Mountain Biking - My XC bike: is it alright to do drops on it?

What's happenin guys?! Long time no see!

I have a 2001 factory team razorback. Would it be okay to do 4-6ft drops on it? I don't want to end up snapping the frame like my old bike. I'm thinking I need more suspension and a beefier bike, but I'm also thinking of all those trial riders out there with no suspension at all. What do you think? I only weigh 130-140 pounds, and I'm able to take a pretty soft landing ...

If you're VEEEEEERY soft and gentle on your landing, and your dropping to tranny, and its on dirt, its prolly not a terrible thing.

However I am a big fan of the right tool for the right job adage.

Enh, I've been riding urban on a XC hardtail since before the term "freeride" or even "urban" was coined. Just don't ride like a hack or do drops to flat, hard concrete. I worry more about wheels than frames.

So basically, don't intentionally kick the s*** out of it and I should be ok? What about just lil 2 or 3 footers? No worries on that end right?

I consider a 2 or 3 footer an essential part of every cross country ride.

It's not the size of the drop, it's the amount of force on the frame. If you were 250lbs you wouldn't be able to drop nearly as far as if you were 150lbs without hurting the frame.

With that in mind you're fine as long as you're not putting hard hits through the frame, which on a FS is going to come after you've bottomed the suspension. Let that be your guide, if you aren't bottoming the suspension hard you should be fine.

The three main ways you'll be able to do bigger drops on the bike are to land softer (absorb more of the hit with your body), stiffen the shock up to avoid bottoming (more pressure and maybe more compression damping), and find steeper transitions to land on.

If you're careful it can be done, but having a good warranty to back you up is nice. I spent all summer riding the Whistler bike park on a Specialized Enduro doing up to 8' drops and I'm 240lbs. I did have to realize the limitations though, even with a good tranny I could feel I was hitting hard on the 8' drops so I had to swallow my pride and stay off the 10-12 footers my friends were hitting.

What's happenin guys?! Long time no see!

I have a 2001 factory team razorback. Would it be okay to do 4-6ft drops on it? I don't want to end up snapping the frame like my old bike. I'm thinking I need more suspension and a beefier bike, but I'm also thinking of all those trial riders out there with no suspension at all. What do you think? I only weigh 130-140 pounds, and I'm able to take a pretty soft landing ...

If anything no suspension is strong for drops than a crappy dually. The reason being is they use their entire body, where guys who ride suspension tend to use the suspension...

I don't know that bike so I can't recommend...how big you thinking of going.

Here is a question that is somewhat related to the discussion ..

It seems that a big limitation to the size of your drops is based on the wheels. Well, for example, take a look at the Specialized Enduro Expert and Stumpjumper comp disc. They are both featured with the Mavic X223 rims. How do you explain that? A bike that takes 6 foot drops with the same wheels as an XC bike.

By the way, on my current ride, the Ironhorse desperado, I am fairly smoothly dropping off 3 feet to hard concrete. No damage to the bike yet (knock on wood), except a little bit of wobbling. Also, a REALLY loose spoke on the rear wheel as a result of Sport-Check's mechanics bad truing technique. (they said they'll replace it for free) By the way, I am 140 pounds.

Here is a question that is somewhat related to the discussion ..

It seems that a big limitation to the size of your drops is based on the wheels. Well, for example, take a look at the Specialized Enduro Expert and Stumpjumper comp disc. They are both featured with the Mavic X223 rims. How do you explain that? A bike that takes 6 foot drops with the same wheels as an XC bike.

By the way, on my current ride, the Ironhorse desperado, I am fairly smoothly dropping off 3 feet to hard concrete. No damage to the bike yet (knock on wood), except a little bit of wobbling. Also, a REALLY loose spoke on the rear wheel as a result of Sport-Check's mechanics bad truing technique. (they said they'll replace it for free) By the way, I am 140 pounds.

Good point, I thought he was mainly referring to whether he would break the frame or not. I flat spotted my stock wheels the first day, had to throw some Rhyno Lites on there pronto. The same could be said of almost all of his components but I tend to think you are just fine unless you are bottoming your suspension hard. As Maelstrom mentioned, a lot of full suspension riders get lazy and let the suspension do all of the work. This is not going to cause problems if you have enough suspension but you have to realize how much work your suspension can do and take up the slack with your legs, otherwise the extra energy goes right into your bike and things start to break.