I posted this on the Rivendell list in response to a thread started by a long-time Rivendell owner who recently bought a Surly Krampus for off-road rides, but isn't satisfied with it, especially the way it climbs.
I don't want to add just another voice in the peanut gallery, but I have
had similar experiences recently. I bought my first "real" mountain
bike earlier this year, a pretty standard aluminum hardtail 29er from
Raleigh. By "pretty standard," it's geometry is the kind of mass-market
stuff that Rivendell geometry departs from: steepish seat tube angle,
short chainstays, long top tube, relatively low bars. To keep the reach
in check, I even sized down a size from the recommended, very non-Riv
indeed. Previous to this, a lot of my off-road exploring had been done
on a Long Haul Trucker with Albatross bars, so probably somewhat similar
to your experience on your Atlantis.
At first, I was
pleasantly surprised by the climbing ability of the Raleigh, but in
retrospect I think it was the fact that it had the lowest gears of any
bike I've ridden recently, as well as the traction afforded by 29x2"
knobbies versus the 700x42 file treads on the LHT. On longer rides with
a lot of climbing, however, I definitely get worn out on that bike. I
think a lot of this is down to the riding position: the wide, low flat
bars force me into one position, with very little options for changing
my hand position or back angle. I plan to cut down the bars and add
Ergon grips with built-in barends to address some of this. However,
especially off-road, not only does the component spec of the bike force
me into this low position, but its geometry demands it in order to
maintain traction and handling. Specifically, the short chainstays and
long front center/top tube force a certain approach to climbing. I need
to lean low over the handlebars and sometimes slide forward on the seat
in order to keep traction on that front wheel and be able to properly
direct the bike. The times that I've had to put a foot down going
uphill on this bike, it hasn't been because I've run out of gas, but
because the front wheel has started to wander off my line and I haven't
been able to reign it back in.
If you read mainstream mountain
biking mags and bike reviews, right now there is kind of a
self-reinforcing obsession with this type of geometry on the part of
designers and reviewers. People are obsessed with short chainstays,
long front centers, short stems; they describe such geometry as
"aggressive," "playful," and "fun" (that "aggressive" and "playful" are
synonyms for each other is indicative of the general techno-cultural
problem with mountain biking these days). And I think this is further
reinforced by the type of riding featured in MTB magazines and videos:
high speed, big jumps, riding up and down ledgy technical features. All
of this leaves those of us who want to get away for a few hours, to
enjoy the escape and beauty of riding trails for a few hours but not
feel like we're riding out of the depth of our bicycles, out in the cold
somewhat.
If you look at the Surly marketing around the
Krampus, you'll see that they designed this bike very much in the
mainstream conception of "fun" geometry: short chainstays, even with
giant tires; long front center/TT, short stem, low-ish handlebars. A
lot of the early photos of the bike featured guys wheelieing them and
boosting them off jumps. I wonder if optimizing the geometry around
this type of riding has made it not as ideal for your type of riding,
specifically grinding up long, steep climbs. Perhaps an ECR, with it's
touring geometry, might be different. I've never ridden one, and I've
only ridden someone else's Krampus around the block, so I'm not really in a position to
say. Certainly, I'm intrigued by the ECR myself; even though I don't
really see myself doing long bikepacking tours, the fact that it's
geometry, at least on paper, might allow a position closer to that of my
LHT, has me interested. I'm also super interested to try the
long-chainstayed Hunqapillar proto featured on the BLUG a few weeks ago:
high handlebars at a comfortable reach, relatively slack seat tube,
long chainstays to keep everything planted even while maintaining an
upright riding position.
For the moment, I've accepted that my
current MTB is less than ideal from a fit perspective, and I appreciate
it more for its ability to help me stay in control going downhill, much
the same as you.
No comments:
Post a Comment