Quote:
Originally Posted by kalleh
OK, I'm hopelessly slow so maybe I'm just one of those guys™, but here's my take on this: A significant amount of my corner confidence comes from a bike that is stable while cornering. And that's why one of my first priorities on my bike was to put on as good suspension as I could afford. Are there people who can ride faster than me on stock suspension? Yes. Is good suspension making me more confident, faster and letting me have more fun? Yes for that too!
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Of course. A well set up bike is amazing and confidence inspiring but here is the thing. What is the use of a well set up bike if your skills are ****? (and I'm not saying anyone here has **** skills)
Just an example. I was coaching a guy who was reasonably quick but he kept coming in and adjusting his suspension and complaining that he was bottoming out the front forks, and that the bike felt unstable. Upon closer investigation of his riding we determined that he was completely off the gas most of the corner and therefore had too much weight on the front and the bike felt unstable. He went back out, worked on improving his throttle control and wham, problem solved. As Keith Code says sometimes, good throttle control is like suspension tuning on the fly.
Again, not saying AT ALL that suspension is not important or that good parts won't make a bike feel better or go faster, I just want to stress the importance of good skills as equally valuable and worthy of throwing money at
Quote:
Originally Posted by csmith12
Sure thing Kalle! 
Many of the quotes from very talented riders are based on certain fundamentals already being in place. Such as a well setup suspension on their bike, good tires, well fitting gear, ect.. ect.. I can only assume that K. Code's quote above is also based on those same assumptions.
Getting the hard parts required to get the bike stable in the corner is kinda one of those given fundamentals imho. Does it have to be 100% perfect? Nah, but hopefully pretty darn close and the closer to 100%, the better.
We smile more when our bikes to not fight what we are asking it to do.  |
Agreed.