it for our "What mountain bike for what discipline."
- We actually got the idea for this video from the comments in one of our Dirt
Shed Show. So don't forget to leave your comments down below. We do read them all.
- I should imagine you want to watch more videos here on GMBN,
so if you click up here, you'll see my video on "Suspension explained."
- And if you click down there, you can see "Are fat bikes fun?"
- Are they fun?
- They are fun. Give us a thumbs-up like if you enjoyed the video.
Thumb-up like.
- And click on us and the hardtail to subscribe to GMBN.