Look bike setup and a few basic do’s and dont’s they’ll allow people to set their bike up so that it’s more comfortable and more importantly more safe for them to ride so the first and most important part of getting a bike setup is that the frame is actually the right size in the
First place so whenever someone’s got their bike or if you’re giving them a bike just make sure they can swing a leg over the top tube here and they mean very comfortably stand if they can’t comfortably stand like this then they can’t get off the bike forwards like this and they’ll always be
Falling over when they’re trying to get off the bike which is really dangerous so you need just two or three inches between the top tube here and the bits that matter here once you’ve got that set up you need to start thinking about saddle height there is an optimum sound
Of height for riding efficiency but it might not be the height that’s right for your riders it’s essential that they’re comfortable and confident on the bike and so actually starting low particularly if you’re doing skills work can work really well so a lot of people particular if they’re new like to be
Able to get their feet down on the ground like this there’s nothing wrong with that at all once you get out and start riding further distances you’ll find that they need to get the height up towards the optimum position here and the good way to measure optimum height
Is to actually get them to sit on the bike have this pedal down at the six o’clock position and their heel goes on the pedal and their legs should be near enough locked out here so just a tiny bit of bend in the knee so that’s the optimum pedaling saddle height so we’ve
Got the right size frame and the right seat height the next adjustment we can make it’s just about the cockpit length here it’s really important that people can actually get their weight moves down behind the saddle here for steep drops so if they can’t you can undo the bolts
Here and just adjust the saddle forward two or three inches there’s always enough adjustment to actually bring it forward you can also think about maybe rotating the handlebars forwards or backwards by just undoing these bolts slight movement and pinching them back up and you can get quite a lot of
Cockpit adjustment there as well so we’ve got the right by we’ve got the right length next thing is the brakes it’s so common to see people who’ve got their brake levers set up near enough flat which actually is fine if they’re only ever widened down to the
Shops that’s not a problem at all but we’re gonna encourage them to stand up as much as possible and so if they can stand up and have a fairly straight line down their forearm and down the brake lever it makes it a lot more comfortable so whilst up high like this
Might feel good when you sat down when you stood up having the levers down there makes it a lot more easy to cover the brakes other brake adjustment you can make relate to where the brake lever sits on the handlebar so I’d encourage them to set it up so they can only use
One finger to brake and then they’ve got the remaining three fingers gripping around the bars it gives them a lot more grip a lot more control and a lot more confidence so we’ve got the right angle we’ve got the lever in the right place finally if they’ve got small hands then
You’ll normally find some kind of adjustment here and you can actually adjust that lever in closer to the handlebar so it’s easier for them to keep the brake covered you’re going to encourage them to ride the whole time with one finger just sitting on the brake so that it’s always there to pull
When they need it okay so that’s it for the bike setup go have fun on the trails you