ilikebikes

I’ve got this Long Haul Trucker I use on and off road, I’m going to swap out the drops for MTB bars, I can feel the uselessness of the drop bars as soon as I go off road. The Surly (26inch) rigid forks are the bees knees!

pressed001

Yeah, drops and off-road do not go together. The weight is just too far forward. Gravel bikes are more for smooth gravel paths which I could see being pretty fun for going fast in an aero position.

I love rigid bikes ever since my 1995 GT Tempest


With that Tempest I rode a 37 mile loop last year in central Switzerland with 2 miles of elevation gain/loss. The rim-brakes just murdered my rather well-endowed hands and so I decided to build a new disc brake rigid.


Rigids are king if you take advantage of new technologies that allow you to run next to no tire pressure. Otherwise they're still lots of fun but speed and comfort are sacrificed.

c_m_shooter

I still ride rigid bikes and drop bars off road. I used to ride a Cross Check with 35mm tires on every trail around here, jumps, drops, rock gardens, no problems. I ride different lines now than I used to and different than the guys on suspension. I am going to have to give in to the dark side soon though if I want to keep riding much. A motorcycle wreck a couple years ago made me old and my recovery time between rides is much longer than it used to be and sometimes my lower back starts to spasm mid ride. I am only 42, and I don't think the situation will improve over the years.

davei1980

I rode 10 miles of singletrack today with rock gardens, tight roll ins, drops, rock faces, rock rolls, and well, rocks at 6psi in the front and 7 in the rear. My bike is fully rigid and pictured above.

pressed001

Hey my man. I love the rigid but dayum those tires are heavy @ 1300g per tire. The 29x3" weigh slightly less, which is weird. But they use a different compound. Anyway. Still looks like a fun bike to romp around on. I just wouldn't be pulling any centennials on it!

I would love to get some wider tires and run lower pressure, but exactly because of the weights keeps me right where I am.

davei1980

You're not wrong, these are about 920g per tire, I know, Ick - but the weight disadvantage is at least partially offset by the lower rolling resistance afforded by 1. the larger diameter (these roll over EVERYTHING BABY) and 2. the lower rolling resistance (because, science, I guess).

One of my stretch goals is getting carbon rims, that will help quite a bit too. The whole set up is just south of 35lbs as-pictured but honestly man, I only feel it when I lift it on to the workstand and I swear, I roll over stuff easier than my bro-in-law on his 26" full squish (nothing against him or his bike, neat setup but I like the big tires, and I am of the belief that suspension only works for big hits, doesn't help with any of the trail chatter or rocks)

Binky

Lots of them around here, too, especially for older riders who can't afford Chinese bikes...

Here's three of mine:

Athousandpins

I love my old school ascent ex. Not so great on super rocky trails though.

c_m_shooter

I am going to disagree. I have ben riding drop bars almost exclusively for 20 years. If your weight is too far forward it is a fit problem. A few examples here. I was demonstrating to beginner riders at a skills clinic about jumps and drops on my Cross Check one day when someone got this photo. Second is me mounting up when my wife was dropping me off at Slick Rock on my drop bar Redline Monocog that had gears on it at that time, a nine speed cassette and bar end shifter. I rode that bike a ton of places, did the Ouchita challenge, and raced in local 6 and 12 hour races. The Fargo is my go to bike now, it has been all over the country too, this is the first pick I found.. I was at White Mesa in New Mexico I think.

rosefarts

I rode the White Rim in a day on this bike about this time last year. It worked. It certainly wasn't in 5:45 though (add 5 hours).



A couple years ago, I got a dirt cheap nashbar 29er SS with no suspension. Rode pretty well due to modern geometry, even at 30lbs. 2.2 maxed out my tire size and I like really long climbing. Sold it and didn't look back.

Lately I've been interested in getting a little more aggressive than my cross bike can handle. Still stuck on the rigid idea. Heavy seems to be the name of the game. I guess that's ok, I'm slow and I don't race.

For the last day I've been having a hard time talking myself out of ordering a Krampus. Through axles, 29+, full rigid, aggressive geometry beyond it's paygrade, 1x12 and hydro brakes this year. $1550. I could have it by Tuesday. Seems hard to say no to.

I've never liked Surly but considering my application, it's a bike I'd ride out of the box. The only thing to change would be removing the inner tubes.

davei1980

I like the way you think - Have you considered a Jones Plus SWB? I ride a Plus LWB but the SWB stands for "short wheel base" and definitely would be more "aggressive"

I have friends who ride Surlys and I tell them that I ride a Jones because their Surlys need heroes too! LOL all good fun.

Also, my LBS is a Bombtrack dealer - they have some really nifty 29+ rigid-specific models which may interest you. Krampus is really cool and has the geo to add a suspension fork down the road if you wish too.....

pressed001

Absolutely true. I was more thinking about drop converted mountain bikes. But if you've got a CX frame, then it only makes sense since the bike is made for that geometry. I also assumed that one would always stay in the drops, which is kind of ridiculous. If your riding on the hoods on a CX bike then your A-OK. Now, on a drop-bar converted mid 90's MTB then you're talking another story as the frame was intended for a straight bar.

Your Fargo looks great BTW.

c_m_shooter

Those mid 90s bikes are easier to convert because they used loooooooong stems for those flat bars. A modern short stem with a set of dirt drops fits them well. My Monocog was set up that way for the first 10 years I had it. It is a back up/loaner bike now, so flat bars are on it to keep from scaring the young-ins. I use the drops for technical riding because your arms are better suspension in that position (elbows in, counter to what the dirt jumpers tell you), and cruise on the hoods on smooth sections.

pressed001

Thanks for the clarification. That makes sense. For my '95 GT I use a 110mm stem to get the position right. Drop bars would work if I used a super short stem. This whole discussion makes me interested in the correct application of drop bars on a mountain bike. I wonder myself if I would not appreciate them more than the flat bars which I use.

Happy Feet

I haven't met a technical mountain bike trail I could ride better with drop bars than flats.

Older drop bar mtb's have a place as great low cost gravel grinders and can do flowy trails ok but there is a point where flats and proper body position/geometry handle technical downhill better. If it didn't, people would be riding drops while mtbing. There is a difference between a cyclocross rider taking his bike down a mtb trail in one piece and intentionally building a bike to suit those conditions.

It's akin to arguing rigid frames are better than full suspension for mountain biking just because you happen to own a rigid.

prj71

Yes. Fatter tires ARE NOT a substitute for suspension.

rosefarts

Isn't that what people do? Argue about why their choices are the best? Look at the best vehicle/career/hometown threads. Basically people arguing why they've done it best.

The simplicity of a rigid bike that isn't going to go obsolete after new developments (it's already obsolete) is the attraction. It's slow and usually heavy. In the mind of people riding these bikes, that's all fine. I also need a built in excuse for my utter lack of speed. I'm pretty sure I'd still be slow on a $6000 rig, but how could I justify that? With the exception of a few amazing expensive beasts, these are also something to ride through a buffalo stampede with.

Fast? No. Better ride? Not in any objective way.

Yet, there is still a market for them.

c_m_shooter

It is like comparing modern compound bows to longbows and barebow recurves. All have a purpose. One requires much less skill to show satisfactory results. Some people enjoy the process, and some want to skip ahead to the results. To each their own.

davei1980

So my archery knowledge ends at: I can spell "archery" but I am assuming compound bow:full suspension::recurve/longbows:rigid?

If so, I am loving the process of teaching myself super duper technical riding on my rigid bike! I am glad for "modern" advances in geometry, handlebars, dropper posts and super wide 3" tires. Not sure how that fits in with your analogy.

c_m_shooter

I rode all the trails around here years before suspension bikes took over. In the last 5 or 10 years, the trails have mostly only gotten smoother with the increased traffic. Why would I need a suspension bike? I go the demos every year and take a few bikes out that would cost more than any of my motorcycles. Trails that are interesting on my old bikes, I never have to get out of the saddle on the new ones. Turning a trail ride into a road ride makes it less fun for me. I like my dropper seatpost and wide tires also. I am not totally against technology, just selective. If I were decending actual mountains for miles at a time with big jumps and sketchy landings the big bikes make sense. I only ride those trails when I travel, and ride more carefully then, because I don't know exactly where I am, and nobody else does either.