You’ve got yourself a sweet new bike and have been loving it, but it won’t run trouble-free forever. Below, we go over a handful of preventative tips, how to diagnose basic issues, and some advice for when it’s time to grab the wrenches.

Clean and Lube Your Drivetrain

Your bike’s drivetrain consists of countless tiny parts designed to do very different things. But they all need to work in unison, from the narrow-wide teeth on the chainring to the steel cable the shifter tugs and releases, and especially the machined cogs and moving parallelogram that is the derailleur. While all that sounds complicated, there’s one really simple thing you can do so it works smoothly: .

Any grit and grim stuck onto your drivetrain, and especially your chain, acts like sandpaper to slowly wear things out. This can happen surprisingly quickly depending on where and how you’re riding, but a rag sprayed with an alcohol-based cleaner (I prefer Brake Clean), an old toothbrush, and a few minutes of your time are all you need. Do this after every second or third ride, along with a re-lube of your chain afterward, and your drivetrain will thank you.

If you want to be less messy about it, consider a chain-cleaning device that uses a citrus-based liquid and a system of brushes to do the work for you. Your local shop sells these for under $50 USD, or you can find them online for even less money.

There’s a right way and a wrong way to lube your chain, and you definitely don’t want to use too much. Ideally, a drop of lube into each roller from the top and bottom is perfect.

Use the Right Tire Pressure

Your bike likely uses tubeless tires, a much more reliable system than inner tubes. But because air can still leak out from many places, including right through the sidewall, it’s always best practice to check tire pressure before every single ride.

Tire pressure has a massive impact on how your bike performs. Too low and your tires will bend and fold over when you corner, making the handling feel vague and unpredictable. Because the tire acts like a cushion of air protecting your rim, you’re also more likely to smash the rim into rocks if your tire pressure is too low. You might get away with it, or you might cut your tire, or you might even completely destroy your rim.

Too much tire pressure and the rubber can’t conform to the ground as well as it should, resulting in less traction and less control. Thing is, the difference between too little and too much can be as small as a couple of PSI, which is why a pressure gauge is a must-have tool.  For a deeper dive into the basics of tire pressure, is a great place to start.

Set Up Your Suspension

Mountain bike suspension can be overwhelming these days, but it doesn’t matter how many dials your fork or shock has if the spring rate isn’t set correctly. Think of the spring rate as what holds you up; heavier riders require a firmer spring rate (be it more air pressure or a stiffer coil) than a lighter-weight rider. Your bike won’t perform anything like it was intended if it the suspension is too soft or too stiff, so this is step number one regardless of if your bike costs $1,000 or $10,000 USD.

Thankfully, most forks have an air chart sticker on the backside of a fork leg that will give you a good place to start. For the shock, check the bike manufacturer’s website for recommended settings. Most suspension is air-sprung these days and requires a high-pressure shock pump to adjust.

Listen to Your Bike

Sometimes things break unexpectedly, but other times your bike might give you a heads up that something isn’t right. If you know what to listen for, you can identify and fix the issue before it gets worse.

Everyone’s bike gets creaky at some point, and it usually comes from the same two or three spots. If the creaking goes away when you stand up to pedal, it’s most likely related to your seat post or seat; if it’s still there, it’s probably coming from the bottom bracket area and will need a closer look. Bottom brackets get creaky, but so do chainring interfaces, pedal threads, and crankarms, so it’s a process of elimination. Your level of mechanical know-how will determine how far you’re comfortable going to chase the creak, but a basic bolt check is a good place to start, followed by removing one part at a time near what seems to be the source of the sound to make sure it’s clean and properly greased.

Creaking from the front of your bike often comes from the handlebar, stem, and steerer-tube interfaces. Stand over the front of your bike with the wheel held firmly between your legs and apply twisting and turning torque to the handlebar to see if it makes noise. If it does, make sure that the bolts are tightened to the correct torque spec – a light coating on the bolt threads can also help ensure everything gets snugged down smoothly.

Slow shifting, either to a harder or easier gear, is your bike’s way of saying that it needs an adjustment. This could be as simple as a ten-second cable tension tweak, or as intricate as patiently straightening an expensive and hard-to-come-by derailleur hanger.

Use the Internet to Fix It 

If you’re a DIYer, you already know there’s a video online showing you how to repair a 1973 Electrolux vacuum, build your own bird cage, or lay out a wiring loom for a plane.

When you do need to learn how to fix something, start by checking the manufacturer’s website to see what they show. Many brands have YouTube pages loaded with how-to videos that are worth watching before venturing deeper into the internet for other advice.

Don’t Be Scared of Your Local Shop

Local bike shops can be intimidating, but they’re often a wealth of knowledge and have access to more information and company reps that might be able to help with whatever issue you’re having. And no, it doesn’t matter if you didn’t buy your bike from them. Are they going to give you endless free advice? Probably not, but they’ll happily sell you whatever tools you need and maybe give you some pointers—or you can just pay a pro to fix it.

Every spring there is an influx of riders keen to get into mountain biking, and at Pinkbike and ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø, we know that these newcomers are often overwhelmed with information and opinions. So, we’re launching a seven-part series called MTB Explained, where we help new riders navigate some of the basics of our sport. If you’re new, welcome to the best damn sport in the world, and if you’re a long-time rider let’s welcome these folks to the club.

The post How to Keep Your Mountain Bike Running Smoothly appeared first on ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø Online.

Mountain biking can be an expensive sport, no doubt about it, but more money doesn’t necessarily equal more fun. Below, we go over a handful of ways to save cash, including which parts to upgrade, how to learn repair basics, and why you don’t need fancy clothing.

Suspension

You can spend more money on a fork and shock than some riders spend buying their entire bike, and that’ll often get you a few more adjustments, a bit less weight, and sometimes a shiny coating on the upper tubes. But you can look a few price levels below the top-tier forks and find close to the same performance, just with fewer bells and whistles.

A good example is RockShox’s Charger damper, the latest and greatest version of which is only being used inside their expensive Ultimate and Select+ level forks. But step down to the less expensive Select series and you’ll get a simpler Charger damper that won’t ever hold you back, despite having one fewer external adjustment that you probably don’t need anyway.

Likewise, Fox’s high-end dampers are impressive, but so are the Rythym dampers in their less expensive forks. Marzocchi’s Z1 and Z2 should also be on your shortlist, with great performance given their price.

Bottom line: You can find high-end performance without spending high-end money by looking at forks with fewer adjustments.

Cockpit and Dropper

If you’re on a budget, your bike’s cockpit is a great place to save some money without impacting performance. A quality aluminum handlebar will be a bit heavier than a carbon bar that costs much more, but you’ll never notice the difference on the trail. What really matters is getting the sweep, rise, and width that you feel comfy using. Expect to spend between $50 and $80 USD. The same applies to grips; there are inexpensive lock-on models, like Bontrager’s $19 XR Comp grips, that cost half as much as others.

As for stems, there probably isn’t a more negligible component on your bike, as long as it’s the right length for you. Avoid Alibaba and stick to a recognizable name, but there’s no reason to spend more than $50 USD.

Dropper posts used to be about as reliable as a rusty Yugo, but they’ve gotten much better in recent years. Considering that many of us view dropper posts to be nearly as essential as working brakes, that’s a good thing. There’s no reason to spend more than $250 USD, and most now use easily replaceable cartridges should any trouble arise. OneUp’s aptly named Dropper Post is a popular and proven option in this price bracket, as is PNW Components’ Loam Dropper.

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Good tires aren’t cheap, so expect to spend at least $50 USD on each, bare minimum, and maybe even up to $100 if you find a model you really like. What really matters is finding the right tire for your terrain and the bike you ride, which can be pretty confusing given the near-endless acronyms, compounds, patterns, and casings to choose from. If you’re not sure what to buy, look at what other locals that ride similarly to you are using and go from there, or ask your shop for their recommendation. The wrong tire can mean endless flats if it’s not sturdy enough for your trails, or just that you’re pedaling around far more weight than you need to. The right tire balances weight, reliability, and rolling resistance with traction.

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Ultra-light wheels can literally make you faster, but buying speed ain’t cheap—high-end carbon wheelsets can cost $3,000 USD or more. If you’re on a budget, you should be looking at aluminum wheels that suit your needs.

As with any other component, you should match your wheels to your needs. These days, a 30-millimeter wide rim makes the most sense for many riders as it suits modern high-volume tires, and almost every brand’s hubs use reliable sealed bearings. Pre-built aluminum wheelsets start around $500 USD, but a bit more money will get you name-brand hubs, sometimes with much lighter aluminum freehubs, and stronger rims. Good wheels make a difference, so if you can swing it, consider spending $700 or more.

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Unlike in years’ past, there are relatively inexpensive drivetrains out there that offer 95 percent of the performance and reliability of much pricier set-ups. Shimano rules the roost here, with their Deore system shifting incredibly well and costing just $300 USD, which is less expensive than just a high-end cassette on its own. One sneaky trick is to splurge on a $63 XT shifter as it lets you shift down two cogs rather than the single shift of the Deore or SLX shifters.

If your bike runs SRAM components, going with a GX drivetrain will give you better ergonomics and a wider range cassette than NX or SX, although it does require the use of SRAM’s XD freehub body.

Brakes

Just like your suspension and tires, your brakes need to match your bike and riding style. Buy something under-powered and you’re in for trouble, but you also might not need all the bite or adjustments.

The first thing to know is that more pistons equal more power, which is why even some cross-country brakes use four pistons these days. That means that unless you’re specifically looking for something super light, you should be considering a four-piston setup and then deciding if you want bite point and tool-free reach adjustments to boot. If not, expect to spend around $150 USD per end, but budget a bit more money for aftermarket metallic pads or even larger rotors for additional power.

Our number one tip? Perform a quality bleed on your existing brakes, as well as check the pads and rotors for contamination (or have a mechanic do it for you). If they’ve been lacking power, that could be the reason.

Aluminum Frames

The easiest way to save a load of money? A new aluminum frame can be around $1,000 USD less expensive than an equivalent carbon fiber frame, and there’s a good chance that you’ll never notice the difference on the trail.

Geometry is what matters most, and many brands sell an aluminum frame that sports the same geometry as their carbon offerings, making it a no-brainer if you’re on a budget. There’s a good chance the aluminum version is more reliable as well, although you can also expect the frame alone to weigh at least a pound more.

You can save even more money if you skip the rear-suspension and choose a hardtail instead. They take more skill to ride on challenging terrain or at high speeds, but that in itself can make them more rewarding than doing the same on a pricier full-suspension bike.

Clothing and Protective Gear

Mountain biking doesn’t require any special clothing, aside from a quality helmet, but keeping an eye out for the right fabrics and some practical details can mean that you’re much more comfortable during a ride.

Up top, a cotton t-shirt will work but a poly/cotton blend will do a much better job of not feeling like a sweat-soaked rag after an hour’s hard pedaling. You can often find inexpensive tech-t-shirts at outdoor stores for around $15 USD. Lightweight jackets from the same retailers often go for under $50 USD.

Shorts and pants are worth going bike-specific, though. They’ll have functional pockets that keep your phone from swinging back and forth, be much more resistant to wear, and also be less likely to catch on the nose of your seat. Expect to shell out at least $75 for each.

When it comes to a chamois, something is usually better than nothing, no matter what your friends tell you about riding raw. A decent chamois means more comfort for longer, especially if you’re a new rider or your seat isn’t ideal. Expect to pay at least $35 USD. If you do decide to forgo the chamois, choosing synthetic underwear with seams that won’t rub or chafe is the key to comfort.

Helmets get lighter if you spend more money, but forget about that and look for some sort of slip-plane impact system like MIPS (many brands use their own design) that, according to many studies, greatly improves the helmet’s ability to protect your head. You don’t need to spend more than $100 USD for this feature, but don’t forget that finding a helmet that’s comfortable and suits your needs is more important than saving money.

If your trails are rocky or you crash more often than you should, a decent set of kneepads are well worth the $80+ USD they might cost you. There’s a wide range of options depending on what type of riding you’re planning on doing, from lighter weight, pedaling friendly models that help ward off abrasion and smaller impacts, to (and less breathable) options aimed at descent-focused riders.

Maintenance

While taking apart your suspension fork is most certainly a complicated job that requires special tools, most day-to-day maintenance and repairs are relatively simple and require only basic tools. Mechanic rates can be as much as $80 an hour in some places, which is more than what a starter tool kit can cost, so it makes sense to fix your own bike in many cases.

Aside from buying a tool kit, YouTube can be a great resource for almost any type of DIY work. Need to straighten your wheel? Confused about how to remove your cranks? Shifting not as good as it should be? Someone has already made a video showing you the tools and knowledge you need to sort it out.

Every spring there is an influx of riders keen to get into mountain biking, and at Pinkbike and ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø, we know that these newcomers are often overwhelmed with information and opinions. So, we’re launching a seven-part series called MTB Explained, where we help new riders navigate some of the basics of our sport. If you’re new, welcome to the best damn sport in the world, and if you’re a long-time rider let’s welcome these folks to the club.

The post How to Mountain Bike on a Budget in 2023 appeared first on ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø Online.

From our sister site Pinkbike. Video by Max Barron

But if our half-baked effort resulted in , what would happen if we sat down and took it a bit more seriously? And by that, what I mean is what if we had someone who actually knows what they’re doing design the next version of the Grim Donut? It was obvious that we had to make some changes to make it “a bit more rideable” and “a lot less ugly,” but most of the bike companies we spoke to had their own ideas, all of which involved adding downtube storage to the first Donut, routing the cables through the headset, and then re-launching it as completely new.

Thankfully, Chris Cocalis at Pivot Cycles agreed to build the second Donut at their in-house prototyping facility – using our geometry numbers – and it would even get a DW Link suspension system to control its 170mm-ish of rear-wheel travel.

While the first Donut proved that we were onto something, it was only built by Genio to be a rough prototype for us to try out our carefully calculated geometry. That first mule was a proof of concept, but the new Donut was set to use a proven and well-liked suspension system, be much more polished, and it would even have a bottle mount.

Grim Donut V2 Details

• Intended use: enduro, downhill
• Fork travel: 170mm
• Rear travel: 165mm – 172mm
• Wheel size: 29″
• Head angle: 58-degrees
• Reach: 513 – 525mm
• Chainstay: 460 / 470 / 480mm
• Frame material: Aluminum
• DW Link suspension (but also not)
• Weight: 35lb
• MSRP: TBA
• Availability: TBA
• Made in Phoenix, AZ, by Pivot Cycles
• More info:

What took so long?

If it feels like it’s been five years since the first Donut debuted, that’s because time has been moving slower since 2020. Or at least it feels that way, but smashing through paradigms doesn’t happen overnight, people. While other brands were drilling holes in headsets and throwing their entire development budget at e-bikes, we were working hard to perfect the new Donut’s geometry, not exactly an overnight process…

I’m not joking; it took only fifteen or twenty minutes to settle on some new numbers that made sense. That was the easy part, though, with us spending the next two years trying to decide if we should paint the frame Obsidian Black, Sable Black, or maybe even get really wild and go with Onyx Black.

Okay, so we fell a little behind schedule and the new Donut is about a year late, give or take another twelve months and a couple of “,” but have you seen the latest enduro bikes? The Donut might be overdue, and it might have even , but it’s still a decade ahead of everything else on the market, regardless of where they hide their cables or how high the pivots get.

And to be fair, at the end of the first video we did say that the next episode wouldn’t be out until 2030, so we’re still ahead of schedule in my books.

New Donut, new geometry

If you watched the previous episode, you already know that the first Donut was unstoppable on steep, fast terrain, which is exactly where it went six seconds quicker under Yoann Barelli than the time he put in on his own enduro bike. “The EWS in Chile? This bike wins by a minute,” he said of how the first Donut would perform at the dusty South American event where racers often say they find only anti-grip. When I asked if he’d ride the Donut every day, he replied, “Absolutely not. The way it is right now, the geometry isn’t pleasant. When you pedal, you’re going to hit them on the ground. And it doesn’t corner properly, but it works when you go super fast.”

Sometimes you’ve got to take things a bit too far in order to find out what really works, and that’s precisely what the original Donut did for us.

While it was listed as being a bit steeper on paper, that bike’s head angle was actually closer to 56 degrees once we got it out on the trail, and it very much felt that way. The front end had more flip-flop than a Presidential candidate at any speed lower than about 30 kph, and I had six pedal strikes in the first hundred feet of my initial test ride. It was obviously fast – Yoann proved that much – but it was also a death trap crossed with a shopping cart full of empty Monster cans, and not all that rideable by someone without Barelli’s skillset.

The next Donut needed to be a bit more useable (and less dangerous) everywhere but without taking away from its abilities on the really gnarly stuff.

After nearly twenty minutes of intense discussions that saw our eyes go bloodshot and a dangerous amount of Fuego Takis eaten, we finally settled on making the head angle 2 degrees steeper. That makes the new Donut the first mountain bike in history that’s not as slack as its predecessor, marking a bold new leap forward in geometry technology that we’re calling Turn Helper Concept. Our proprietary and revolutionary 58-degree head angle is paired with the 83-degree seat angle that worked so well on the first bike, and we’ve also lengthed both ends; there’s a 525mm reach, a 600mm effective top tube, and three different chainstay settings that allow for a 460, 470, or 480mm rear end. And yes, of course our new geometry technology is patented.

Depending on the chainstay setting, all that adds up to a similar wheelbase as the first bike, but it gets there via a much longer rear-center, a longer reach, and a steeper front end.

DW Link suspension… But also not

The first Donut will always be special to me, but I’ll be honest: we spent so much time thinking about the geometry that we kinda just phoned it in for the rear suspension. I had originally , that employed an idler pulley and, I believe not coincidentally, looks a lot like what Santa Cruz was investigating in their recent V10 development video. My design was shot down quickly, however, largely because I didn’t have a clue what I was talking about but also because I spilled a bubble tea on my drawing and it got really smudged.

What we ended up with was an off-the-shelf single-pivot and pull-style linkage design that did that job, but didn’t do it that well. As , the leverage was relatively linear, it had just 16.3-percent progression, and so little anti-squat that it might have been pro-squat. For anyone who isn’t a bicycle scientist, another way to say that might be, “This bike pedals like shit and why is it always sitting halfway into its travel?” Running a coil-sprung shock only aggravated its worst attributes, but the upside is what felt like heroic amounts of traction, which is always a good thing. The downside was a low ride height and pedals that sat dangerously close to the ground, which is always a bad thing. Not that you’d want to pedal that much anyway given its absolutely horrendous (yet amusing) .

The first Donut was another reminder that while geometry is most important, suspension is next most important.

Having Pivot and Dave Weagle on board meant that the new Donut would use a bespoke DW Link suspension system, a design long renowned for its pedaling efficiency and also its overall performance on everything from cross-country rockets to full-on downhill race bikes. It uses a relatively high amount of anti-squat to keep the suspension calm while the rider is pedaling, which is the exact opposite of its predecessor. That bike had anti-squat numbers that started well under 90-percent before falling way off, while the new DW-equipped Donut stays above 100 until the last third of its travel where it needs to lower.

That means better pedaling performance, of course, but also a higher dynamic ride height that will lower the chances of a devastating high-speed pedal strike.

If you think this is all sounding dangerously respectable, we thought so as well. That’s why we asked Weagle to design two suspension layouts on a single bike – there’s the DW Link system, but also secondary pivot locations at both the upper and lower links and the lower shock mount. All it takes is ten minutes, a different rocker link, and a few hex keys to take the new Donut from a surprisingly efficient enduro sled to underfilled waterbed on wheels, thereby letting us see how much of a factor the first Donut’s suspension was in its surprising performance. .

What’s next for the Donut?

It took us far too long to get to this point, I know, but the result is a bike that’s still miles ahead of everything else on the market. Unfortunately for us, while we spent two years arguing over which shade of black to paint the frame, other brands were debuting features that have rendered the new Donut obsolete. Sure, the fresh Donut pedals and handles better than any other enduro bike on the market, bar none, and it’s probably minutes quicker over an entire race, but absolutely no one is going to buy it if it doesn’t have headset cable routing. And besides, I heard a rumor that 32″ wheels are the next big thing…

So we’re gonna do the only thing we can, which is to begin work on the next Grim Donut prototype. Expected release date: 2030. Probably. Maybe.

The post We Imagined Our Dream Bike. Then We Actually Built It. appeared first on ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø Online.