Front Wheel Sliding - Lysterfield

[Boom King]

Youies is way more slippery. As others have said, 30 psi is way too high for a tyre with that kind of volume. I'd say drop it to 20 for Youies. I'm a lot heavier than you, running a 27.5 x 2.5 DHFII @22 psi on the front of my Norco Sight, and I still struggle for grip (had a close call today, in fact!). You're gonna wash out in the first turn with 30.

It's a fine balance between grip and rim protection over the rocks. I normally run 25 front 27 rear at Youies.

 

[Spike-X]

It's a fine balance between grip and rim protection over the rocks. I normally run 25 front 27 rear at Youies.

I'm not hitting any rocks fast enough out there to need more!

 

[hifiandmtb]

^^^ Awesome vid!

 

[ForkinGreat]

I worked on this today, and I found it helped a lot.

Cool. Spesh Butcher is basically the same tread pattern as the Maxxis Minion DHF, a great all-round front tyre. at 75kg, 25psi max, you could probably run them at 20psi no worries. How stiff is the GRID casing?
as another poster suggested, Schwalbe Magic Mary is a great front tyre. If you get the Super Gravity version with the tough sidewalls, you will be able to run it at lower pressures, and it wont get too squirmy in the corners.

 

[Ultra Lord]

It's interesting that it's basically the opposite technique to what's required on a road motorbike.

but pretty similiar to an mx bike. Elbows wide, lean bike more than you, weight outside pedal. Setting up early and trying to open up the corner can help with loose over hard, taking out sharp hard direction changes out will let you carry more speed.

Smooth is fast etc...

 

[SDA]

As said above drop the tyre pressure a bit.

Also try raising your bars slightly. Longer bikes need higher front ends to enable you to properly weight the front end.

 

[puffmoike]

Also try raising your bars slightly. Longer bikes need higher front ends to enable you to properly weight the front end.

My personal experience is the exact opposite of this.

When I got my Trek Fuel EX I also found I was washing out the front end more than I had on my previous bike.

LBS suggested lowering my handlebars to help get more weight over the front wheel, and that certainly helped me.

But before you do anything else (handlebars, different tyres, etc) just drop your tyre pressure. That will give you lots more grip. I did lots of experimenting when I got my bike and settled on 22/25psi (front/rear) on 2.4 tyres (which need higher pressure than 2.6s, all other things being equal). Below about 18/20 it started feeling pretty squirmy. In two years and 5000km (including lots of rock gardens at You Yangs, etc) I’ve only had one puncture at each end (at same time) that sealant didn’t fix. Rear wheel has taken a hit at some point, but still fine to ride, and I reckon that was probably when I got slack at checking pressure and was likely only running ~15–18psi.

 

[SDA]

My personal experience is the exact opposite of this.

When I got my Trek Fuel EX I also found I was washing out the front end more than I had on my previous bike.

LBS suggested lowering my handlebars to help get more weight over the front wheel, and that certainly helped me.

Depends on how much longer reach you go. Also depends on your starting point.

For me, going from a Fuel EX (with a reasonably conservative reach) to a Rallon (with longer, lower and slacker geo) I've raised my bars about 10mm. Note the bars are approx 20mm further forward which justifies the rise.

Moving your bars further away from your body, outside the ranges of comfort can exacerbate the issue (front wheel washing out). Bringing them up to within a range of comfort, allows you to attack the trail with correct body position and appropriately weight the front wheel. Does that make sense?

If you started from a really high position, then yeah you probably needed to lower them. All depends on your starting point.

 

[rowdyflat]

Way too much front pressure try 20 psi , get off the seat and let the bike move under you .

 

[slowmick]

Lower pressure, and weight on the front wheel. But don't feel bad - Lysterfield is very slippery at the moment.

 

[tkdbboy]

fast in, lock the rear, inside foot out ... good times

but yeah, a few corners at Lysty are slippy, especially where sand? has built up on the exit.

 

[Kerplunk]

Just to add the bleeding obvious.. a front tyre that can bite through the dust into the hard pack.. Fast rolling XC tyres are shite for loose over hard.

 

[Cardy George]

fast in, lock the rear, inside foot out ...

Don't let Poodle hear you say that