BB height - Is it too high?

Cyclomaniac

Likes Dirt
I will try and keep it short. I have an old 2005 Giant Reign that I have built up and been riding for about a year. It had a 130mm fork up front, 171 travel at the rear and as one reviewer put it a "spooky high bottom bracket". I then put a 180mm Domain on it to even things up and now the BB height is now a very spooky 380mm with about a 30mm rise. I love the bike, never have to think about pedal strikes but I do seem to be heading over the bars quite a bit on steep techy stuff. I know that flying through the windscreen is all part of the fun but how much is my geometry working against me? Or is it more of a lack of skill? Yes I will be upgrading soon to a better frame at least. Not much cash at the moment after 6 years off work to look after the kids and renovate the house. New job starts next week.
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hifiandmtb

Sphincter beanie
I spy with my little eye the lack of a dropper - that would help a lot! Or do you manually drop the seat on the descents anyway?

I like the look of the bike BTW - nice work on making it stealthy.
 

DMan

shawly the least hangeriest guy on rotorburn
I spy with my little eye the lack of a dropper - that would help a lot! Or do you manually drop the seat on the descents anyway?

I like the look of the bike BTW - nice work on making it stealthy.
Just a bit quicker than me. My opinion too. Looks good but needs a dropper.
 

DMan

shawly the least hangeriest guy on rotorburn
And you still nose over a lot? Do you have your sag set on your fork properly?
 

Oddjob

Merry fucking Xmas to you assholes
A few options.
1. Dropper post
2. Offset shock hardware
3. Angleset headset.

This should allow you to mess around with bb heigth, ha and sta.


Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk
 

stirk

Burner
It's not the BB height sending you OTB.
The lack of 'getting your weight back far enough' skills is the issue.

Trust me I know, just got home from some chest x-rays to see if I've cracked a rib after my last OTB stuff up.
 

udi

swiss cheese
+1 for offset shock hardware. Probably the cheapest improvement.
Those pedals look really thick too, so you'll get a few more mm of effective mass height reduction just by switching to some thin flats.

For more aggressive change, I'd consider fitting a shorter shock (need to confirm size vs. clearance) - those frames have plenty of travel, so sacrificing a little in favour of better geometry is the best way to get it much closer to a modern bike.
 

Cyclomaniac

Likes Dirt
Thanks for your tips everyone. I think that stirk is probably right (hope you are felling better soon, cracked ribs are no fun at all).
I will practice getting my weight back more.
The front fork sag is about 25%. I have the rebound dampening set about half way. The head tube angle is about 63.5 deg by my phones level and the bike levelled with a laser level. I found that when going down anything steep and slow the front wheel gets caught up in small dips and the fork wants to rebound the bike under me. Playing with the rebound settings helped but made the bike a bit less playful. Can't have everything I guess.
I might also try a shorter shock. It screws with other geometry but would be interesting.
I think I spent too much time working on farms with ag bikes. They are very much sit in not sit on bikes and you can have both feet on the ground at once. The Reign has a much more up high leaning down on the bars feel to it. Anyway, thanks again!
 

pink poodle

気が狂っている男
Quite a few of my friends rode those back in the day. Forks were mostly 160-180mm and everyone had a sweet tine shredding the gnar. One guy even got his custom sprayed all sweet and raced it 4x with 100/120mm forks.

One of the gang that was really into tweaking his rides found 170mm on a fox float 36 to be his favourite travel length. He picked up the frame used and gave it severe punishment and it was fine. I recommend riding more and worrying less. If it is all you have and you rode it enough you'll get used to how it operates. Don't hold back!
 

rowdyflat

chez le médecin
I agree with stirk that its not the bike - you need to learn to push your weight back with or without the dropper and keep the momentum going but slowly in rocky or very steep stuff.ie use the brakes very gently.
It is difficult then to go over the bars .
 

Ultra Lord

Hurts. Requires Money. And is nerdy.
25% sag is is too much imo, causes dive issues when not enough LSC is present. Pump up to 20%.

Also, sometimes with rough sections it’s smoother when you go faster. You can skim over stuff rather than get bogged down into the holes.
 

Cyclomaniac

Likes Dirt
Ultra Lord, 25% is a bit of a guess as I blew a tube today and can't sit on it. I think is was around that but it is a coil fork so I just left it as is. I will try going faster. That makes sense as a couple of times I have been taking it easy over familiar lines and had a surprise. I will go out tomorrow after fixing the tyre and work on technique.
mooboyj, I saw a youtube video a while back telling me to drop my heels so out I went out with heels dropped, came home bleeding everywhere. It helps but only if you have grippy shoes. :)
 

Flow-Rider

Burner
Get your weight back towards the rear of the bike and keep low at the same time. When you hit really steep terrain, learn to pick good lines through the descent also, I try to go around the bigger rocks and avoid tree roots on an angle. It doesn't take much to unsettle a bike on steep descents, even running the front end too stiff.
 

stirk

Burner
. It helps but only if you have grippy shoes. :)
Grippy shoes are great but what does that really mean.

I love the five ten shoe grip but it can be too much grip sometimes not allowing fast footloose action on the pedals.

And some folk (roadies) ride MTB clipped in, not sure why, apparently good for all important roadie cadence and hiding poor skills and saving crashes...... And if clipped in with ultimate clipped 'grip', the bike will follow you as your body goes OTB!

Where's that behind sofa emoji?
 

Cyclomaniac

Likes Dirt
Clips would be suicide for me. My new five tens are grippy enough for me. No as good as the old running shoes for the 4k walk of shame I did today.
 

Ultra Lord

Hurts. Requires Money. And is nerdy.
I ride clips, and no trouble riding tech/steep stuff. Clips help me float better. When I run flats (often enough too. I get bored easy, and it depends on the trails) i find I pump through things more, but with clips on I skim over.

Never been a roadie, but raced bmx/4cross and spent most of my time riding dj’s and skate parks.

Honestly, I think riding more is the answer mate, and try and find somebody faster to follow, that’s the best way to get better. Everyone loves a new bike, but they don’t make you better. In saying that, theres some good deals on banshee frames kicking around mountainbikesdirect.............. you could almost do a straight parts swap with 26” dropouts.
 

rowdyflat

chez le médecin
If you still dont get the weight back over the wheel thing ,watch someone experienced or have a lesson.
try a steep smooth firetrail > 30 %.
Its not your frame .
 
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