ride hight????

[cappa]

Hey I just wanted to know what hight your handle bars should be for DH. Should I move my fork clamps down as far as I can to make the front end sit lower and use low rise handle bars or should the ride hight be fairly high?

If anyone can tell me what hight the front end of the bike should be at and what difference does it make to the way the bike rides that would be great.

 

[contagion]

I'm no expert on the effects of different positioning of crowns etc in relation to handling but ride height, particularly handlebar rise etc, is very much a personal preference. I use answer protapers at 2" rise and they feel great however I know the funn and easton lowrise bars are a popular choice on the DH course too.

I do know that having your top crown (if you're running triples) and stem as close to the headset as possible will give better handling, however some people prefer to have a few spacers in between.

My advice would be try a few things, possibly mates bikes etc to see what you like.

 

[willy_c]

Running your bike super dooper low as far as front end ride height goes seems to be the trend at the moment.Everyone I see at the races has their forks pushed to the extremes through the crowns and has super low rise and extremely ridiculously wide DH bars, I personally am guilty of this too.

Depending on the riding your doing should also influence your decision.I read the other day a piece on Rennie from littermag.com and it was showing him spacing his bike higher at the front to help cope better with the steep conditions at the Champerey world cup race...

Personal preference really...What feels comfortable for others might not suit you. Just dont go doing something silly and break something because it may costs you in new parts.

 

[Link]

The reason people run the front end low is so that you can get more weight over the front wheel of the bike and get more traction. This is a good thing and should be the aim of setting up the front end of your bike. But you have to realise the limits to how this end can be achieved. For example, sliding your forks down in thier crowns will lower the front end but it will steepen the headangle, also the furthur your weight is over the front of the bike, though you get great front wheel traction, you are more likely to flip over if you hit something.

Your bike bits and your height/riding position should determine what front end combo is going to be best....there will always be an optimum trade-off point of all the pros and cons, typical rule of thumb is, especially when limitied by a tall DH fork, the lower the better.

 

[avablast]

You also wouldn't lower the forks through the crowns to the extent of the fork not reaching full travel. That would cause the front wheel to bottom out before the forks, and would offer no performance advantage whatsover.

 

[cappa]

ok thanks everyone for you advice i will try and lower the hight and see what that feels like.