I'm easily the fastest guy I ride with. Not because I'm good, mind you, but because I enjoy riding regularly and pushing myself. My riding buddies consider it more of a distant hobby than an immediate one.

Yes, I could get new riding buddies (one guy I work with races and absolutely destroys me, so he's there if I'm in the mood to vomit), but these are some of my best friends who happen to mountain bike, so hanging out with them is a large part of it.

So my question would be what sort of rig should I pursue that wouldn't take the fun out of riding, but may cost me some some on the laps? I currently ride a Trek Stache 8 (a 29" hardtail), but also have a Giant Rincon (lower end 26" hardtail) at my disposal.

Single speed seems like the obvious choice and I'm considering upgrading a couple components on the Rincon and just riding that, but the purpose of getting a better bike isn't to let it sit in the garage while you ride the one it's supposed to replace!

I'm intrigued by these fat bikes, largely because they're just so peculiar looking and different, but haven't looked much into it or know how much faster/slower people are on them.

My local trail is VERY rocky and rooty. Technical. Wish I had a full suspension, really, but that's another day.

So, what do you think? Riding is still a blast with them, I'd just rather not need to stop and wait every 10 minutes for them to catch up.

Thanks!

Wal-Mart offers a fine selection of near-bicycles designed to slow you down.

You could also by racks and panniers and fill them with sand, and carry a couple 20-lb weight plates in your hydration bag.

First off, though, I'd recommend a set of those 3-inch cranks the low-riders use.

Buy new equipment because you buddies are slow??? Try looking at this another way.

Do you ride a loop trail or is it one way?

Loop- lap them, dude...

One way- Just ride and once and a while turn around and go find them.

Well, this is my only need at the moment, so I figure if internet strangers help convince me then I may put forth the effort for a tinker project...

Have you tried riding a Mongoose Dolomite? That should do the trick.

Buy a tinker project if you want to tinker.

If you want to ride with your buddies, then just ride with your buddies, it's not like you need to be a strava champion every time you go out. When I ride by myself, I go hard...when I ride with friends, I throw beers in my camelback and enjoy being outside with my buds.

My fast buddy does his best to stay back with me, but every so often he tells me that he is going to "stretch out his legs" and drops me like I'm standing still. He'll come back down the hill to greet me half way down and ride the rest of the way up at my pace.

If I had the problem that you have and I could afford it, I would do it on a fat bike. There are guys that race the local CX series on fatbikes and it looks like a ton of work.

I ride with a lot of different people some slower and some faster and some way way faster. Those way way faster guys are still way way faster than me no matter what they are on and most of them are on rigid SS and some of those are rigid SS fat bikes. The guy I ride with the most is a good bit faster than me has a really nice full suspension bike and recently had to send his rear shock in for service. I've been letting him barrow my rigid 1x9 and guess what he is still faster than me. If you are fast you are fast. You just need to chill out when ridding with your slow buddies. We just have regroup spots on group rides and often times in the more boring sections the fastest guys just take it easy and hang back with us normal people.

Get a 40lb DH bike.

1) Carry a cold full keg, and a few mugs.

2) tie yourself to the slowest rider and drag him around.

3) Try ankle weights.

- Getting a single speed to ride with your slower friends is probably a bad idea. On a SS bike you need to conserve your momentum and don't have the luxury of dumping a few gears to soft pedal up a hill while your buddy is struggling. SS riding is a lot of fun for its own sake, but I find myself riding away from my non biker friends more when I am on the SS simply because I need the speed to get through certain terrain.

- If you are bored or just feel like you are not getting a good workout you can always turn your ride into an interval training session by letting your friends ride ahead periodically and then trying to close the gap as fast as possible. Unless your friends are really slow, you should feel those efforts after a ride.

I'm a very slow rider due to hereditary heart problems. My BIL stays with me through rides by stunting around. Work on your stoppies and manuals.

Good Point. I hadn't thought about that.

I only have experience with geared hardtails, so I guess I was expecting something like "my times on my [SS/rigid/fat bike/super heave/unicycle] were way slower than my 1x9, but they were a blast to ride." It appears my assumption was incorrect. Interesting.

Now I know

Get a fat bike. I've heard they're a blast on mountain bike trails, and they'll certainly slow you down.

On all but the most tech trails, I'm not that much slower. Line choice is optional with my fat bike.

Just slow down and don't hammer.

It's not that hard to do and it doesn't cost anything.

They'll certainly slow you downon the uphill Downhill not so much. Unless you were talking about in both directions.

Ahhhh .... ditch your friends. They are too slow anyway. Always more to be found.

Yesterday I borrowed and raced a fat tire bike. Fat Bike was fun on the downhill but brutal and slow grinding up the mountain. Although I was slow it was easily one of the best workouts that I've had in a long long while. Thinking next race I would talk up the "fun" of racing a fat tire bike to my faster riding partner to see if I can get him on a fat bike to slow him down a bit so I can keep up.

Life has a nasty habit of gobbling up the weak and the slow --

-- just let 'em know in a politically correct way that you have to get a workout in -- then back at the trailhead when your ride is done, have a big smile on your face and a well stocked cooler with beer, electrolytes and good tunes when the stragglers start rolling in

My Farley 8 hardtail fatty weighs less than my specialized enduro. Gobs of traction with crazy cornering ability, sick lean over ability. As stated, it matches my dual sus in all but the rockiest of tech trails. On the flow and smooth, it's FASTER. Motor dependent of course. YRMV. I know a few riders who have sold their 29ers to ride fat year round.

I've been taking a close look at the 2016 Trek Stache 5 full rigid with 29x3 chipocabras for the same reason, but not due to me being a bionicman. I got back into riding after about 20 years and two recent surgeries. Started with an electric assist mid-drive eMTB to get back in shape with. It did the trick, but now I'm smoking my riding buddies because of the hill climbing ability of the eMTB. I need to return to the roots of riding with man-power now that my edurance is returning.

The new Stache 5 is not a fat bike or standard MTB; it's kind of a hybrid. I'd probably be faster on the down hills with a bike like this, but definitely slower on the up hills. From what I have read the short chain stay at the rear and semi-fat tires aired down to about 12psi make this bike a real grin producer.

With this ride you'd probably still smoke your buddies, but the grin on your face at the bottom of each run might have you falling off your bike and rolling on the ground in bliss long enough for your buddies to catch up.

(50 something and still riding)

Yeah, I say Ride YOUR ride, Ride YOUR way, Get'cha some Flow,,,

You can chat wit the ladies back at the trail head until your crew makes it out, then bust their chops.
I like to hunt and chase faster riders, makes me faster, got no friends to hang back for,

Alone in the woods, It's a zen thing, I dig It....

But never forget the Rules,,The velominati, https://www.velominati.com/the-rules/
Guide new riders now and then, shorten and slow the pace only for them.

I had the same problem. What I did is I had a 24 speed Diamond back mountain bike that I wasn't riding sitting in my garage and I turned it into a 8 speed to slow me down. I removed the front derailleur and did a BBG bashwich, I swapped my shifter for a twist shifter, I changed out the handlebars to carbon fiber, changed grips, I changed the seat to an ultra thin one. So now I had two bikes, both completely different from each other and both fun to ride.

I am trying to convert many of my friends to cyclists but they are slow and weak in stamina. I found a simple solution and it actually works out to my benefit as far a the workout goes. What I've been doing is ride my 7 speed Walmart Genesis cruiser bike while they ride a road bike. We will go out for a 20-22 mile loop with some nice climbs and when we all try our best, we stay together pretty well. When the ride is over, we all feel better for the honest workout. Then, when I ride with my fast group on my fast bike, I find that I ride stronger and climb better due to the spirited ride on a very slow cruiser bike.
Everyone wins.