I love this bike but man, it's heavy and slow. This might be a dumb question, what can I do, or replace, to make it faster? I'm getting smoked but literally every other biker to the point where I regret selling my SS. I'm 5'11 and the aerodynamics might also be a bit off given the size of the bike.
by hbhbbhbhbhbhb
12 Comments
Rebuilding the hubs with new bearings and maybe cones may help
Jet thrusters.
First off, you have an absolutely killer bike that many people (r/xbiking) would bite off your arm to have.
In terms of what you can do, it depends on how you’re riding. Do you find yourself spinning your legs in the highest gear? If so, you could install a bigger chainring quite easily. Otherwise, it’ll be mostly about you, your clothing and body position (which impacts your aerodynamics and has a much larger effect than you might expect) and your fitness. You might get some gains by swapping to slicker tyres and pumping them up a bit, but it looks as if you already have quite smooth rolling ones installed.
26 in wheels makes it harder to keep up top end speed. Increase the chain ring, add some slicker tires and throw drop bars on there.
Paddle harder
Get yourself some massive guads.
Lighter wheels and narrower bars would probably be some of the quickest improvements you could make, along with maybe a bigger chainring?
drop bars!! haha
Bigger chain ring. It’s all easy
Thank you all for the responses so far. One thing to note: I’ve tried putting on a bigger chainring, but just going one size up means it would hit the frame. Unless there’s some kind of spacers I can buy to push the crank out a little bit?
TPU tubes makes a bigger difference than you’d expect and have the added bonus of being really small and easy to hide away in a repair kit. Clean and lube the chain never hurts either.
When you’re riding with others are they on similar sized wheels and tires? Are you off road or on road?
I have been riding my mountainbike with roadies on asphalt and I definitely have to put a lot more into it because of my tires being so much wider and meant for off-road. They’re just super inefficient for that particular use compared to bikes that have been optimized for it. I’ve been averaging just barely over 11mph on rides that these other guys can casually get over 13mph on.