John McCall has asked us about his position on his mountain bike. We try to help him in whether he should lower his bar or not, bit tricky as we can’t see him in action. He also fancies a new full suspension bike and is worried about the price; as always we say go get the bike of your dreams, tiger.
Question: Hi Samuel, I have a mountain bike and was told to reduce the height of the handle bike as it would be better when cycling. Is this true also considering to buy a full suspension mountain bike. One is Scott or the other giant. At the moment I have trek still want to keep the trek the ones. I have looked at are in the region of £4,500 is this expensive from your point of view and which make would you go for. Thanks for your help. John
Hi John,
Lowering your handle bars may improve your cycling or it may give you a sore back. Thus, without seeing riding it is hard to say. On a mountain bike what tends to happen is you bend your arms and use the arm muscles more when you need them, so if you sit up more when just riding then you will probably lower your body when making an effort.
Now maybe you are sitting to high, like on a old “sit up and beg” style bike, in which case you do need to lower the bars, being too upright or being too low can both cause problems, one because all the bumps in the track goes up the spine and the other because you are bent over too much, putting a strain on your lower back and your shoulders and neck, the best position is somewhere between the two.
What do you want a full suspension bike for? Is it for downhill only or is it for cross country work? The big difference being weight as weight is not important for the down hilling. The position is different also as downhillers sit low for the gravity and for the cross country you need a normal position so you can pedal in all conditions.
4,500 pounds is not expensive for a full-suspension bike, if you want the best then you have to pay for it. My choice would be a Trek or a Scott as both are very nice well-made bikes, but I also like the Specialized. All bikes at that price are going to be good, you just have to make up your mind on the small details, like make of saddle, the handlebars, etc.
I hope we have helped you, let us know what you buy in the end.
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