Could A Downhill Bike Be Your Only Mountain Bike? | Downhill To Enduro Modifications
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 10. 10. 2020
- Modern Enduro bikes are often touted as being just a capable as a downhill bike. Evolving from the humble trail bike with more travel and slacker head angles, until it resembles a pedalable downhill bike. But what if this evolution had come from the other direction? A taming down rather than a beefing up. To find out, Henry slapped a dropper and wide range cassette to a Nukeproof Dissent, and embarked on a series of challenges.
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Its a shame Henry is no longer on the channel. He's so great infront of the camera.
what do you mean? he left the gmbn team?
Andrei Christescu Yeah they mentioned it on GMBN tech that heâs no longer on the team.
Which video did he say that?
@@Bpf1893 do you know why?
@@endurogod5230 I think he and his wife are moving abroad
DH bikes are definitely the best looking MTBâs!
Personally I disagree
@@zensmylie5393 @Zen Smylie Agreed they aren't as pretty as hardtails haha
I actually think they're the ugliest.
@@topspot4834 Why do you think so?
Different taste but IMO downhill bikes do look the best
Henry sounds like a English teacher/poet
he's the gmbn poet indeed
Yea... weâre gonna miss him for sure...đą
Quite a laborious processđ
yeah sounds like he missed his calling Author/Poet lol
A good guy but I don't like him speaking on GMBN. I'm glad he decided to leave.
There's a recent video of Wyn Masters riding an unmodified downhill bike up a famous Alpine climb, passing road bikers as he does it. Having watched Henry's video, I'm even more impressed now.
I love Henry's style of presenting... If anyone knows what I mean, he has a similar style to James May, in a good way.
I actually put more gears on my dh bike and it works well
Funnily enough this is actually exactly something I've been wanting to do for a long time now. Just a shame I don't have the money yet lol
Make sure your frame can handle the dual crown ... A lotta them don't.
I ride my Enduro-fied DH 90% of the time, and I almost never find myself wishing for anything else. Itâs just so incredibly good to ride that the minor drawbacks donât even cross my mind. And I enjoy all the surprised and confused faces I see on the trails lol.
Same here! I get, "Wow! That thing is crazy!" a lot.
Wheres the water tho?
@@adambrookens5459 Camelbak
I must admit , I'm going to miss Henry on the channel. Good luck in your new life.
why did he leave
why did he leave
because they kept making him ride downhill bikes uphill
Yoooo Iâm such a massive fan. Thank you for getting me into mtb, it is now my favourite sport/hobby, and it was all due to your videos. Thank you đ
and everyone else although Seth got me hooked
Arko ye they should definitely do a collab some time
This is so fantastic, I really would love a DH bike with dropper and light gears đđđ„
It is fun putting 12 speed on a DH
I setup my freeride bike like this. Did absolutely everything with it and had no regrets.
I'm doing the same with my 2014 scott voltage fr10. It's my free ride all around ride bikeđ. I take it for rides around town for some street riding then maybe go hit the dirt jumps. But I can still take it to the bike park or down the mountain trails. My favorite bike this far in life.
Around 2011, I had a 120mm trailbike and put a 170mm dual crown downhill fork on it with 680mm bars, short stem, 203mm brake rotors, coil shock, and more enduro/downhill tires and it was awesome. I rode it almost daily on a wide variety of trails and it was always good. Hereâs to enduro!
Swap the cassette, stiffen up suspension to 10% sag, add a MRP ramp control, 165mm cranks, swap the fork for a single crown of the same travel. This is what I do to DH bikes in flat Florida. When I go to real mountains I dial the stiffness and rebound back a bit.
"Love Island 6: Return of the VD" had my in stitches.
My only one bike is Giant Glory 2009 with fox40 and marzoochi rocco air shox, it's 26 inch wheel, now I try to change the wheel into 27.5 and surprisingly its fit on my bike đ, there's a local trail in my place and the track is more enduro than downhill, but I still having fun with my bike. Remember "your bike is the best in the world, just ride it"
"if that had an air shock (...) with a ZEB (...)"
Dude that's what an enduro bike is thought to be ! đ
Legit in the works. There are leaked pics of exactly that. The Nukeproof Giga
@@leomolloy5067 is that what the new yellow Nukeproof frameâs called? The Giga instead of the Mega?
@@rolux4853 nah that's the mega. There will be a longer travel model called the giga that uses the linkage from the discent.
And Norco shore
Having been in the sport since the 1970's !!!! My older bones, joints and injury arthritis screams for the mellow trails and super plush long travel of a converted DH rig .
This is absolutely fantastic just what I was looking for in a video this is got to be the most informative video I have ever seen on CZcams! God bless you thank you for making us
Absolutely Rammed full of Henry's hilarious quips, similes and metaphors.... đđđđđ
Brilliantly went to town on this script H! A fab final 'hurrah' đ€
As always Henri brings to light very valid points. Top Job!
Henry certainly had a way with words. Mans was born to be a presenter. I hope he finds what he's looking for going off the grid with his S/O.
Henry coming up with the video ideas that answer the questions we've all had at one point in time
I feel the problem of wobbling all around can be solve by finding a rear shock or a double crown shock that has a lock system. What I do is I put a lot of air in the shock for climbing and then release some of the air in the top of the mountain and ride like nothing happened. I always wanted to see a video talking about a downhill bike with a big cassette in the rear and this opens so many ideas in how to upgrade my bike
Henry has the most amazing expressions!!! Be safe .
this was exactly what I was doing with my orange 223 back in the days. I am amazed my knees lasted through that
I literally ride a downduro
Trek session 8 2014 with 180 travel front and rear, 150mm dropper and an endure drivetrain
Itâs the Ultimate bike for every situation
Nice vid, thank you Henry and good luck to you!
Glad henrys still here !
Interesting look at what can be done. Top vid Henry. đ
I set up my 2013 GT Fury 2.0 very similar. 14-53T cassette with a 36T up front. No dropper post but I will definitely think about one in the future. I'm a heavy rider (260#/117kg) so I swapped in a 600# rear spring, and the yellow heavy springs in the Boxxer forks. I also went with the largest rotors I could find 209mm. The bike does everything I ask it to. I love it. It weighs 38#/17kg. I don't even notice.
GT foreverrr
yes it can be your only bike. i have a v10 santa cruz with 12 gears n dropper post and more mods and is a beast going up and going down. everyone tough i was crazy for doing my set up on a dh bike. but i can honestly said i love it. and it works great going up and going down. many riders will be surprise how well it climbs. good video
Had a 2004 VPFree I built up an agressive trail rig. This was before companies offered Enduro bikes. 40+ lbs aside, the bike was a blast to run on all mountain trails
Just what I always wanted to see!
London to Brighton night marathon, DH 2003 DeVinci Ollie :) 888RC 200mm fork, 6Way damper, wide tyres - no problem :)
I did something like this 20 years ago with my downhill. To solve the seat height problem, I used a long seat post for peddaling and climbing. Then once I got to the top I pulled my second short seat post out of my camelbak and installed it for the descent. Modern droppers solved that problem for sure.
Henry, i have the do it all bike for ya.
Privateer 161 frame
Zeb Ultimate 170mm
EXT storia V3 with climb switch
Dt Swiss 350 - FR560
Sram GX eagle 10-52 group
220mm disc - Code R
đŻ đ
We call it the " Super Enduro "
I have an old 2006 yeti asx with an old 178mm dual crown u-turn boxxer which is soooo good for enduro. It may not be the best fork out there for downhill but the ability to change the travel from 178mm to 133mm with a turn of a knob makes such a huge difference. I plan on giving it a more capable drivetrain than a 2x9 but as it is the bike is decent for uphill and amazing for downhill
Pretty good you did this. Some downhill bikes are cheaper than a basic full suspension trail or enduro.
yeah especially second hand in the UK
Because truth is the only thing you need on a downhill bike is a single speed and good brakes and good plush suspension that can handle red bull rider and a frame that is strong đȘ that's all I need In a bike infact trail bike and enjuro bikes are scary even yho enjuro can handle most downhill hills wouldn't trust it for anything else you won't see redbull riders use it down sketch mountains fast because the enjuro bike would snap like a toothpick I would definitely want a strong frame for that stuff
God I love Henry...haven't enjoyed a GMBN video like this in SO long
On the other hand, I had a 2005 specialized bighit years ago with full downhill spec and triple clamp fork. It was the original mullet 26/24 wheeled bike and it climbed amazingly well. My theory is the 24 inch rear wheel made the gearing effectively like a much lower gear and helped with torque multiplication going uphill.
Henry. You will be SORELY missed my friend. Well wishes in all your future endeavors.
Good luck Henry, happy travels!
thanks for the video!! I have been tooling this idea for my own dissent!! wireless dropper maybe, as the 2020 doesn't have internal housing on the left of the frame. gave me a few good ideas! cheers
I had a bit of fun finding a dropper for my Free-ride come only ride... (2010 Giant Faith... way more of a bike than I will ever need, Totems are a little harsh though)
I ended up with a very low spec Zoom Tequila 100mm witch used almost all the insertion depth when set to my riding height.... Basically there was no 150mm solution under $600 that didn't need modification of max travel to hit the correct top height without passing it.
I have about 20mm free in the frame and a shock bolt that denies internal cabling. (I can still gain that 20mm manually at the top of a decent downhill at the loss of full height extension.. but that's fine if there's no big uphills needing me to stop and manually raise the unit back to the full position.
What we need is a truely telescopic system. I even semi designed one (on paper) using a light internal spring. An internal oil ram to lock it in place, with a spring pressured reservoir to assist the lightweight internal... which could be done with air/nitrogen)
I just bought a 2021 kona process 153 29. compared to my old bike, an 05 giant reign 2, the slacker headtube angle is very noticeable and makes it hard to go up some technical/steeper hills. it has a longer wheelbase and you can feel that in the trails. it goes down hills great, but it feels goofy climbing.
I started with a Banshee Darkside that was built with a 1x11 and a single crown 180mm fork. I took the 222x70 coil shock off and put a 216x63.5 air shock to reduce the rear travel down to roughly 165mm and give me on-the-trail adjustability. The fork is a DVO Onyx SC which allows for travel reduction in 10mm increments(180-160), I went with 160. The frame has rear dropouts that are mounted on flip chips so I positioned those to take some of the slack out.
I took what is considered a park bike/freeride bike and made an all around bike for my riding. If I ever need more I can easily put it back to 180/180 or even get a DVO Onyx DC fork and run 203/180 with the slack flip chip and have a semi-DH bike. I can also drop it down from 157 rear hub with 27.5 to 150 boost and 26" to make a mullet, or throw a lighter 26" wheel on the front to keep the geometry how I have it now but make a smaller and more nimble bike.
With some proper lighter wheels and clever drivetrain choice and bit of fitness, probably would pedal as good as most enduros around.
@@laurynasjagelo5075 Even with the DH hubs and gravity casing tires it pedals pretty well. Climb switch on the shock helps a ton. I currently only ride once a week but I ride the bike to and from my riding spot, total of about 14 miles each ride on a bike that weighs 37lbs
I've always been one to turn a certain type of bike into one that is as most all around as it can be. I used to ride a 24 inch "dirt jumper"... it was really just a 24" BMX. Three quarter axles, 48 spoke wheels, chrome-moly frame, no suspension, jerry-rigged front brake, Maxxis 2.4 Holy Rollers on very rocky Arizona desert trails.
I ride one like this đ
11 - 32t cassette 38t chainring 10 speed
fox 40s front canecreek db rear
had a dropper but removed it as stack height was way too much
Keeps up and beats my mates on short travel enduro / trail bikes daily :)
IMHO 140-160mm travel trail/enduro bikes are the best âall roundersâ. You can manage a 30mile marathon ride with tons of climbing on it and take it to a DH park the next ride.
Much more travel makes it a pig to pedal and way less makes it less capable for downhill.
Agreed. With the right linkage I can ride a 150mm rear travel bike all day, and never reach for the climb switch. Much more than that and I don't like it even with a lockout.
Soo good comparison. IÂŽll definetely buy a DH bike and try those changes. Talking with other friends and channels seems like everyone at least has tried the casette switch and air shock pumping its rebound to super fast with interesting results. However, the climbing effort keeps being too taxing to make it an everyday happy selection.
This video is hilarious. I love all your 1-liners henry
I am in the process of toning down my DH bike, it is a Rose " the Unchained". Next stage is a RS Zeb and a smaller chainring up front ( 32 --> 28), also chaincing 26 inch wheels to 27.5 inch. Up back I have 11-46 teeth and a dropper is already installed.
Did this in 2013 and it worked great (with 2013 DH geometry!).
I pedal up with my Demo's 11-26 cassette and 36t chainring. Figure it's more of a workout.
Running polygon xquareone dh8. All carbon frame, and upgraded to carbon rims and bars. 14.5kg with 2.8" tires. With enough insert room for dropper. bout to put oneup 210mm dropper! Still good climber.
Love island 6 return of the vid is class!! Henry youâre a star
You should get a shock with a climb switch so it would be easyer to climb and get an headtube and changer cap so it can become an small bit steeper for those steep climbs . Great video
I was pondering exactly this - especially if you fitted a larger gear range, nice one GMBN... especially as the Dissent is so much cheaper than a Mega right now! Although by the time you upgrade the gears and rear shock...
Brilliant....such funny and clever scripting....miss that turn of phrase...
'stepping on a plate-full of blanc mang'đđđđ
Interesting video mate!
Iâm not a bike park guyâŠâŠI like the pain and the climb, the reward of doing it under my own power and brisk, but controlled downhill. I have an all purpose AM bike with 130mm and itâs nearly as light as my XC bike. Iâm not flying off stuffâŠ..bad landings mean long recovery times if you follow my drift.
I have an old specialized status and that works fine as an enduro bike, even though it's still a 26er and is marketed as a cheaper alternative to the demo. Feels fun, and I don't mind the extra squish.
I have an idea, fox used to make a 36 with adjustable travel on the fly, from 100mm 130 and 160. If they made a dh fork do that, they could drop the travel from 200mm down to like 180 or 160, or even lower, and that would make the head tube steeper and a hell of a lot better for climbing
Rock Shox has also done it with dual position air (or U-Turn on their Coil Forks, which was infinitely adjustable. On my old Pike itâs 95-140mm).
I think they even brought Dual Position Air back on the E-Bike version of the ZEB, to steepen the headangle for these sick assisted climbs.
@@rolux4853 yeah I think more fork manufacturers should offer this on their forks, it sounds like a simple way to make an enduro bike with dh geo and still be able to climb fire roads or whatever with ease
@@rolux4853 I'm still running that 95-140 coil pike on my 5" bike. Normally, I never bother with lockouts or UTurn, but when I'm going up a loooong fire road, it sure is nice.
@@NoBrakes23 yeah I still have that fork on my Kona Hardtail.
I service it every few years and it works absolutely amazing!
People can talk crap about the motion control damping all they want, itâs super easy to service, has very few parts that could break and functions really well.
But these people talking crap about it, mostly donât even dare to adjust the pressure on their fork, better let the bikeshop do this highly skilled task...
You really should do a video where you take a road bike and see how well it MTBs, it would be hysterical!
I laced a pair of xc rims onto DH hubs ,put continental mountain king wet tissue tyres on .It made a noticeable difference to the rotational mass and drag .I take my wheels off to put my bike in my car anyway .So it's no hassle.2 pairs of wheels gets definitely makes my bike more of an all rounder .I have to take the wheels off my bike to put it in my car so it's no hassle .
Put 160mm cranks, they will allow you to use a longer (dropper) post. Put 28mm front chainring, it will allow you to climb easier. Both of these improved the enjoyment of my capra
Cool video Henry! đđ
Yeah having one of each bike I tend to use the enduro more than the dh unless it's uplift day less weight more gears lock outs just make a better pedal up machine đ
So in the end, what differences it from a enduro bike, if you swap every component towards enduro options? Geo only? Isn't something like Pole then nearly the same?
Sounds like an enduro bike with a dh fork is the way to go.
Single crown forks are light but they are far more flexible than dual crown forks.
That's why Morc 36 exist, modified fox 36 to be dual crown. I know Mrp did a 180mm dual crown enduro fork, some run lowered dh forks like fox 40 or Boxxer, Formula
Donât think the new 38 and zeb are too far off in terms of stiffness
New zeb is stiffer than boxxer
@@rupedog
There you go.
It seems to me that dual crown is a better solution from an engineering. perspective so that larger bottom of the steerer must have a huge effect.
Must
Really amazing awesome đ€Łđ„°
This is real creativity
Miss Henry already. Also, should have tried putting Trail casing tires on the DH bike to lighten it up.
All this exacting stuff is very informative to the regular biker guy, however . . . .
I have a hard tail Trek Gary Fisher for my every day/ride to work bike and it is so inadequate to try to pretend it is an mountain bike.
But I love my Commencal Meta TR 29 for everything else, including climbing up those steep logging roads and even up the rooty trails. It even has a rear shock switch (which I and Pink Bike never used). Do I need anything else? Not really unless I was going to take the lift up Whistler and scream over large jumps which would bottom out my shocks and break my shoulders/back.
Just remember, these wonderful informative videos are really advertisements to separate us from our hard earned money.
And I too am going to miss you Henry.
#comments Way to cement your GMBN legacy Henry. Great video. Gonna miss ya dude! All the best. đ€đ»
There are enduro bikes available, that ride like DH bikes - > Nicolai G1.
also that specialized enduro and pivot firebird 29
Damn thatâs a sick bike
Yes, I was about to say something about that, you beat me to it. I have one, I love it. đVery stable, well balanced, planted. Great fit and geometry. And chainstay length, seat stay length is adjustable, it's approved for dual crown fork. I still am able to climb as good and actually on tehhnical terrain it's even easier than my too small and lighter trail bike. My G1 is 17.80 kg according to my scale with summer setup and 18.70 with studded tyres and heavy Exposure Sixpack light. The bike has a ext Storia V3 which has a climb switch, but I don't need to use it,thete is alot of support but yet supple initial stroke. I am 86kg fully kitted with current gear,use a 400 spring. My review wp.me/p60aTF-2Rq
No problem with dropper post insertion length. đI have Bike Yoke Divine 185mm on mine.
Rocky Mountain Flatline Unlimited as well I got one
This is a very interesting perspective
For a while my only bike was a Specialized Demo. I had to mosey up every trail, but I never encountered an obstacle I wasn't willing to try and I was able to bomb down anything with reckless abandon.
Canfield One - I'm still riding my 2012 , 8" front and rear
Sorry buddy, I did that years ago with my Demo8 in 2011. Still, Awesome for the new riders good man.
downhill bikes are so awesome for everything! and you can do arm curls with it when your stopped at a stoplight in town for the chicks!!
That specialized ebike with the duel crown fork is probably the answer
I own a commencal supreme sx, basically a supreme dh v4.2 wich fits a dropper... imo it's just the best bike on the planet!!
DH bike has been my only bike for years, yea its slow on the uphills but i'm slow on the uphills no matter what mtb i'm riding and its just so excellent on the downhills the good far outweighs the bad for me.
If you can pedal it, it's perfectly fine, I went from riding xc on a cheap big box store 120mm travel, to riding dh on a mondraker summum and a polygon xquarone dh9 and honestly i still go for my 30-40 mile xc rides nearly everyday and I manage just fine and fine the extra challenge of a 36t chainring and 24-11t cassette quite fun
I agree with you about how badly some enduro bikes climb. One that I had some experience with was the Santa Cruz High Tower LT. It was a terribly in efficient climber, you can see why the dropped that model as soon as they could.
Tried it on my Gambler. The only real problem is the seat tube sadly. I'm sure there are DH bikes out there with straight seat tubes and good insertion depths.
FWIW: I have a 2015 Spartan Carbon RC in XL at 13.4kg and a 2015 Carbon Wilson XL at 17kg stock.
Tires and tubes on the Wilson weigh an extra 2kg, CCDB is another 1kg over the Debonair of the Spartan, Chain Guide is another .2kg vs 1up single guide, coil WC in the Boxxer vs WC Air is another .75kg. which puts it around 14kg... put a carbon bar on it... 13.85kg but then a dinner platter on the back +.15kg and a dropper +.5kg and ya... doable!
Duuude you've got some world class narrating skills. Please make a carreer
My good pal had a nice big DH bike, he rode for a while but for no real reason he just kinda slowed down. He began to cycle again alot, but not on his Downhill, just because he struggled to get around on it.
I would put a 180mm singlecrown and light tubless enduro tyres. Maybe an air shock and play with all the possibilities it has to change the characteristics.
Had the good fortune to see the new super enduro offering from Nukeproof. I think Henry's head might expload.
Wondered in a larger front sprocket would change the ride of a DH bike. I have a 2014 Specialized Enduro Comp 29
"Love Island 6 - Return of the VD" đ€Łđ€Łđ€Ł
I wonder if henry will come back, hopefully,I liked his perspective on mtn bikes.
I'm in the market for a new (used) bike, and I've always wanted a DH bike since I was in high school. There's this guy in my city that's selling his Intense 951 Evo, and after watching this video, I'm already thinking about buying it and modifying it into a super enduro/DH rig. I'm thinking about getting myself one of those rare Truvativ Hammerschmidt planetary cranksets to solve the problem of gearing, a 190 mm single crown fork to make it lighter without affecting too much the geometry of the frame, and a lever actuated dropper post, as the frame doesn't come with routing for the cable. According to my calculations, it should still be cheaper than a brand new enduro bike of similar specs.
I've done this on my TR450, sure its not perfect but its definitely rideable with no proper downhill parks nearby
HQ!! We'll miss ya bud! đ€ Good argument, but I think I'd just go with the enduro bike with bigger rotors and heavier casings.
IMNSHO While these are great bikes, they really cannot be quiver killers. I'd say the ultimate QK would be 150mm front and rear travel, 65-66 degree head angle, 74-77 degree seat tube, and about 30 pounds. Once you get 1 degree outside of these numbers, and more than 4 pounds either way difference, handling in a particular trail type suffer. So, a steeper angled and lighter bike becomes less fun once the trails get rougher or steeper. And a degree slacker and above 35 pounds, climbing and smooth trails become more taxing. All depends on what you like to ride. I started back in the 90's and really got into it in the XC/AM/DH days. And it seems we are getting closer to those days again. With the AM still falling into two categories XC/Trail and Trail/Enduro.
One thing has to be added. There is a big difference between racing and riding for fun. I prefer more travel "overbiked" approach because nobody is timing my runs. Its the same with XC bikes, they are very efficient super lightweight but so uncomfortable and not practical for average MTBer.
What kind of air shock would you put on a dh bike? As far as I know you cant get air shocks in the same length as dh coil shocks? 200 mm is the longest I could find.