Future Proof Your Ride

Longer, lower, slacker. It’s the Mountain bike mantra. Bikes are changing faster than World Cup tyre choices and it’s difficult to know when if ever, it’s going to stop. It plays a significant impact on your bike choice. Wheel sizes have made everything from Fork offsets to hub sizes a minefield in future proofing your bike. If like me you don’t have oodles of cash hanging around its easy to feel like your 3 year old bike is now obsolete. But don’t worry, I’m going to look at how you can take your once cutting edge bike and with a little bit of lipstick and a few savvy purchases get her right back in the mix again.

**Offset Bushings**
First seen under World Cup riders looking for an edge, these simple little pieces of metal have helped countless riders tweak their bikes without blowing the bank. Offset bushings are exactly as they sound, Shock bushings that are slightly offset allowing you to retain your shock length and feel whilst reducing the shocks i2i. This drops the BB and can adjust the head angle of your bike up to 1.5 degrees. They can be used in pairs or individually depending on how much tweaking you want to do. Prices vary from £12 to £40 depending on the material used.

Check out:
www.offsetbushings.com/
www.burgtec.co.uk



**Damper upgrades**
Rockshox really brought home the idea of changing out Fork Dampers with their incredible Charger Damper but they were by no means the first to offer the service. Avalanche and Fast have both offered incredible damper upgrades for nearly all the major fork players for several years though the cost is prohibitive. It used to be that unless you were a serious rider with serious cash you made do with your fork damper and did the best you could. Rockshox’s Charger damper opened up top level suspension damping for those with a lower end fork for an incredibly reasonable price. Those running the basic R/C damper which has a tendency to spike and dive when things get rowdy could now get the amazing mid support previously reserved for the boxxer world cup. The icing on the cake is of course this damper can be retro fit to any boxer chassis with 35mm stanchions. Why shell out several hundred pounds for a new fork when you can get the same performance for a fraction of the price?

Check out:
www.sram.com/rockshox/products/boxxer-charger-damper-upgrade-kit
www.avalanchedownhillracing.com
www.fast-suspensionshop.com



**Carbon bars**
Like or not Carbon is here to stay. With nearly every major player now offering a flagship carbon bike there is no doubt of the wonder materials’ presence in the industry. It seems it would be easy (if not eye wateringly expensive) to build an entire bike made solely out of carbon these days.
So why handle bars? Well they were one of the first upgrade parts to be offered in the material and as such there is truly a carbon bar for every one and every style. The range of bars on offer has also kept the price relatively low. With this in mind it is easy to find a carbon bar for not a huge amount more than a top end Aluminium bar. The weight difference is a bonus but the most important aspect is carbon’s vibration reducing effects. Simply put, a carbon bar will mute and reduce the trail chatter noticeably over an aluminium bar. This means an easier ride for your hands and a more enjoyable and confident ride for you.

Check out:
www.cycling.renthal.com/sho
www.eastoncycling.com
www.spank-ind.com



**Height adjustable stem stack**
Another one straight from the race track is the height adjustable stem stack. With handlebars getting longer and lower our weight has found itself spread further and further over the front of the bike. Great for weighting the front wheel, not so great for those hairy steeps where you’re chewing on the saddle. In an ideal world, we’d all have a spare pair of riser bars that our mechanic would fit for us but reality it’s run what you brung. Stem stacks work with a downhill bike by raising the whole direct mount stem and bar up pushing the rider back into a more central position, allowing more control through particularly steep courses.

Check out
www.northshorebillet.com
www.ti-springs.com



**Reach adjust headsets**
Angle Adjust headsets are a common site today and have helped riders rake out there bikes in search of more stability by reducing the bikes head angle. This comes with reduced manoeuvrability at slower speeds and unless you’re smashing laps down Le Pleney might not be such a great thing, especially in the UK’s tight and twisty trails. With companies such as Mondraker and Canyon pushing their Forward and Race geometries respectively, bikes have increased in length but kept head angles the right side of a Hells Angel biker gang. Reach adjust headsets build on the angle set idea by pushing both top and bottom cups forward, increasing the bikes reach whilst maintaining steering familiarity. Most DH bikes with a true 1.5 head tube will be able to increase reach between 5-8mm, not a great deal certainly but enough to impact a bikes feel on the trail.

Check out:
https://www.chrisking.com
http://www.workscomponents.co.uk/



So there we have it, with a little bit of savvy tweaking you can change both the feel and geometry of your bike to suit your needs. Try it out and you’ll be amazed at just how little money can transform your bike and get you your racing edge back!

Sam Matthews