Pimped GT Avalanche

[Drago]

Just finished making a few tweaks to my trusty Av'.

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Went from 90mm stem 720mm bars to 60mm stem 780mm bars, and stuck on a shadow style rear mech to hopefully tame some of the chain slap while bombing it downhill.

It's not exactly an efficient xc machine, but climbs well enough in a tenacious sort of way and monster trucks down the other side in a very pleasing manner indeed.

A few test rides confirm the wider bars and shorter stem have made it even more enabling for this sort of thing, with no real drawbacks elsewhere - other than fitting it through the garage door 🤣

A very nice update, keeping to old girl very relevant and usable. But I must ask, just how wide are your shoulders if 780mm bars are required?

 

[ChrisEyles]

Not measured, but at 5'10" and a regular build I obviously don't need 780mm bars to get a good fit. But they feel damn good on rough downhills!

Felt really weird when I first went from 630mm to 720mm, but after a few weeks decided it just intangibly felt better. Going up to 780mm instantly felt slightly better again.

Could either be because the extra leverage makes it easier to hold the front wheel on the line you want to take, or the wider bars may just be pulling my upper body into a better position for confident handling. Not really sure which!

FWIW I ride 580mm with bar ends on my full sus (100mm stem and much lower front end) and love that too for general all round responsive handling. Prefer narrow drop bars on road bikes too (40cm - 42cm).

But for riding scary stuff that's on the edge of my comfort zone, I'll take the wide bars any time, hands down (and wide apart ).

I am a bit of a nerd about bike set-up so would be interested in your thoughts on this!

 

[ChrisEyles]

Probably also worth mentioning intended use of the bike - everything from Exmoor/Dartmoor epics to DH runs at two of my local spots; and rider skill/confidence - unfortunately pretty average at best, unless the other guys doing the same downhills as me are all on much better bikes LoL. Still I'm improving gradually over the years, and I'd say the switch to wider bars helped with my progression when I did it.

 

[Drago]

I am a bit of a nerd about bike set-up so would be interested in your thoughts on this!

I'm a fraction under 6'4" and quite broad with a 53" chest, and run 720mm. You do get more leverage, but once it's gone beyond the width of your natural grip that leverage starts to come at the cost of increasing loss of fine control.

I teach MTB skills - among other cycling stuff - to the emergency services, SAR teams, etc, and wouldn't recommend bars that wide for a multitude of reasons. That said, if it works for you and you're happy with it, then that's what matters. You'd probably find my taste in clothes equally strange.

Tip - rotate the controls so your brake levers drop at about 45 degrees from the bars. They're far too high as they're presently set, assuming you have the normal range of motion in your limbs. That'll bring your elbows up and give you far greater control - technique over brute force.

 

[ChrisEyles]

Went out for a proper shakedown ride today - managed a nice 30 mile mostly off-road route with 3800 ft climbing along the way.

Started out on the local DH trails in the woods. The trails are still quite wet after yesterday's rain and had just the right amount of slip'n'slide to be a real hoot. Managed a PB down the main line on Strava (still in the bottom 30% of riders though lol) and finally managed to get a decent wall ride on the high sided berm at the bottom too

Having decided to make a bit of a day of it I explored the woods a bit more. Found a fair few DH routes that looked frankly terrifying that I'll leave for the big boys, but also a nice singletrack loop around the woods.

Had an unwelcome visitation from the bloody fairy along the way - but fully kitted out it's not so much bother.

Leaving the woods behind I climbed up onto the heath. Some nice fast open tracks here but too much fun to stop for piccies! Pootled around some green lanes and back roads for a bit before looping back towards home.

A thermos of tea is quite possibly the best thing you can take on a ride

Found a couple of bridleways I'd not ridden before on the OS map and struck out to give these a go. Thought I knew all the good bits of trail around me, but these were pretty good too, just a bit tricky to fit into a ride without a bit more road in between than I'd prefer.

Can't wait until lockdown's over and I can take the bike up to Exmoor to chuck it down some of my favourite bits

 

[ChrisEyles]

I'm a fraction under 6'4" and quite broad with a 53" chest, and run 720mm. You do get more leverage, but once it's gone beyond the width of your natural grip that leverage starts to come at the cost of increasing loss of fine control.

I teach MTB skills - among other cycling stuff - to the emergency services, SAR teams, etc, and wouldn't recommend bars that wide for a multitude of reasons. That said, if it works for you and you're happy with it, then that's what matters. You'd probably find my taste in clothes equally strange.

Tip - rotate the controls so your brake levers drop at about 45 degrees from the bars. They're far too high as they're presently set, assuming you have the normal range of motion in your limbs. That'll bring your elbows up and give you far greater control - technique over brute force.

Cheers @Drago - never thought about arm positioning with the brake levers like that, will give it a go (come to think of it, the levers on my full sus are more like 45 degrees already). Agreed that you sacrifice some rapid fine control with the wider bars - for me that's kind of a good thing in some ways, I gues one person's responsive is another's twitchy.

I'd be interested in a skills course but TBH also worried I'd get pushed well out of my comfort zone, or get my confidence up just enough to get into trouble!

 

[fossyant]

Nice bikes indeed. I had a mates GT full suspension in my garage for a while, the ones with the fancy pivoting bottom brackets from the early 00's. Decked in XTR, but not looked after. I fully serviced it, but told him the brakes were shot (perished bladders in levers plus broken levers). That's why is sat in my garage as he didn't want to pay for any new brakes. Shame I wasn't doing the MTB's then (I am now) or I would have bought it. I was very tempted.

The new Zaskar looks ace.

 

[fossyant]

A lot of it is rider skill, as @I like Skol is a demon on his HT Zaskar - we've said to him god knows what he'd be like on a modern machine. I hide my handling skills behind a 130mm full suspension trail bike - it's quicker than I am down hill.

You've got to think a load more (and skill) with the old stuff, but the new kit is incredible, and also a very fast way to end up in A&E as you run out of skill faster.

My old Diamond Back fully rigid is quick on XC, but is outgunned on the rough stuff (or the rider chickens out).

 

[I like Skol]

A lot of it is rider skill, as @I like Skol is a demon on his HT Zaskar - we've said to him god knows what he'd be like on a modern machine.

I'm only mediocre at best, if I went mountain biking more than 4 or 5 times a year I could probably get better to ok, but to be honest I look at some of the really extreme downhill stuff and wonder how the tracks are not littered with the broken corpses of over ambitious riders?