Some 6inch AM bike Questions

1. I primarily ride aggressive all mountain on mine. Territory that probably leans more towards light freeride. Have done mini-DH and XC on it as well.
2. Had a 50 on there but switched a 70mm for this season. Did not impact the downs at all but made climbing up more tolerable.
3. Low rise riser bar. Wide enough to get enough leverage but low enough to keep the front end planted.
4. I don't agree with 30.6 as it depends on more than just the scale weight. Location of the weight and the geometry of the bike are going to play more of a role than just the pure weight of it. Mine is somewhere around 34 lbs (best guess) and is it pleasant to ride up? Not entirely. Is it a blast to ride down? Yep. It is built strong enough to withstand the downhill without any real compromises. That inevitably means a little more suffering on the ups, you don't get something for nothing.
5. Maxxis Minion 2.35 in front and Maxxis High Roller 2.35 in the back. Could stand to be a little bigger, but provide sufficient grip and volume. Going below 2.25" or so (for me) would begin to compromise the ability of the bike to handle more aggressive terrain.
6. Me. Having the mindset that I can climb or descend everything without having to fiddle with seat height or fork travel goes a long way towards gaining the confidence to actually do it.

Nice. I stumbled on this thread and am stoked. Bumbed it doesn't have a little more input though. I may have to look into trying the 70mm stem too. I'm also rocking a 50. I feel that my bike climbs well as is though. I think my bike is right in the 30.6lb weight range and I think its a fine weight. (I don't have a ton of experience on other builds though.) I've got an adjustable Talas and I love it. I want to put a dropper seat post on my rig so it has more of a DH feel descending. I get a little nervous when I feel my seat graze my ass rolling over something. But I agree with Poland about having the confidence to just do it.

Does 5.5" count?

1. I ride XC trails some, but mostly focus on a set of trails with [edited here] about a hundred feet of vertical drop [end edit], several jumps and/or drops along the way, and I pedal back to the top. Here's the trail I have been spending most of my time on lately - this isn't me, just a video I stumbled on...


2. I put on a longer and taller stem (100mm, 60 degrees) because I felt like my hands were in the wrong place with the stock stem on my bike (2009 Marin 6.7). It made no difference in how the bike rides or handles, but it made me a lot more comfortable. I still have to consciously lean forward to keep the front wheel down on slow steep climbs, and I have no trouble getting my weight back far enough to manual off of 3- to 4-foot drops at low speeds.

3. Stock 40mm bars, but see above about raising them.

4. I don't even know what my bike weighs. I guess less would be nice... I can't imagine ever getting a full-suspension bike too light. I carry a liter of water on my back, sometimes two, sometimes I drink it all before I'm done, and that weigh doesn't matter. So I'm not real picky about weight.

5. I just got back into biking last spring after several years off and haven't experimented with tires yet. So I can't comment much on tires except to say that I've been satisfied with the 2.35" Kenda Nevegals that came with the bike (and I run them at 30psi).

6. Adjustable seatpost for sure. I drop the seat for every descent, and when I get to the bottom I raise it back for the climb to the top. (Kind Shock i900, 125mm travel) I have an adjustable travel fork, but other than experimenting with it once or twice right when I got it, I never use the travel adjustment. It's too much trouble to run it up and down, and running low travel just doesn't make enough difference to justify the hassle.

I was riding a 2006 Kona Coilair for a few seasons. It was overbuilt. I had a marz 66 fork on the front and Codes for brakes, as well as Azonic outlaw wheels. It was really heavy. 42 pounds with single ply tires.
I was running my front end a little lower, with wide (29.5") handlebars with minimal rise. They were the Sunline V1's. They're now on my 29er. I was also running a 50mm stem to keep the steering a little slow and more direct.
I rode clipped in unless i was dirt jumping. The Kona was overbuilt because i'm a little heavier than average and I don't really ride lightly when going downhill. I didn't want to second guess any of my equipment. I usually ran a gravity dropper unless i was planning on doing lift access riding all day. I liked riding that bike for everything, it just wasn't great at anything. I ended up selling it because I'll be having a kid next year and I figured I wouldn't have time to ride it much at all. It's all good though. I still have two bikes.

Been riding a Giant Reign X1 for the past year for aggressive XC, AM and shuttle riding.

Stem and bar lenght is a personal thing IMO, I use a 50mm stem and a 31" wide low rise bar.

Weight is relative, my bike is around 38# so anything under 40 should be good.

Run DH tires, 2.5 up front and 2.1 on the rear.

My setup is the stock 08 RX1 with the firm spring on the fork, 600# spring on the shock, Outlaw wheels and 8" rotors.

DiRt DeViL said:

Been riding a Giant Reign X1 for the past year for aggressive XC, AM and shuttle riding.

Stem and bar lenght is a personal thing IMO, I use a 50mm stem and a 31" wide low rise bar.

Weight is relative, my bike is around 38# so anything under 40 should be good.

Run DH tires, 2.5 up front and 2.1 on the rear.

My setup is the stock 08 RX1 with the firm spring on the fork, 600# spring on the shock, Outlaw wheels and 8" rotors.

Click to expand...

That's a 7" bike.

I ride a Reign (6") - it's right about 30# and I use it for... I dunno. Everything I guess... I'm pretty sure I could cut out a couple pounds and still ride it like a bat out of Hell. It climbs really well, too.

Wish it had a travel adjust fork.

My 6" AM bike is 30.5lbs. Do everything from buffed single track, Lynn Woods & DH runs on it. 70mm stem, low rise 28.5" carbon bars, 2.35 tubeless highrollers, 1x9 w/guide. Fox 36 Float & Monarch RT3. Climbs like a goat rips downhill. Nirvana.

Okay, here are my thoughts on my 575 (for what they're worth--it's not a 6" travel bike but it's close)

1. I primarily ride aggressive all mountain on mine but I can use it for some light DH and XC as well.
2. Have a 50 on there but I am a little short for the bike so it really responds fine for me and doesn't seem to impact the downs or climbing but due to my size, I haven't tried anything else.

3. Riser bar. Wide enough to get enough leverage but low enough to keep the front end planted. I had a really wide bar on there and hated my hand position so I switched to a narrower bar (I think they're an 1" narrower) and it feels much more responsive to me now and I prefer them.

4. I'm with Polandspring on this one...weight is much more than just the scale weight. Location of the weight and the geometry of the bike are going to play more of a role than just the pure weight of it. My bike is under 27lbs. and is pleasant to ride up and down but not nearly as nimble as my lighter XC hardtail. Even though it's light, it's built strong enough to withstand the downhill without any real compromises and climbs pretty damn well too.

5. Tires - I'm rocking the Kenda Nevegal 2.35" USTs. They are pretty slow rolling, but have great grip.

6. Good for you for going for a Talas! I love having my Talas because it's a great fork and has lots of adjustability for whatever I am riding. It's nice to be able to turn the travel down when I don't need nearly as much and be able to switch to longer travel on the trail when I do need it.

Hey all,
I'm riding a Lapierre Zesty 714 with 5.5" of travel with a bit of a different face then the bikes in replies so far.

1.I primarily ride XC marathons (+65km), but also do short XC trips and AM weekends on it. For anything more aggressive then AM I have a different bike that has more travel and is equipped with burlier components (Lapierre Froggy)

2. stem length is 90mm, but I'm quite stretched out on the bike (which is fine for anything but alpine descends, which we don't have in Belgium anyway)

3. riser bar for comfort, control and leverage. 685mm wide and 2" rise. Once I got "big" bars for my other bike I couldn't go back to the smallish XC type bars.

4. Weight is not everything, but it's important. My bike comes in at 25.4 pounds with XC tires and 26.5 with AM tires. Budget wise this is as light as I'm prepared to go, components just get stupid expensive should I want to improve the weight even further.
Last upgrade I did was a pair of Crank brothers Cobalt wheels, which saved me about 400 grams total, which was really noticeable in acceleration and cornering, it broke the bank though ;-).

5. I'm a bit picky about tires since they make such a huge difference in a bikes handling. Seriously important if you ask me. For XC i'm using Continental Race Kings 2.2 (supersonic on the front; Protection on the rear), For AM and during winter I'm riding Continentals Mountain King 2.4 tubeless front and 2.2 Protection rear.
Good grip, good rolling resistance and light.

6. Wheels, see above. Will buy the Rock shox adjustable seat post once it gets available here, will be a definite plus on the descents.

I can't be bothered with TALAS or other similar systems. Tried it and on my bike I don't need it. Just move back and forth on the saddle to shift weight and I'm fine climbing steep hills. On top of that I don't want to fiddle with buttons while riding (Propedal knob is already frustrating me from time to time) and the system adds weight and cost to the fork, which I don't want.

Hope this "different" take on a 5.5" bike helps you out a bit too!