Is Your XC Bike This Fun to Ride?
Most mountain bikers aren’t lucky enough to have a stable of bikes to choose from on any given day. Most mountain bikers aren’t blessed with places to shuttle a freeride or downhill bike. As professional freeriders and North Vancouver residents, Wade Simmons and Thomas Vanderham are lucky enough to have a range of bikes to pick from and certainly do not suffer from a lack of shuttle terrain at their doorstep.
Wade and Thomas, who at the mere mention of their names, conjure up images of massive whips, drops, and rugged lines in the minds of most, ride almost every day. Not for photo shoots, video shoots, or even cruising to the coffee shop, but simply because they are addicted to the sport. None of this should be too surprising, however you might be surprised to learn which bike in their respective envy-inducing garages gets pulled out the most – their cross country bike.
![photo]()
To the all-mountain or gravity rider, the term “cross-country” is tainted with all sorts of connotations like spandex, steep geometry, lame tires, six inch brake rotors and even the abhorrent bar-ends. The truth is that the vast majority of mountain bikers are cross country riders and they come in all shapes, sizes, preferences, and ability levels. Since most riders fall into this category, there’s a huge range of bikes to pick from. 100mm travel, 120mm travel, aluminum, carbon, steep, slack...the list goes on.
![photo]()
With the trickle down of gravity geometry and bike setup into the cross country realm, the bikes are becoming more capable than ever. The extreme gram counting of years past has given way to putting weight where it matters. Riser bars, short stems, 7” rotors and meaty tires can now be found on 25lb cross country bikes and what a difference it makes to the ride quality. As Thomas and Wade will attest to, there’s a new generation of carbon frames which are lighter and stiffer than their aluminum predecessors, and they are tougher than you’d ever imagine.
![photo]()
Most of us will probably never ride a cross country bike with as much skill and style as Thomas and Wade, but watching them ride theirs shows us that it’s not the bike that’s holding us back.
![photo]()
Created by Matt Dennison
Wade and Thomas, who at the mere mention of their names, conjure up images of massive whips, drops, and rugged lines in the minds of most, ride almost every day. Not for photo shoots, video shoots, or even cruising to the coffee shop, but simply because they are addicted to the sport. None of this should be too surprising, however you might be surprised to learn which bike in their respective envy-inducing garages gets pulled out the most – their cross country bike.
To the all-mountain or gravity rider, the term “cross-country” is tainted with all sorts of connotations like spandex, steep geometry, lame tires, six inch brake rotors and even the abhorrent bar-ends. The truth is that the vast majority of mountain bikers are cross country riders and they come in all shapes, sizes, preferences, and ability levels. Since most riders fall into this category, there’s a huge range of bikes to pick from. 100mm travel, 120mm travel, aluminum, carbon, steep, slack...the list goes on.
With the trickle down of gravity geometry and bike setup into the cross country realm, the bikes are becoming more capable than ever. The extreme gram counting of years past has given way to putting weight where it matters. Riser bars, short stems, 7” rotors and meaty tires can now be found on 25lb cross country bikes and what a difference it makes to the ride quality. As Thomas and Wade will attest to, there’s a new generation of carbon frames which are lighter and stiffer than their aluminum predecessors, and they are tougher than you’d ever imagine.
Most of us will probably never ride a cross country bike with as much skill and style as Thomas and Wade, but watching them ride theirs shows us that it’s not the bike that’s holding us back.
Created by Matt Dennison
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The answer of course is no, but that should be scoffed at. If the bikes can handle this type of stuff, why shouldn't they warranty it?
i accept things breaking, but your life depends of your bike not falling apart if you hit a bump, just how much confidence can you have in that kind of sales pitch?
Enjoyed the vid, nice riding-well filmed!
they all come down eventually,, maybe not in the same time but still..
i see peeps ride shit on XC bikes where the DH dudes are walking.. its truly funny to see that it is not the bike but the rider !
sure your XC bike will be less happy with the terrain than a DH bike will be.. but eventually.. your bike will not live your entire life..
unless you use your DH bike for commuting
As a consumer you have the option to buy a bike suited to your riding style and the warranty will back that up (I know Specialized have honored the lifetime Warrenty for me).
However the frame is made for the 95 percentile to do that type of riding, so chances are you won't break the frame doing bigger things then the warrenty entitles you to, but eventually you will (if trying hard enough) will get a line wrong and do some damage. Having said that, if you tell the shop you where doing something within the scope of the warranty what are they going to do? Pull out CCTV footage of you hucking it?
Just use your common sense, a lot of consumers are not amazingly smooth riders like these and so doing this would need a stronger frame, is it the manufactures fault the consumer bought the wrong bike when the option to buy a stronger frame for the same price (just that it's heavier) was available?
If they offered a warranty on an XC frame everyone would get one as it's lighter, do silly things, break them, and one of two things happens. The manufacture losses money as they hand out 5 frames to every customer (goes out of business), or the design changes to be stronger and heavier, and the real XC boys get upset the frame is too slow, as it built too heavy for it's intended use.
I agree with you 100%. I am slowly changing my mind about "needing" a new bike with a little more travel and slacker HA. As my skills go up, I am finding my my bike is handling everything I am capable of, and after seeing these fellas, it will also handle the drops and jumps that I am working my way up to. Once I get to that point, than I can evaluate my need for a new bike.
Problem is the manufacturer only has your word about where, and how well you are riding it, so they have to set their guidelines based on the lowest skill level (me 5 years ago).
thanks wade and T-van
Those pictures there, their "test riders" who have this tough face when shot on fire road or asphalt - Yea I'm rippin the straight! But as soon as they test some mid-travel bike and have photo shoot on something slightly technical, they have this face expression being a mix of fear and confusion: "did I leave the gas on?".
And the texts are even lamer: "to sum up the bike has a nice snappy handling but it is a bit on the heavy side - 13,5kg, we can definitely feel it on uphills". Freaking half of the magazine is about heart rate and supplements, which would't be bad if they haven't be like "cherries - the magic remedy for lactic acid?"
Not saying these bikes are bad, but it's just like everything else in the bike world. These aren't Karpiel Armageddons that Bender hucks off the Jaw drop 3 times on the same bike, these are ride extremely hard for awhile and replace, or, ride in it's catagory for a few years and be happy. The harder you bear on modern light bikes the faster they will fail.
Even M9 Intense's are fragile as glass when you give it a proper 90's plow bike beating for a year straight.
I just wish some of these companies stepped back from their light trendy stuff, and made a true carbon bike in each catagory that can literally take insane beatings day in and out for 2-10 years. The first company to make a bike last longer than a 2nd Tomac, or a 1st gen Armageddon takes the win in my book for DH, and the first company that puts a 5 year warrenty on a carbon XC bike with no questions asked gets the cake in this realm. Soooo in other words, let's start seeing some insane NO QUESTIONS ASKED warrenties.
That is my 2 cents.
I guess it's kinda like cars. It's cool to buy expensive race cars but most people drive them within speed limits anyway.
You could always buy a veyron to go to the grocery store but a yaris would do the same job, would be like 1.5M cheaper and you'd have more cargo space but if you prefere the veyron, knock yourself out... But you wont get much out of those high end characteristics driving at 30km/h.
"But ride those bikes like that day in and day out and see how long they last."
...show that many people rely too heavily on their bike to handle situations, rather than learning how to handle the situations _as a rider_, which is far more enjoyable, easier on your bike, and a much better way to get good, faster, as a rider.
Those bikes that Messrs Vanderham and Simmons are on could handle that type of riding day-in and day-out under someone who knows how to ride and doesn't expect the bike to do all the work. On the other hand if Mr Plow-and-Bash got onto such a bike and rode it like a statue hammering awkwardly into every root, rock and rut the bike would begin to show signs of wear a bit quicker. Bashing into everything like a corpse tied to a bike is better than not riding at all, but it is a style of riding that leaves whole worlds of improvement ahead of the rider (corpse), and improvement is the surest way to more fun on a bike.
Thanks to Rocky Mtn, WSimmons and TVanderham for showing us what's possible.
I grew up riding the shore on my fully rigid XC bike. I don't wish that upon anyone, but damned if it wasn't a hell of a good way to learn how to ride-- where "letting the bike do the work" isn't even an option!
The guy i bought my Giant XC bike from," Capitan America ",. Did a 25 ft drop on it .Giant AC1 with 6.5" of travel The drop was a steep rock face with a ply wood landing kind of looked like a skinny quarter pipe with a 12 ft transition and the rock face gave it 15 ft of vert,they landed way down the transition lol.
It's still there in Haskell NJ ,although the ply wood is rotted and needs a rebuild
You can get a bike frame that weighs less than many religious books/or a couple of bags of flour. I find that quite impressive, and I 1) don't reckon lightness makes much difference to strength and 2) the equivalent extra weight of eating a bag of flour or two before you ride doesn't really hold you back- it's all in the mind.
www.pinkbike.com/news/santa-cruz-bicycles-test-lab.html
I don't really have much of a fear of braking a carbon XC frame anymore, at least not the way I ride. Granted anything can and does happen out on the trails but for the most part the video speaks for its self..
Thing is, that's not XC riding, That right there is Trail riding on Trail bikes. XC riding has gotten lame, no way you would see a trail like that in a XC race, no way in hell, it would frighten them! And they would not return the next year.
Also no way someone is going to win a XC race on a 25lb 5" travel bike, at least not someone that isn't sand bagging.
Best part of the vid is that there is not a dirt jump in site. Leave dirt jumps in empty lots, ride the terrain with minimal alteration.
I see people doing drops at Mammoth Mtn on short travel bikes. I may or may not have done them on my Superfly 100. If I did, I'm sure Mr. Fisher wouldn't be so happy that his bike is being used for such, especially when the time comes to explain the crack(s) in the frame.
ever ride moab? I have.
If the sign-off had have been "If our XC bikes can do this, imagine what our freeride bike (insert model name) can do," it would made sense.
It's like saying "Our XC bikes are so strong they can do this, but we won't back up the warranty if YOU do this on them"
Sorry, great vid, but epic fail on the marketing message.
2:51T your busted!!!
You ever sketch on a 15 FT drop ,you ll be wishig for that suspension to save your f*ck all shredder ass!!
thanks wade thanks thomas
Most people, myself included, buy a bike or build it way beyond what we really need. We do this not because we fear breaking gear or frames, but a more capable bike or components make us able to hit stuff that we couldn't on 3" travel XC bike with a 71 degree head angle and v-brakes.
I have never ridden with either of these fine riders in the video, but have been on rides with some talented riders who make a difficult section look like a sidewalk. We have some incredibly talented riders on the shore, as does any location that has terrain that challenges riders like the shore, but you have to agree that even most of the good riders in an area don't have the skill that either Wade Simmons and Thomas Vanderham have. So yes, they make, the trail look reasonable tame even on those XC/AM bike. Maybe we need another category XC + AM = XM.
In the end it is about getting out and riding what ever you have, where you live, and hopefully within your skill level so you can enjoy the trail and get out the next day and the day after.
as for carbon ,there are many different grades of carbon ,as there are many grades of Heat treated and good non heat treated metals . I personally would never buy a carbon frame ,unless it had a really good Warentee F-That . These things are funny they beat you up a little bit like you may not be that good because aluminum is a thing from Yester-Year
Give me a Turner 5 Spot KHS lucky , or a Giant ,any time . Breakage means Failure ,and possible injury . Let's not even mention Jamis .A company with Zero engineering .
Big difference between doing Down hill where you can slam wheel eating gaps and still roll onward,and doing a descent down a steep rock formation . If you live in the Land of Granite like we do in North Jersey and New York State , you know exactly what a frame can and can't take ..
There should be an article "HOW TO BEND OR BREAK A FRAME ,BECAUSE YOU LOVE SPENDING MONEY AND NOT ACTUALLY RIDING " STEP #!1 don't chose smooth lines on DH go back and fourth across the trail like your on a half pipe . STEP #2 glance down at the Bike see what Broke .IF nothing repeat step 1
Maintenance really should be done for your own personal safety or the shock will eventually break and could cause a bad crash at the worst time . I recently look down just before doing a drop and saw my shoe lace was wrapped around my front sprocket!i have to be more aware of my "shoelace maintenance" triple tie those suckers!
im going to try making a steel frame and calling it done "
I saw one it was a "HOOK" 3 inch shock stroke , heavy yet didn t stop that dude from sky airing the biggest table in the park .What ever works !
Some riders have that spring board launch ,bronco,lift off thing down . I d love to be able to pop air like that .
and what was with the disclaimer? if a $6000 fully can't handle what they did in this video then it must be a really bad bike. I mean maybe it can't handle crashing off those drops, or that kind of air, and not landing smooth, but you shouldn't need a disclaimer for that.
also learn to focus a camera, I'm sorry that's blunt and rude but, seriously it isn't artistic its just sloppy and that bothered me more then anything else in this video. There were entire shots that were never in focus, or where the depth was so shallow if I blinke dI'd miss it and the blur added nothing artist whatsoever.
But then again that was "take, wait, take" clip riding. In reality you see more and more guys littering the dh-tracks with their "Enduros". They do it because the the ads and mags say you can. For everybody else on dh or fr-bikes slows the tracks to a crawl. Imagine having XC folks walking down the track...
Riding a Commencal absolut sx wit 67HA on Dh tracks is a lot fun, fast - and tiring. Riding a smoothy Supreme with 64 HA is great. Riding a low and firm Voltage with 62.5 HA is an altogether different story.