What can my bike ride more?. Yes, my friend, not only can you run more by giving the same pedals, but your experience on it can improve significantly. Sometimes the difference is in the small details.
All of us, at some point, have gone out on a bike complaining about something. What if I carry the low pressures, that if I have not lowered the power, that if I touch the rear disc, that if you drive them, I carry them very low. Lies the one I haven’t said anything about this at some time. The issue is that all those details that we overlook, on many occasions, ballast our effectiveness on the bike. And that ballast ends up somehow becoming a lower pedaling efficiency and with it a lower overall speed.
Yes, I know that the speed difference for carrying the highest power from where it should, for example, is minimal. Still, if we add all those “minimums” of a lot of aspects of our bike, we will achieve a final result that will add watts with which boast on the Strava and average speeds that add final kudos.
This is that kind of article that will not only help you to transform your pedaling into a little point of medium and top speed, but it will make your overall experience on your mountain bike improve forever.
All these aspects of improvement and the tricks that will help you to make your bike “run more” are fundamental in terms of maintenance and proper use of our mountain bike. We all know that the transmission must be greased or that we must carry the correct pressure in our tires, but not knowingly, we comply with it. We leave you with some of the best MTBpro tricks so that your bike runs more without you having to buy an electric one, of course.
1 Make a correct adjustment of the suspensions
The number one rule so that your mountain bike does not lose speed and inertia is the setting of the suspensions. There are a lot of videos and tutorials where they explain how to regulate the SAG, for example, the one we publish here, which is the basis before controlling the rest of the parameters.
The rebound (red dial) is very important because it depends on the fork and shock absorber returning to their initial position as quickly as we need depending on the terrain. In the same way, an insufficient preload of air will cause us to reach the top very smoothly, and a very high preload will cause us not to take advantage of the entire travel of the shock absorber and fork. If the suspensions sink too much after the impacts and do not recover their fast-starting position, you will lose a lot of speed. Similarly, suspensions with a lot of air preload will not act on impacts making the bike uncontrollable and very unstable.
Our advice: Follow the manufacturer’s instructions when adjusting your fork and shock absorber, and if you do not know how to do it correctly, go to your general store where they will help you do it. You can write down the recommended initial values (air preload in PSI and bounce clicks, which are the most basic), and from these go modifying them gradually depending on the terrain you move and your skills. Being able to always return to the parameters indicated if you have just lost.
2 Choose the correct power and handlebar length
We usually tend to carry the power with enough spacers underneath, which makes us very comfortable in the position, but that, when it comes to distributing weights and supports, is not the best because most of the importance goes over the rear wheel. A short power (between 30 and 50 mm) better positions your body on the handlebars and helps the corner wheel to have a better grip when having more weight on it. In the same way and if you have additional spacers, try to remove one of 5 in 5 mm inferiorly to see how you are with the power a little lower.
On the other hand, the width of the handlebar will help you improve control and position on the bike. Currently, 720 mm is usually the “minimum” measure and hence up to 800 mm, which is used in enduro and descent.
Our advice: Play with the power spacers until you find your ideal height. Theirs is to leave an extra 2 cm in the steering tube. Once you have tried several positions and hit yours, you can now cut the excess of the steering tube (if you want, of course). Do not forget that the handlebar has to be well-positioned with the ends facing up and in the direction of the shoulders. If you have to turn the wrists when you sit on the saddle and position them on the handlebar, it is that the rotation of the handlebar is not correct.
3 Check and adjust tire pressures
Tire pressure is one of the fundamental points. If you carry a low pressure, the tire will flash at all times, and you will suffer a few tires. Very high pressure will not give you a grip, and you will bounce back and forth. The first thing you have to do is go to the tubeless if you have not already done so. The second, and depending on the type of tire (tacking, width, and housing), play with the pressures depending on the environment in which you move.
If you do not know where to start, start with 1.7 in front and 1.9 bar behind, which is a lot of pressure, but it will help you assess how the tire behaves. There is a lot of variation in the pressures to use depending on the width of the tire and mainly depending on the strength of the carcass.
Our advice: We recommend you buy a digital pressure gauge. It is economical, and you will know exactly what pressure you have at each moment. Always start with a little more and go down progressively. A tubeless tire with a reinforced shell withstands super low pressures. Still, it is convenient that you remove 0.1 bar at a time until you find the optimal compromise between traction, cornering, acceleration, and braking response and impacts such as rocks and roots.