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Singletracks Mountain Bike Podcast

Tips for Optimizing Your Mountain Bike Cockpit

Singletracks Mountain Bike Podcast

Singletracks.com

Wilderness, Sports

4.7574 Ratings

🗓️ 22 May 2017

⏱️ 43 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode, Aaron and I discuss mountain bike cockpit setup, starting from the top! We’ll touch on handlebars, stems, grips, controls (shifters, brake levers, remotes, and accessories), saddles, seatposts, and finally pedals. Strap in and join us for the ride!

--Keep up with the latest in mountain biking at Singletracks.com and on Instagram @singletracks

Transcript

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0:00.0

Something unexpected has arrived in Happy Meal. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Hello Kitty and friends are teaming up for the ultimate collab.

0:08.3

Joining your little ones on a fun-fueled adventure. Some fun, some food, it's all inside this happy meal.

0:16.3

Until the 2nd of February from 11am includes one pre-selected book or toy whilst it's last.

0:20.1

Hey everybody, welcome to the single tracks podcast.

0:23.3

My name is Jeff, and today Aaron and I are going to be talking about setting up your mountain bike cockpit.

0:29.8

So when we're riding in the flow, a lot of times piloting a mountain bike can feel like flying a fighter jet.

0:36.1

And just like in a fighter jet, we got to set up our cockpit

0:39.0

so we're ready to slay single track. So we're going to start at the top of the bike and work

0:45.2

our way down, starting with the handlebars. So one of the big questions these days seems to be

0:51.7

about handlebar width. What's your sort of general take on the width for

0:56.7

handlebars on mountain bikes, Aaron? Yeah, after decades of narrow bars and long stems,

1:03.5

we've seen a trend towards shorter stems and wider bars. Personally, I'm a fan of wide bars,

1:09.7

but I'm also six feet tall and have pretty long arms.

1:13.8

So for XC riding, I like something in the 750 to 760 millimeter range.

1:20.1

And then on my trail bike, I usually have something around 780 millimeters.

1:25.6

You know, kind of a good rule of thumb for choosing a bar width is to get into a

1:29.5

push-up position, just however naturally your arms fall when you're in a push-up position and then

1:35.1

measure to the outside of each of your hands. And that should give you a good idea of what

1:39.5

appropriate bar length is for you, or bar width is for you.. But basically though, you know, a 720 to 740

1:45.8

should work for riders on the shorter end of the spectrum and then anything over 750 if you're,

1:52.4

you know, 58 or 59 and up should be all right. Yeah, one of the things and one of the reasons,

1:58.3

I guess people have questions about this is that

...

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