How to pick soft tail mountain bikes

Some people think soft tail mountain bikes are not good enough for mountaineering. The reason why they think so is probably that they haven’t carefully chosen a soft tail frame with a travel below 4”,which is used for mountaineering and climbing. Even though it is VPP from Intense Group, the pedaling of the bike frame with big travel doesn’t mean the pedaling for climbing. The pedaling performance of a bike frame with big travel is put forward based on acceleration. For example, after you pass a curve, you should accelerate right away. Whether the bike is suitable for climbing is not only the problem of ‘strength releasing’, the angle of the complete bike and the weight will probably affect the force exerting when you cycle uphill.

The important role of the soft tail bike frame is to withstand the jolt and take advantage of suspension to offset the irregular leap of wheels which is caused by the bumpy ground. Make tires touch the ground tightly all the time so that you can drive or brake. At the same time, the good stability of the bike will be easy for cyclists to pedal and handle. Only the bikes are stable enough, you dare to cycle faster or you can cycle faster- whatever you cycle uphill or downhill. The purpose of soft tail bike frames is to make you stable and provide a control platform for you to pedal. The bumpier the complicated roads are， the more soft tail bikes are required. This point is applicable to not only large travel, but also small travel.

How to choose a soft tail bike frame and confirm the travel you need is closely related to your demands for mountain bikes. How is the bumpy extent of the road you cycle? How much speed do you want to reach? These factors will decide the size of your travel rather than the gradient will. The bike can also go down slowly if you pinch the brakes of hard tail XC on DH roads. You can hump the bike if there is a drop in some places. So whether you need the hard tail depends on the speed you want to reach rather than the gradient. The bumpier the road is and the faster you want to be, the larger the travel you need is. If the mountain road is natural enough, it is bumpy all the time. There is no absolutely smooth mountain road.

There is no absolute hard tail about the concept of mountain bike. Even the tire can provide the effect of 100-mm hard tail, let alone the carbon frame, which is publicized as a soft tail with 1” travel.  The reason why hard tail is expensive is its “softness”, which means it has excellent performance of triangular longitudinal deformation and can withstand the jolt. Although the bike frame with small travel is not good at withstanding the jolt, its weight is light and its angle is suitable to pedal, so it is suitable for climbing. With the increase of the travel, the bike frame’s ability to withstand the jolt will strengthen, but the weight of the bike frame will definitely increase and the angle should take the handling rather than pedaling into consideration. So it will be more and more suitable to accelerate with the help of earth gravity when you cycle downhill.

Then how to choose it? If the bike frame with the travel below 4”is equipped with the 80-100mm front fork, the weight of the complete bike will be easily below 10.5 kg, and its pedaling feeling will not be worse than the pedaling feeling of hard tail in terms of angle and rigidity. At the same time, the strength of driving and gripping the ground will be stronger. We suggest that people who like cycling uphill at an amazing speed should choose 4”and below. These kinds of bike frames are also very common at world championships， and what we mentioned above is just the conditions of soft tail whose size is below 4”. If the bike frame with the travel below 4.5”, 5 ”or 5.5” is equipped with the110-140mm front fork, the weight of the complete bike will easily reach 12.5 kg or within 12.5kg. It achieves more perfect resistance ability at the same time of sacrificing some ‘assault’ properties when cycling uphill. You can continue to exert your strength when you are pedaling.

…is the main type that my peers will use for “mountain”.  We suggest that people who are not eager for the cross-country race and mainly play rally and like crossing all kinds of places can choose this kind of bike, which is called ‘being able to work at both higher and lower level without any complaint’. If the bike frame with the travel of 6” or about 6.5” is equipped with the 140-160mm front fork, the weight of the complete bike is basically 13 kg to 14 kg. Now you can feel tired when pedaling and the uphill speed begins to be greatly affected, but it still has the perfect passing properties and begins to support technical leap. It begins to show the properties of going downhill at an amazing speed, going uphill and downhill without any complaint when crushing.  Cyclists begin to get rid of trembling with fear when facing a drop and they can deal with hairpin curves and curved walls with ease. People who pursue the feeling of flying, jumping and ‘handling’ can choose the bike frame with this kind of travel.

If the bike frame with the travel of 7”or 8.5” or 8.5”and over is equipped with front fork of 180mm, 200mm and over, please forget about climbing and just go seek the telpher. If you want to cycle uphill, you just need to pedal your bike in a casual way. There is no need for me to mention the weight of the complete bike because everybody knows about it. People who like pursuing excitement between falling on the ground and not falling on the ground and showing the attitude of ignoring the drop and big stones can choose this kind of bike frames. If you choose this kind of bike, don’t try to have a climbing race against people who have hard tail bikes. And they don’t like to have a race of cycling downhill against this kind of people as well.

The skill and technology

You should save the physical endurance as more as possible at the beginning when having a race on the rolling hill belt or the area which only has a 5 to 10 minutes’ ascent. Amateur cyclists usually can’t decide between how to keep in step with the whole group at the beginning and saving the physical endurance for the following ascent.

One of the ways to ease fatigue is to think about how you produce the physical endurance that you need when cycling uphill. You may feel very good after standing up, using the chain wheel, dashing up to the top of the slope at the very beginning of riding a bike. In fact, you have used a large amount of muscle fiber energy while most of them are fast muscles which will make you feel tired. These fast muscles should be used when you need them to provide great acceleration so you should mainly rely on slow muscles to provide energy at ordinary times. If you want to do like that, you should sit to ride a bike when beginning to cycle uphill and adjust to a more relaxing gear ratio at the same time of improving your cadence. Now your output power is the same as the output power produced when you sit to cycle or even higher.

It is really a good method to stand to cycle at several-minute intervals because you can stretch your back by doing so and your legs can have a rest by changing the way of pedaling and then you can sit to cycle again.  You should make the most of the addition power provided by weight when standing to cycle. Your weight is mainly supported by the saddle when sitting to cycle. However, you can take advantage of your weight to strength the pedaling intensity when standing to cycle, which is like that putting a booster on your legs. But if you still keep the gear ratio of which you sit to cycle, you will not get any additional benefit so you should raise 1 or 2 gear ratio correspondingly. Your cadence will decrease when standing to cycle so you should adjust to a higher chain wheel and take advantage of your weight to keep or even improve your output power and speed.

Climbing speed

To those cyclists who need to improve the power to cope with continuous climbing， one training mode that I recommend the most is the climbing speed. The point of this kind of training mode is to keep suitable and sustainable speed at the bottom of the slope and pick up speed when approaching the top of the slope.

Professional cyclists will train on the slope whose length can reach up to 10 minutes or in bigger places. But to most amateur cyclists who is preparing for climbing races，the distance should be shorter. For example, they can practice on an (a series of ) ascent whose length is 2-4 minutes, begin to cycle uphill at moderate speed and then raise the speed to a changeable but sustainable way gradually, keep the cadence at 80-90 each hour (70% or 80% of the power. If you are familiar with CTS on-site test, it should be 86 -90％ of the on-sit power and 92-94％ of the on-site testing heart rate or lower than your lactate threshold.)

Keeping the output level until you are 30-45 seconds away from the top of the slope and then you can begin to pick up speed. First you should raise the cadence and then raise the gear ratio. At last you should pick up speed all the way until you reach the top of the slope. When you arrive on the top of the slope, you should use 90% of your effort and at least 90% of the on-site testing power and 95％-97％ of the on-site testing heart rate or above. You should have a rest every 3 or 5 minutes. High level cyclists can reduce the rest time to 1-2 minutes. Green hands or cyclists at a medium level should set their goals of training in climbing acceleration 8 times while high level cyclists should practice 10 times.

Training in climbing acceleration helps to cope with changes of riding rhythm, especially when you are on continuous slopes. But sometimes you can take advantage of this ability to launch a sprint for the destination or get rid of the big group.

Cycle uphill to hit the mountain

Training in cycling uphill to hit the mountain can not only make up for some ability to cycle uphill (such as the oxygen consumption when launching an attack, the lactate threshold when getting rid of other cyclists, etc.) but also make athletes practice how to win in a sprint finish during the training. Firstly, you should understand your own gap and shortcomings. But when you are making efforts to make up for the gap, a large amount of lactic acid will be produced so you must have the ability to remain to keep a higher speed when the body is processing the lactic acid. These trainings will be helpful to improve this kind of ability.

Look for a hill which you can cycle on for at least 4 minutes. If no slope is available nearby, you can practice on flat ground. This practice will greatly help athletes to launch an attack and get rid of others when they are on flat ground. You should be at higher speed at the beginning of cycling uphill and then stand up to pick up speed by shaking bikes as hard as possible. The process of shaking bikes is no less than 45 seconds. You should keep a training speed that you can keep with the highest strength until the end of the climbing after you begin to pick up speed (If you practice on the flat ground or a long slope, you should keep this status for 4 minutes.).

The output power in this part of training should reach or even exceed the level when you cycle uphill with great efforts and the cadence should be more than 80 times every minute. The climbing output power should reach up to 95%-100% of the on-site testing power. If you use heart rate as a standard, then it should be 95%-97% of the on-sit testing heart rate level. You can cycle for 5 minutes easily at training intervals to make a recovery. Green hands should finish 4 sets of trainings while medium and high level cyclists should finish 6 sets of trainings.

The quick release is a kind of fastener which is specific to bikes. The handle of the quick release is just the secret of the quick release. The shaft of the handle penetrates the hole on the head of the quick release level.  The shaft can swing relative to the quick release level. There forms a cam at the end of the handle, working in coordination along with the handle seat.
The cam will push the handle seat if you move the handle from an open position to a closed position—then the distance between the handle seat and the nut which is at another end of the quick release level will be reduced and the quick release will be tighten. In addition, there is another kind of quick release whose cam is wrapped in the quick release clamp so you can’t see it.
The operational principle of this kind of quick release is totally the same as what we introduced above.
The quick release used for the axle has two little springs. These two little springs can make the two ends and the head of the axle have basically equal distance after the quick release is open, which will make you easier to install the wheels on the frame—two spaces are corresponding to two axle hooks so the axle can be put into the opening of the hook directly and the quick release will not be a hindrance. The quick release on the seat post clamp don’t need these two springs.

The history of the quick release
The quick release, invented by an Italian named Tullio Campagnolo in 1930, is an ingenious component which is very suitable for bikes.
He took part in an amateur bike racing in the winter of 1927.  At that time each side of the rear wheel of the bike had one freewheel and these two freewheels differed in size.
Using the big freewheel would save effort when you cycled uphill. And you could be faster if using the small freewheel to cycle downhill or on the flat ground. If you wanted to change the freewheel, you had to take off the rear wheel, turn it over and install it on the bike again. At that time we used the wing screw to install the axle and we could tighten it by hands directly.
But the snow froze the screw in winter and Campagnolo’ hands were frozen so he couldn’t tighten the screw. Then he began to think hard about some methods to improve it. Three years later, he invented the popular quick release. In 1933, he invented the derailleur once more which lays the groundwork for the modern bikes with derailleur. From then on, a famous bike component brand called Campagnolo appears. The quick release also exists in their trademark as Campagnolo’s fist invention—the handle of the quick release and the flying wings.

The instructions of the quick release
The quick release plays a role in fastening key components of the bike–wheels and the seat post. If you can’t use the quick release rightly, you can’t make sure that the wheels and the seat post have been well tightened, which will cause a serious accident. So we must tighten the quick release rightly and conform to some precautions to ensure it can be used safely.

The first thing I need to note is that don’t ever regard the handle of the quick release as the cranking bar and use it to rotate the quick release level when you are tightening the quick release! This kind of operation is totally wrong by which you can’t get enough fastening force—little power will be produced when the quick release level is rotated into the quick release nut.
The main reason is that the handle of the quick release is too short to produce the torsion. (Think about the wretch which is used to tighten the axle nut. Its moment arm of force is at least a dozen centimeters in length.) In addition, the size of the nut and screw is too small to have good ability to tighten. Unfortunately, every one has the common sense to use the nut and the screw to tighten components. There have nuts and screws on the quick release and also has a small handle on the screw.
Those who don’t know the quick release well will naturally think of “shaking”, which makes this seriously wrong operation mode happen easily. So we want to emphasize here that make sure don’t do it like that!

We should also note that the wrong operation mode of “shaking” will damage the quick release, the frame and the front fork as well. The chances are that the excessive spinning force will cause serious damage to the screw thread of the nut and the screw because the reason why the screw thread is designed here is to bear the load and it is not endowed with the ability to withstand the abrasion and occlusion when being rotated by strong power. Friction among the quick release clamp, the bike frame and the front fork will form scratches.

In fact, the quick release has its own tightening structure—namely the cam, which has been mentioned above. When tightening the quick release, you should adjust its tightness first. The adjustment method is as follows: rotate the nut of the quick release, and tighten it slowly at the time of pulling the handle of the quick release to test its tightness, making the handle of the quick release begin to experience resistance when the handle of the quick release and the quick release are in a line—it means that if you want to continue to close the handle of the quick release, you should exert more strength from this angle. This kind of adjustment method aims to exert the strength easily. After finishing adjustment, you can move the handle of the quick release hard to get it tightened. You should move it through at least 90 degrees. At the same time, you can feel that you have exerted so much strength (You have to use the palms to move it) and feel the “resilience” which is produced when the quick release are lengthened (In fact, the quick release obtains the fastening force by lengthening the quick release slightly. As long as the quick release has good lubrication you can feel this kind of force. ). If you feel the force is weak when tightening, there maybe have two reasons: one reason is that the cam of the quick release shows signs of serious wear, which can not lengthen the quick release efficiently，so you should change to a new one immediately; another reason lies in the size of the frame.

When the axle is put into the axle fork, there are spaces between the axle fork and the head of the axle. You fail to make the quick release level tight enough because of these spaces when you are tightening the quick release, so you should make it tighter when adjusting the tightness.  When tightening the quick release, you’d better move it more frequently.  You move the handle of the quick release through over 90 degrees just after the handle of the quick release and the quick release level are almost in the line. If you can feel that the resistance of the handle of the quick release has been reduced, it means it just passes through the highest point of the cam and now the quick release is in stable condition. It will not loosen easily and be very reliable.

In order to prevent the handle of the quick release from loosening accidentally because of the strange stuff, the direction of the quick release really matters. Generally，the quick release of the front wheel faces backwards or runs parallel to the front fork while the quick release of the rear wheel faces backwards or runs parallel to the seat stay. The quick release of the seat post clamp usually faces downwards or forward or runs parallel to the stem of the frame.  Some handles of the quick releases of the seat post clamps look like semi-rings, which can be moved forward horizontally and be put into the seat post clamp.

If you want to open the quick release, what you should do is to loosen the handle until it is vertical to the quick release level. At this point, both the quick release seat and the quick release nut will separate themselves from the axle fork, the wheel can be taken off, and the seat post clamp be loosened. The openings of some axle forks have two projections while there is a loop of bulging edge around some axe forks. All these projections can prevent the wheel from falling out of the axle fork when the quick release loosens accidentally so it belongs to a safety design.

With this projection, pulling the handle of the quick release until it is open is far from being enough when you need to install and take off the wheel. Only the quick release nut is loosened, you can install and take off the wheel smoothly. In fact, these projections are not necessary and a lot of frames and front forks haven’t this kind of design. As long as the quick release is installed properly, it is also all right and it can be installed and taken off easily.  You don’t need to screw the quick release nut every time. If you want to check whether the quick release is installed properly, you can lift the bike up and make the wheel suspend from the sky, then punch the wheels downwards. If the wheels are not loose, it means the quick release has been installed properly. The reliable way, however, is to readjust the tightness of the quick release and tighten it properly.

The maintenance of the quick release
The main maintenance of the quick release is its lubrication.  Adding enough lubricating grease on the cam of the quick release can reduce the wear of the cam. And adding a thin layer of lubricating grease on the screw thread of the quick release can prevent rust, corrosion and thread occlusion. Some quick release clamps whose surfaces produce friction with the cams are made of engineering plastic. This kind of quick releases don’t need to lubricate the friction surface between the cam and the quick release clamp, but you’d better lubricate the axle of the cam.

Precautions
1.You must check the quick release for fear that other people have used it and you can’t fasten the wheels and the seat post reliably after parking your bike in public places because the quick release can be operated without any tool and attract people’s attention easily.

2.For bikes with brake discs, you can’t put the handle of the quick release on the side which has a disc brake for fear of touching the disc.

Solutions to oil getting into the disc brake of mountain bikes

It will be very annoying if there has oil in the disc brake system. It will cost you a fortune to change the brake lining and the disc itself. Then I will share some solutions when there has oil in the

disc brake of mountain bikes here:

1.Deal with the brake lining
Bake the lining on the open fire until you can see little smoke rise. Perhaps some small bubbles will form on the baked lining and what you should do is to rub it down with fine sandpaper.

2.Deal with the disc
Take the disc off the hub and buy a bottle of kitchen cleaning agents like Mr. Muscle.  Spray some cleaning agents evenly onto the disc and let it stand for 10 minutes after the disc get wet.  Then use a scouring pad to scour the surface of the disc. At last you should clean it with water. If something on the disc disperses after touching the water, it means that there still has some oil on the surface. So you should clean it repeatedly until the water film can completely cover the brake area of the disc.

Please note that cleaning agents is usually harmful to your hands so you’d better wear the gloves when washing.

The dealt lining and disc can be restored to 80% of its former braking force.

We suggest that people who like rushing to the mountain should check the disc brake system carefully. If an accident happens, the medical expenses are much more expensive than the expenses of changing a disc brake.

Teach you how to improve the braking performance of mountain bikes

To mountain bikes, the most important thing for competitive games is to race the braking skills so whether the performance of a brake is good or not is very important. It will affect not only competitive skills but also security, so you have to check and adjust the brake carefully before going cycling or the race. In order to cope with vigorous races, an editor called Cycler from China Bicycle Network will discuss something about the brakes with everybody.
The control of brakes

A good brake doesn’t mean it can make the tire stop but make the bike stop by reducing rotation in the state of grasping the ground. If the tire is in a state of glide, the braking distance will be longer.

The irreconcilability of the brake means that how the power when cyclists are raising or reducing the brake lever can be transferred to the brake quickly. If the performance of the hydraulic brake is too strong, you will fall off when failing to brake.

In addition, some series will take advantage of the impedance of the spokes and brake shoes to strengthen the braking performance. It is hard to control this kind of series on slippery roads because the impedance of the spokes and brake shoes exceeds the impedance of the road. To this kind of brake, if you release the brake level when the bike starts to glide, the reaction is so slow. It is still suitable for beginners because they usually cycle slowly and brake gently.

Plate-Stabilizer
The power that presses the rims originally will transfer to expanding power after the brake is activated. In order to inhibit this phenomenon，it will be better to install the plate. Once it is installed on the brake, the force which is put on the brake lever will not be wasted and totally transferred to the brake. And it will become the brake with good controlling performance.

The brake shoes
The brake shoe is something to tighten the rim. Its material will greatly affect the brake and the sense of touch. If the compound is soft enough, it is very handy in dry weather. But it will become very bad if it gets wet due to the rain so you should use brake shoes made of different kinds of materials according to the race situation.

The grip
You are required to control the bike body strictly in athletics like Slalom, Downhill and Trial. It is better to use slip-proof and harder rubber instead of soft grips like sponges.

Your hands will hurt on occasions like cross-country events, traveling by bike if you grab the grip for a long time so you should use the grip whose surface is smoother. But you need to use grip with impedance according to the route situation of a cross-country event. It is also good to wrap the soft belt around the grip when no real skills are required.

The brake cable

Longer brake cables will cause some problems like the stretch of the cables, slow reaction and imbalance. If the length of the brake cable is proper enough, you will not feel it too tense when turning the grip to the left and right.

If you want to adjust the angle and the protrusion of the grip, what you should do is to change the handlebar stem. Handlebar stems come in all angles and sizes. If your purpose is to do a race, you can choose the protrusion.

A length of 120-160 mm is better by which you can control the bike more stably at high speed while the angle of 90~120°is better. They must match the frame and the body well no matter they are angles and protruding length, so you should choose them carefully.