Recently, there has been a new trend that has appeared from the ranks of craft beers, big beards, flannels and cross-fit (the hipsters among us). And that new trend is to take wide tired mountain bikes (about 4 inches wide) and take them trail riding. Now originally these bikes were designed with such a wide track in order to not sink into snow when riding in the winter. These bikes were originally designed to have static frames, but some companies have moved to producing hard-tail models by modifying the designs of regular hard-tail forks and their geometry to fit the larger wheels and beefier frames.
Now, the obvious challenge about these bikes would be their weight, but this is easily solved by a reworked gear system with more low-gear ratios to aid in starting and going up hills. Another obvious challenge is the turning radius, and the answer is provided through tow solutions. The first being that with the wider tires comes even better grip on the trail, and this allows you to lean down into your turns much more than you would be able to do on a regular bike. Now, the wide tire's added grip also gives great benefits to the climbing capability, when coupled with the modified gearing of the bike. This also gives the bike a wider contact patch on all surfaces, which really comes in handy in wet and muddy conditions.
Now, I would say that unlike other trends that can pop up and then quickly fade out, i believe that this one will stay around or quite some time, This is largely due in part to the many fixes to potential challenges. faced when riding a bike like this.
No comments:
Post a Comment