Mountain Biking - More Tweaking

I figure seeing as I have a nice bike, I may as well work to get as much out of it as possible. Only problem is I don't have much money, so as you may have been able to tell the stuff I have asked about before have been free/cheap.

Curious about a few more tweaks I can make to fine tune it to how I like. So far I've fitted wider tyres (I went for the high rollers in the end btw), which are working nicely, and have fiddled with all the settings on my forks, I think I nearly have them right but possibly need a tab more negative air and rebound dampening.

Anyways, what I'm wondering about now is the small changes I can make to the geometry of my bike via the EBB.

First off what effect does BB height have on a ride. I presume lower means more stable with more pedal bash, with higher being the opposite. Any other effects that a change in height could have.

Secondly, still with the EBB here, what effect does chainstay length have. I'm geussing shorter makes it easier to get the front wheel up, whereas longer, once again, just does the opposite. Same as before, are my assumptions correct and is there anything else I should know?

Moving away from the EBB, what effect does stem leanght have. I really don't know anything about this apart from jump and DH type bikes seem to have shorter ones, so any help would be much appriciated.

Lastly but quite possibly what will turn out to be the biggest change, is to do with shoes. As I mentioned in someone elses thread, I tried out clipless and quite liked being clipped in, just hated the shoes I was doing it with. I changed back to my converse all stars after about a mile to stop the pain.

Can anyone recommend any SPD shoes which aren't to stiff, don't have too much in the way of funny shaped inners (possibly a very tiny bit of arch support, but thats my limit) and are resonably tough. I was thinking about the shimano SH-MP ones althought I think that may be going a bit far the other direction. I'm not to keep on boot ones either.


Sorry, seems to be quite alot of questions again, but hopefully most of them can be answered quickly. Thanks in advnace for any help.



One last question.

With my current cocpit atm, the bars are a bit wide but the grips are to big for my hands so I can easily move further in so I won't chop them for the moment. What I'm wondering about in where my gear shifters and brake levers are placed though.

My gear shifters are in the perfect place, I can easily shift no matter what position I'm in on the bike. My brake leveres however, could do with being moved in slightly. Only problem is, they are right up against my gear shifters, and because the shifters have those stupid things showing you what gear your in, which I can never see on the trail anyways, moving them to the other side would be too far in. Any ideas as to what I could do to solve this?

You're pretty on target.

Regarding stem length though...if you're gonna do more aggressive riding / jumping / drops / hopping structures...you may enjoy a short stem. If you're climbing quite a bit...then a longer stem usually helps me feel more comfortable...until I reach the next DH. Short and long also will effect the feel of the steering.

Can't help you with shoes. All the SPD compatible shoes I've used are stiff. Helps transfer power and prolong the life of the shoe b/c there's such a small contact area that's getting torqued on pretty hard.

Seeing as stems are cheap I think I'll probably get a short one to try out. Atm I've got a 90mm 6 degree rise.

I figure I may as well go down to a 50mm to get the best idea of what a short stem is like, but what rise should I get?

I'll be planning on using the shimano pedals with the clipless bit in the middle of the platform. It may not have been the stiffness which was uncomfortable, may have just been the shape of the sole/fit of the shoe.

Are all the ones you've used stupidly stiff and tight all round?

Thanks for the help btw. it's kinda annoying because it means I feel I can't take the mic :p

My spd shoes are really comfortable (more so than some of my regular shoes). Not honestly sure what type they are, but I do know they are Shimano's and say MT31 on them. I think I payed 55$ for them at my LBS (I got a 10 or so percent discount because I got them when I got my bike) and I've seen shoes that look quite similar online for 40$ or so. As for stems, I switched from a 120 to a 55mm stem, and I like that a heck of a lot better. The control feels much more direct, and I feel like I have more mid air control.

My spd shoes are really comfortable

Mine too...661 Peak is what I'm ballin'. Some days I run 'em loose, other days I crank the ratchet buckley things down and run them tight. I like not having laces. (some day I'll learn to tie my shoes:D)

I miss my Velcro shoes from preschool. Those are the only things I remember from those times. But I never got the blinky shoes I really wanted.

The only blinky shoes we had when I was that old was when we accidentally dropped the punk on our feet on July 4th.

Well, I guess the blinky shoes would get a bit annoying while driving.

http://www.designsojourn.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/flintstones-car.jpg

Blinky shoes rocked. I never remember wearing them in the day though, but I figure surely I can't have had a different pair of shoes for night time.

LA Lights! Ha, my brother had a pair of them. I wanted them too, but my mom told me I was too old for them (which I was NOT, I was like eight, and several of my friends wore them). I did manage to get Air Jordans out of her though, so all was good.

On topic though...I haven't worn these, so I can't actually recommend them since I don't know how they ride or how they hold up, but I have played with them in stores and they're not nearly as stiff as my current mountain shoes. But have you looked at the 661 Launch or 661 Filter? I think those are the SPD compatible ones anyway. And what shoes were you wearing that you didn't like?

Also, a longer chainstay will make your ride more stable. Didn't think I saw that in your post.

I was wearing a specialized BG sport MTB shoe.

One more seperate question, which I'll add to the OP as well -

With my current cocpit atm, the bars are a bit wide but the grips are to big for my hands so I can easily move further in so I won't chop them for the moment. What I'm wondering about in where my gear shifters and brake levers are placed though.

My gear shifters are in the perfect place, I can easily shift no matter what position I'm in on the bike. My brake leveres however, could do with being moved in slightly. Only problem is, they are right up against my gear shifters, and because the shifters have those stupid things showing you what gear your in, which I can never see on the trail anyways, moving them to the other side would be too far in. Any ideas as to what I could do to solve this?

Someone mention it above, but I tried the 661 filter shoes for a bit and liked them. They are a skate style shoe, much more of a "normal" shoe type feeling that are still SPD compatible. I still prefer my stiffer xc style shoes but I now wear my 661 filters as regular shoes just because I like the look and they are comfortable =p you may want to look into them if you are seeking something like that.

Also, a longer chainstay will make your ride more stable. Didn't think I saw that in your post.

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but the chainstay difference is only in relation to the crankset therefore it could possibly be easier to "manual" and pop the front end up with it set eccentrically toward the rear of the bike due to the weight distribution from the crankset being shifted rearward, but the stability of the bike will not be changed b/c the wheelbase is constant.

Does that make sense?:backpedal:

I'm going to defer to you here and assume you're right. I had read the long chainstay = stable thing in Lee McCormack's book and just assumed it was correct. Personally, I don't ride fast enough that stability is a huge issue, so I really only saw the pros of moving to a shorter chainstay, and I slam my rear wheel on bikes with horizontal dropouts. The longer wheelbase = stable note makes sense though, so it's possible that a longer chainstay only yields more stability when the wheelbase is also increased. A short chainstay will definitely make it easier to manual for the reason you mentioned though (stand on the rear pegs of a BMX bike and pull up to experience a chainstay length of 0).

Actually, the stays are the same no matter what. They're not adjustable on the SCNewt. But the eccentric BB would allow for a different "feel" regarding your feet in relation to the rear axle. The stays stay the same length in relation to the ground.

I think I'm starting to repeat myself...I need some McD's iced coffee.

Oh whoops, I read the original post wrong. Disregard my ramblings...sorry!

Oh, and to remedy the shifter issue...go SRAM! No bulky gear indicators. Of course, that also means you'd need to buy shifters and an RD. Or find an Attack shifter, which also costs money. So, it's not free unfortunately. *grumble*