MTB Setup Articles

Just because an mtb pro (or a bunch of pros) uses a piece of equipment doesn’t mean you should make the same choice. Why not? Well, there are several reasons and I will give you some excellent examples.

A student of mine emailed me accusing me of being crazy for riding plus-sized tires. His argument was that Jared Graves and Richie Rude (two World Champion Enduro racers) tried plus tires and didn’t like them. My first question to my student was, can you corner as well and as confidently was World Champion racers? To which he replied, “well, I’m much better after your camp and I have been doing the cornering drills but no, I’m not that good.” Well, plus tires give me the confidence to corner much faster and aggressively than narrower tires I told him. Wouldn’t you corner faster if

You understand how to set your suspension sag (if not go to your bike brand’s website, they will tell you for your specific model), you know what the rebound adjustment does (again go to your bike brand’s website or your suspension brand’s website for more on this if you don’t know what it does) but you want to get your bike dialed in exactly for you, your speed, your trails, the way you ride them. I’m here to help!

This article is on how to optimally set your suspension and tire pressure for descending at your best, so you have as much control as possible descending at the speeds you like to ride. It should also set it up well for technical climbing too

When I purchased my first two mountain bikes the guys at the shop told me to tilt my seat slightly toward the rear so I “would slide back to the more comfortable part of the saddle and take weight off my hands”. Turns out, they were right, if you only ride retaliative flat terrain!

Most companies are still missing the final ingredient which is a steeper seat tube angle so we aren’t sitting over the rear wheel! My bike has 74 degree seat tube angle, while forward thinking companies like the Canfield Brothers Toir has 77 degree seat tube angle, putting your more over the bottom bracket than the rear tire. This makes climbing much easier!

That’s right, I have found the way to never flat again on your mountain bike while still running low enough pressure for the best control, traction and shock absorption! I didn’t invent this nor am I going to make a nickel off this but I have to share it!

My last flat on my downhill bike was a week ago