Covalent Jello

In an effort to nudge just a little bit more toward DH, or at least make it easier to do so on this bike designed for XC/'trail', a friend suggested changing the handlebars


He said the handlebars should be straight

And that the stem from the handlebars to the headset should be as short as possible

Third thing would be putting the seat alllll the way down, but to do this I have to hack off 4" of seatpost.
Usually the seat sticks 2" out of the post which has been good enough

Then there could be a bash guard and a chain tensioner.
The chain flops off a good amount on this bike.

The big components are ok for now!

Do those recommendations make sense?
Would feel nice to make the bike suitable for steeper angles.

ed 

What bike? Which fork?

More DH'able to me = a nice HiRise EA70 handlebar.

bikinfool

Hacking your seat post so that it's no longer useful for pedaling to the top of the hill doesn't make much sense. Does the pivot on that bike block the seat tube and prevent you from putting the seat post all the way down? You could get an adjustable seat post like a Gravity Dropper instead. A shorter stem might be in order depending on the fit of the bike. Bars (along with the stem and spacers) just put your hands where you need them, some bikes a riser works, some a flat bar (and straight to me implies no sweep, which wouldn't be all that comfortable in the long run). Thought all the cool dh guys used risers, though (and painted white with gothic lettering on them ). Liowering your hands for dh on that bike would seem to be counterproductive. Looks like a decent bar/stem setup now...

Covalent Jello

The bike in the pic, trek fuel ex 8, but not interested in the big components like suspension, forgot to mention that

A bash guard and a chain tensioner might be in order too.
The chain falls off on drops sometimes, and the big chainring always gets hit.

As far as the seat goes-
Usually the seat is used 2" sticking out, any higher is way uncomfortable
Could hack off 2" so the seat could go *all* the way down for when doing more downhill.

And see, bikinfool said what I originally thought about the handlebars, that lowering them (by getting flat ones) would be counterproductive for DH.
So Im a little confused on that still

never

I have my handlebars low for DH (and on my trail bike) because I prefer a more aggressive riding position. It's all about personal preference.

How much can you currently drop your saddle? You don't have to put it all the way down. If you can drop it a few inches, that should be more than enough to be comfortable on steeper descents.

The bar change is more personal preference and if you like the feel of your current bar, don't bother changing it. A shorter stem would make a bit of a difference (around a 40-50 mm) but it would be at the expense of climbing. You just have to decide what is more important to you.

dminor 

You will gain more descending control if you go to a much shorter (like 50mm) stem and wide (29"+) bars. Your goal is to tighten up the cockpit so that your are riding from the middle of it more.

I prefer a slammed seat - - pretty much out of my way. Rather than hacking off a perfectly good post, I would suggest: 1) A second, 'beater' seatpost hacked off to a 'slammable' length or; 2) A Gravity Dropper-type post or; 3) a telescoping post like a Titec Scoper.

All of these will help you configure your bike in a way that will let you play at descending with more confidence. However, from a geometry standpoint, it is still going to be an XC-ish trailbike. The ONLY way you are going to achieve "more DH-able" is to slacken the head angle and that's going to require a fork with a longer axle-to-crown length - - something I'm sure you don't really want to venture into with that bike.

Covalent Jello

Cool this has all really helped a lot !