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Mountain Bike Cockpit Setup | GMBN Tech MTB Essentials Ep. 9

Mountain Bike Cockpit Setup | GMBN Tech MTB Essentials Ep. 9

– This is a GMBN Tech Essentials series. Our easy to follow guide to setting up, maintaining, and understanding your bike. In this video we’re looking at
the cockpit setup on a bike, and we’re gonna be giving you some tips on getting some nice,
smooth cable routing, avoiding things like paint
being taken off your frame, and of course getting those
vitals all setup correctly. Now in the cockpit of a mountain bike, there can be a lot of things going on. You can have multiple cables and hoses for your brakes, your
shifters, dropper posts, any cable actuated
lockouts you might have, and then of course there’s
other things going on. You have to cram all this in, and there’s gonna be
the different position of the things on the bars. You might have some
light brackets on there, you might have a computer
mount on the bars, and things can get a bit messy, so it’s really important
to get things all in order, so they’re working to the best for you. Now first up, let’s take a
look at your overall position. (upbeat music) Now depending on your height, your riding style, and of course the fit of your particular bike, you
can have your cockpit setup in various different ways. Now the current trend is
to go for shorter stems, and wider bars. And the reason for that is the wider bar gives you a bit more stability,
and a bit more control, whereas that shorter stem
keeps things nice and agile. If you’re to have a longer stem, your handling can feel quite vague, and you can have a lot of weight bias to the front of the bike, which can feel quite unnerving at times when riding steep and technical terrain. Likewise, if you’re gonna
have a narrower bar, it can put you in quite
an upright position, and it can mean you have
not as much leverage over the control of the bike, so it can feel quite nervous. But there is a limit to this. Now if we look at the bar width first, this is quite an important one. Now, bearing in mind I’m
about six foot three, and I’m running a full width bar. So the full width on a standard handlebar is about 800 millimetres. Now there is no right, and no wrong for the way that you
would run your handlebars on your bike, but really, if you’re a nice tall rider, a wider bar makes more sense, just like the fact that
if you’re a shorter rider, a narrower bar does. Now I’m talking anything
from about 720 millimetres, up to 800 mill. But what you don’t wanna
be is a short rider having these big wide bars that can actually hinder
the way you ride a bike. It’s all about getting
things into perspective for your body fit. Now with regards to stem length, this one is actually really important. Now, it’s dictated by
the length of your bike. The modern craze is to go for
the shortest stem possible, to give your bike that real
agile, aggressive feeling. But you can’t just put a
short stem on any bike. On my other bike, for example, which is a longer bike than this, I have a tiny 35 millimetre stem. But on this bike, which is a bit shorter, I need to keep my cockpit
in the correct position for my height, and obviously
my position on the bike, and that means using a
60 millimetre stem here. So it’s not the same for every rider, but it’s really important
to find something that offers you the
correct amount of control, but is not to cramped at the same time. Now the length stem supplied on your bike, if you’re buying a a bike new, is a good indication of
where you need to be. Now just for example, if your bike, assuming you have a new bike, comes with a 70 millimetre stem, that’s a good indication
of the correct size stem for your height, depending on
which size bike you went for. But, you could still go
for slightly shorter stem if you wanted your bike to
feel a bit more aggressive. But you wouldn’t wanna go
shorter than a 50 millimetres. I would suggest that
going from a 70 to a 50, is probably about as
far as you’d wanna go, without ruining the handling of your bike. As your handlebars come closer to you, you’re gonna be more upright on the bike, which means you’re gonna have less weight on the front wheel. Now whilst this will feel really good when you’re descending,
it creates problems with other styles of riding. When you’re climbing and out the saddle, it means your handlebars
are closer to your knees, which means you might strike
your knees on the bars. Now this is something we’re gonna look at with setup shortly. Likewise, when you’re climbing, you’re not gonna have enough
weight on that front wheel, so you might find you have
to compensate quite a lot in order to keep the bike balanced and prevent it from wheelieing up a hill. It’s all about finding
the correct fit for you. Don’t be too swayed by fashions insisting that you go for a shortest stem possible, and a nice wide bar, because it doesn’t always work that way. Another thing to take into account is the height that you run everything at. A nice low front end can give you a nice riding position, and
a nice efficient position, especially for climbing,
but it will also mean that you will sacrifice
a little bit of control on the steeper descending stuff, and it can make you feel a bit pitched over the front end of the bike. But, you have to have the happy medium that enables you to feel
comfortable when seated, comfortable when stood,
comfortable when climbing, and comfortable when descending. You can’t make a bike,
unless it’s a particular bike like a downhill bike,
excel in any one situation. It needs to work in a
number of situations. So again, don’t be too
influenced by the fashion there. And the final point with
your cockpit control setup, is your actually rise of your handlebars. Now you might note here I’ve
got nearly a flat handlebar on this bike. That’s because the front end of this bike has 29 inch wheels, and is quite high, so I need to return my weight down again, to keep an even weight distribution between the front and rear wheels. On my other bike, which is
also a 29 inch wheel bike, it’s exceptionally long. If I was to have the same
low position on that, I’d find it incredibly hard to lift the front wheel of the bike. So on that bike, I have a shorter stem, and a higher bar, to
compensate for the length. On this bike, an 800 millimetre bar, and a 60 mill stem, with
just a single spacer underneath there is perfect for me. Now this is something that
you should experiment with, because even just a little bit of rise underneath that stem,
makes a huge difference to how your bike feels. Don’t just ride it as it is. Have a little play, and you can actually
make things feel better. (upbeat music) Now once you finalise the position you have your bars and stem at, it’s time to look at the
actual controls there, and what I mean by that are your shifters and your brake levers. So, things like your dropper post remote, your gear shifter, and your brake levers. Now the brake levers are
the most important part of the cockpit because quite simply, they are the things that
stop you having accidents. They’re there for safety reasons, they’re there to control your speed, they’re there to stop you
when you need to stop, and they have to be in
the correct position for you to use at any time. It needs to be second nature
to just use your brakes, and therefore it’s
really important to find what’s gonna work for you. Now the obvious position
for a brake lever to be would be rested up against
your handlebar grip, which will be installed to the handlebars, but this isn’t always the
correct place for this, because you’re gonna have
a different preference for the way you like to use the brake. Some riders like to use two fingers, some like to use three, some
like to use a single finger. Now for example, I’ve got this loose, just so you can see the effects here. If I was to use a single
finger with my brake lever in this position, the brake
lever is gonna hit my knuckles before it actually bites. Don’t need me to tell you
that that is not a good thing. If I’m using two fingers,
I can get away with it, but I prefer to use a
single finger on my brakes, and have more of my hands
holding onto the handlebars. Now this has to suit you. Don’t be swayed by what I have on my bike, or what your friends have. It has to work for you. It’s a safety part of the bike. So therefore, to make it work for me, I will move my brake
lever inboard on the bike, until the brake lever is in a position where I can use it, and it doesn’t strike any of my other digits, and enables me to use the brake effectively. Now something else to note. By having my brake setup so
I can use it with one finger, it means I’m using the very
end of the brake lever, so I’ve got a good
mechanical advantage there. I’ve got more leverage
on that brake lever, which means my finger has to do less work to achieve more power. So next up, there is two other factors you need to take into account. One will be how close
the brake lever blade is to the handlebars. If you have big hands, you’re
gonna want it further away. Likewise, if you have smaller hands, you’re gonna need it closer. There’s no right or wrong
to the way you like it, but some riders like
to have the brake lever rest in sort of the knuckle
of their finger here, before it actually actuates. This puts your hand in a powerful position for closing your knuckle, and basically stopping the bike. If you’re using a very end of your finger on the brake lever, it’s
gonna be more of a strain for your finger. But again, this is down to preference. It’s not just down to how
easy it is for your hands, because you will adapt to this naturally. You just have to find what is
more comfortable for yourself. Personally, I like my
brake levers quite far out, and quite far in, away from the bars. The next factor is the
angle of your brake levers. Now this is equally as important. Now, you’ll see in some videos, some people like their brake
levers really far down, and others like them really far up. Now again, there’s no right or wrong, but they have different purposes. Now, someone who likes
their brake levers down, this will suit someone who likes to ride out the saddle a lot, and sprints a lot, because it’s gonna be easier for your arms to line up with those brake levers, and more naturally suits the
way that rider wants to ride. Someone like Blake, for example, who’s really into jumping, he likes to run his brakes quite far down, because they’re out of the way, which means if he’s taking
his hands off the bars for a trick, when he
goes to reach back on, he’s not accidentally
gonna grab the brake lever. He’s got access to the part
of the grip that he needs, and the brake lever is out the way. This is a really good way of thinking, but it’s not always the right position for a rider wanting to grab the brakes whenever they want, because obviously it’s
quite far out of the way. Now the general school of thought is to have your brake levers
run inline with your arm when you’re sat in the saddle with he saddle at full extended height. Now the theory behind this is they’re comfortable to
reach, and easy to reach when you’re both seated and pedalling, and stood out the saddle
in an attack position. It also means, if you have
to lean forwards all the way, you can still get to them, and likewise, if you have to get off the back of the
saddle on steep terrain, you can still reach them. But then, there are still riders that like to run their
controls quite far up, nearly horizontal, and I actually
like this position myself, and I had this tip from Rob
Warner, and Martin Ashton, from many years back. Now the theory about having
your brake levers higher, is the fact that when your brakes are low, you’re basically resting
quite a lot of strain on your hand, and you’re
also using your hand for braking. So for gravity focused riding, it can be quite strenuous on your hand and on your forearm, and you can suffer from things known as forearm pump, which tends to happen on really long extended rough descents. If that’s the sort of stuff
that you’re gonna wanna ride, have your brake levers that bit higher. Really does make a difference, because more of your body weight is taken on the heel of your hand, than it is on your actual grip, which means your hand is gonna be stronger for just doing the braking. Admittedly, that angle can
feel a bit unnatural at first, but running your brake levers higher does put you in a bit more of a stronger position on the bike. You tend to see a lot of downhill racers running their brakes quite high, and again, like I said, trials
based riders do as well. (upbeat music) Now once you find a position
that you’re comfortable with, and it feels right, it’s well
worth making a little marker on your handlebars that correlate to something on the clamp itself, so you have a reference point, if you ever need to move something, which you will with regular
maintenance on a bike, so you can get it back
to that same position without having to relearn where your ideal sweet spot is. This is also useful if you
lend the bike to someone, and they might, without telling you, move your controls around. It could be really infuriating. So, something a lot of the pros do is use Tipp-Ex or a Sharpie, or any other sort of coloured
Sharpie, for example, just to fill in some of the blank spots, or make a little reference mark. Neil did a bike check on Angel Suarez’s YT Tues downhill bike, and on this little void
area inside the clamp here, he’d actually coloured it in with what looked like a red Sharpie, so he knew, when travelling, he can get his bike out of the box, line this up, crank up the bolt, and go and hit the track, and he knew everything would
be in the correct position. Of course you could see that, but what I like to do is
make a little reference point with a black Sharpie on a black bar, that just lines up with the clamp itself. It’s so small that no one
will even know it’s there, except me, and it means every time I can get my handlebars
setup exactly right. Now next up is how securely
you tighten your brake levers to the bars. Now, usually it’s either a
five millimetre Allen key, or a Torx T25 key that
you’ll need to secure this. Now it’s well recommended
to have a torque key, or a torque driver of some kind, and torque this up to
the recommended setting, but well aware that it’s a bit more of an advanced thing to
have in your toolkit. Not something that everyone
will have straightaway. So we’ll just put that to
the side for the moment, and use your common sense. Now you don’t wanna be
over tightening this, because A), this is a clamp and
it’s going over a handlebar, so not only can you damage the handlebar, especially if you’re lucky
enough to have a carbon bar, what it can mean is, if you have a crash, and you strike your brake lever, you’re more likely to
damage the brake lever. What I like to do is tighten mine, but only tight enough so they
don’t really move too much. Literally I can move this,
but what it does mean, if I have a crash, it
can move out the way, and there’s far less likelihood of actually snapping the
brake lever off the bars. Now something to pay
particular attention to, if you do have carbon bars, is make sure that if this does happen, and anything moves, you
don’t score the bars, because a scoring mark in
a set of carbon handlebars can be the start of the end. If you’re unsure about that, take it to your nearest bike shop, or your nearest friend that’s an expert, and get them to have a look at it, and see what they think. (upbeat music) Now, once your brake levers are set, and you’ve finalised
your position of them, then you can look at the
position of your gear lever. Now, the gear lever
could have its own clamp, in order to move it in
and out on the bars, or it could have a built in clamp like the MatchMaker system
on this particular one. So, SRAM has a MatchMaker system, and Shimano has the I-SPEC system. What this means is your gear lever mounts to the brake lever on the
bar so it’s nice and neat with a single clamp, but it does mean you
have to fine tune things to get them exactly right. Now first up, you can
actually mount the shifter slightly more inboard or outboard. There’s two mounting bolts. Now, just like my brake levers, I like my gear shifter
to be inboard slightly. It might not be the case for you, and it does depend how much you like to move around on the bar. So that is something
you can experiment with when out riding. But what’s more important
initially to get right, is the actual angle that you have them at. Now for example, if you’re
to have anything tucked up nice and neatly under the lever, of course it looks great, and it’s nice to use when you’re seated, and you’re changing gears, but as soon as you’re out the saddle, and you’re sprinting, and you’re
moving around on the bike, you’ve gotta basically move your arm quite a lot to get there. It’s not a good dynamic position for your controls to be in. And if you’re having to
loosen your grip and move to change gear, I don’t need to spell out what can happen if you’re
somewhere rough on a trail. Losing your grip, that
means you’re gonna crash. So what you wanna do is
have it slightly lower. In fact, the lower it can go, the better it is for
more aggressive riding. However, there is a limit to this. If you had your lever at
the maximum extension, all the way here, this is great
for that aggressive riding, however, if your bike is
slightly on the shorter side, or you like a shorter stem, meaning your bars are nearer you, or you like riding in baggy shorts, this can spell danger, because it’s possible when
riding aggressive terrain out of the saddle and sprinting, to catch shorts over those levers. So just take that into account, because I’ve crashed
like that in the past, and it’s pretty nasty. So just be sure that you know exactly where the best position is for you. (upbeat music) And the exact same rules apply
to your dropper post remote, or if you have a lever
here on the left hand side, the same thing. You need to make sure it’s
far enough in or outboard that it’s in a suitable
position for you to use. Personally for me, I like
my dropper post remote slightly more inboard, and slightly away. And the reason for that is, I know the types of occasion
when I’m gonna use it. It’s typically when I’m about to descend, or hit something technical, and in which case my body
weight shifts anyway, so I’m already ready to move. So I like to be able to
accentuate that whole movement. You might prefer yours in
a more obvious position. The point is, it has to
reflect the style of riding, and it has to be in a
position that suits you. The same rules apply,
although not necessarily with this one, which
is quite a small lever, but some levers, like
the Rockshox Reverb one that’s more like a shifter lever, you’re gonna have the same thing. So if it’s mounted all the way around in a more aggressive position, you could be prone to
snagging it on baggy clothing. So just be mindful of that. Even if it is clothing that you perhaps just ride on a daily basis, as opposed to when you
actually hit the trails. Now the last thing to take into
account with your controls, in particular the controls on the underside of your handlebars, are your dropper post, or
your left hand shifter, and the right hand shifter, are that they cannot strike your top tube when the bars revolve around. Like for example, if you put your bike in the back of a car
without the front wheel on, or if you have a crash. It’s likely your bars will spin around. If you’ve got any sort of
bad frame clearance here, it can mean you’re gonna
scratch and gouge the frame. This is not good on any type of frame, but it’s especially bad on a carbon frame. So make sure you have
enough clearance here, if the bars need to
rotate all the way around, they’re not gonna foul
on the actual controls. Now this particular bike
actually has a stopper built into the top tube here. It’s actually quite a nice design, but it does mean you’re limited in how far you can turn the bars. This is both fantastic,
because it means it limits it, but it might not suit you as a rider, if you prefer the option
to turn your bars further. (upbeat music) Now when you’ve finalised the position of your brake levers and
all of your controls, then you can look at things
like the cable routing. Now here in the UK, we
run our front brakes predominately on the right hand side, like a motorbike, and our
back brake is on the left. Now, whilst this doesn’t affect things in the grand scheme of things, it does mean that our cable routing is never gonna be as neat as if you run your front
brake on your left. The reason for that, if your back brake is
on the right hand side, like US style, your
gear lever is also here, so you can actually twin
those cables together and follow the routing
cleanly into the bike. This isn’t the case with us. We have a bit more of a
mess of cables to sort out. Now in my case, you can see I’ve got a really long dropper post. I’ve only just fitted this
post to the bike here. And I actually need to trim this down, because this is so long, that it can actually get in the way of a light being on the bar, and of course it’s just, it’s not, don’t need this amount of cable here. I can trim this right back, and keep things nice and neat. A few things to be mindful of when you’re trimming cables down, and you’re getting the routing correct, is how much the cables,
when you’re turning the bars to the right or to the left, can rub on your actual head tube, because that means you’re gonna
be taking paint off there. Might not think so in the first place, but it will happen over time, especially when you ride
in mud and other conditions where it kind of provides an
abrasive sort of sandiness that literally, those
cables are just bit by bit gonna dull down your paint. So I can’t recommend
enough getting yourself some protective frame stickers. They’re usually clear, but
you can get coloured ones that are like faux carbon
fibre, and stuff like that, and so if you want them
to blend into your bike, they can be there. And effectively they just sit there, and they take the abuse
that a cable would dish out to otherwise directly to your paint work. And if you wanna go
completely over the top and make it as neat as possible, this is really good if
you run your back brake on the right hand side, you can get some heat shrink, or you can just do it with
cable ties or electrical tape, and actually tie those cables together. It looks really neat, because
it looks like a single cable passing around the head tube of the bike, and of course it’s actually gonna quieten down your bike as well. Might not seem like it, but cables, they do rattle around when
you’re tackling rough terrain. And you start removing little
bits of noise like this off your bike, suddenly, you can hear the terrain a bit more. You can hear what’s going
on, the wind in your face, the noise of mud under your tyres. It’s a lot nicer than hearing
parts of your bike rattling. So there we go. I have my controls on my
bike exactly how I want them. Got my bars at the length I like. I’ve got them in the position that I like. Got my controls mounted inboard. I’ve made little reference
marker points there. So, if I do need to move
them for any reason, it’s easy to get them back
in my preferred position. I’ve also tightened
them, but not too tight, so they will move in the event of a crash, and hopefully that will reduce the chance of breaking the brake levers, if I’m unlucky enough for that to happen. And I’ve also tidied up my cables. Got a little cable tie
around these two here, just to stop them rattling around, and I’ve trimmed down
my dropper post cable. In doing that, I’ve also needed to put an anti sort of scuff protection sticker on the front of the head tube here, just to protect it against that cable roaming around too much. So, hopefully everything is
sorted on my front end now. Now the last thing you might notice, is I’ve got a computer mounted
on my stem here on the bike. Now whilst this is really good for me, it might not be the best position for you, if you’re gonna use a computer. There are various different mounts. You can mount them on the handlebar. You can mount them on
the front of the stem. There’s lots of options. If you’re gonna mount on the
stem itself like this one, you have to make sure
your bike is long enough, because you can strike
these with your knee, and if you do that, it’s gonna fire off into the bushes, and that will always be a bush that you will never find it again, so, make sure if you
have this sort of kit, and you’re gonna mount it on a bike, that you’re mounting in a position that suits your riding position. Just take all of that into account. Now if you wanna find out a bit more about how I set my riding position up with my bars and stem, how I would do it on a
trail, click down here. And for the rest of our Essentials series, click down there. There’s loads of really
helpful, intuitive videos for you to follow. As always, if you like GMBN Tech, and you like this Essentials
series of bike setup, give us a huge thumbs up, and don’t forget to share and subscribe.

62 comments on “Mountain Bike Cockpit Setup | GMBN Tech MTB Essentials Ep. 9

  1. The first time I rode on 780mm bars, I came down a steep drop and at the bottom I chest bumped the stem.
    My arms were so far apart I couldnt resist the down inertia force.
    A few weeks of wide stance pushups cured that

  2. Search for 6mm spiral cable wrap on ebay for a good way to wrap up your cables and quieten them down. Less faff getting them on and moving them from bike to bike, than with shrink wrap.

  3. You can get pvc pipe, paint it and put it between your grips and your shifters/breaks so your cockpit looks cleaner.

  4. I switched from two-finger braking with an in-line angle (which I was used to from motorcycle riding) to one-finger braking with levers tilted up. Previously I found that on long descents I had trouble holding on to my bike and controlling it, both because my thumb was getting tired (when you have levers in-line the position means you are essentially supporting your body on your thumb) and the ring- and little finger were also getting so weak that I was occasionally losing grip. This is catastrophic when descending, and where I ride you will be descending hundreds of metres at a stretch over rough terrain. Switching hand position meant I can simply lean on the bars most of the time (instead of clawing them with my thumb), I have one strong finger more to hold on to the bar, and I also find that braking with one finger only, from a hand that's not cramped by trying to desperately hold on, gives me far more control and feel. Being able to lean on the bar relieves the fingers, having more of them relieves them even more, and the brake finger is essentially hanging loose and ready to brake.
    The fly in the ointment is that the Shimano shifters are designed to be mounted inboard of the brake levers. Brake levers themselves being mounted far inward pushes shifters even further inward and forcing you to stretch out a bit to operate them, which is uncomfortable and requires more force than it should. I tried mounting them outboard of the brakes but that just didn't work at all. However on the whole, I feel more capable and safer with my new setup and am quite ready to live with suboptimal shifter position.

  5. I’m 5ft 9” and 760 is plenty wide. 3 spacers under the 50mm stem and a small rise and sweep on the bars feels just right. Nothing in the extreme.

  6. Ive been considering changing my stem and handlebars for quite a while now. I will probably go from my 670 handlebars and 100m stem to a 760mm handlebar and a 70mm stem

  7. Would be neat if they had rear and front shift levers for either side of the bar to go with moto or non moto style brake lever setup! Also regarding brake lever position I'm under the impression trails riders on push bikes have a very extreme downward tilt to the angle as the most common position where as perhaps with motor trials the levers point quite a bit higher up as a more common average. Wonder why though. Personally I prefer a Downward tilt.

  8. Cool video Doddy! 👍😎 I'm 5"10 with a size L hardtail with 20" frame, my position feels weird but if I lower my seat it makes the riding position worse and more strain on my knees. Wish I found GMBN before I brought this bike 😂

  9. Hi Doddy, great video once more! If you do have a torque wrench, how many n/m would give you the crash proof (movement) you talked about for levers on a carbon bar? Cheers

  10. Just as I’m setting up my bars with new grips and looking at my brake positions Doddy comes out with an impeccably timed and informative how to. Nailed it Doddy! 🤙

  11. Nicely done.
    3:50 I strike the crown of fork & bars, but my bike is too short, for me no matter which setup I would run it would be bad, I need way higher bars, and much longer reach.
    but I had to get a bike, and eventually upgrade it, but now I think I can get a bike that fits me.
    I think I will go For Nicolai G1, keep my parts swap over, and change what needs to be changed, and will probably get a nice handling bike that fits me.
    probably a Large, my current bike has 430mm reach and use 50mm stem with 800mm bars.everything is perfectly setup on my bike apart from,
    cockpit height and reach, and geo, also I prefer a less twitchy bike, my fuel ex is not optimal, also it's 2014 model so plenty of issues, too flexy.

    but Nicolai ticks all of the boxes.
     I am 181cm quite average.

    11:52 nice, great you mention this, I use color pencils, I have not tried markers yet.

  12. Best advice yet from this channel. Set up is everything on the trail, and if its not done properly then you could be in for a very long day indeed. Great video.

  13. 1:12 I have pretty wide shoulders and I find a wider bar way more comfortable to ride with. I have 2 bikes a hardtail XC bike and a full sus trail bike. They both have 760mm bars with 30mm+ rise (I think the hardtail is 32mm and the full sus 38mm). The hardtail has a Ragley 60mm flat stem down from the stock 100mm and the trail bike has a Nukeproof Horizon 50mm stem with 5 degree rise. It's the same length as the stock one but with 3 degrees extra rise. It makes it soo much easier to get the front end of that 15kg monster up. Both have DMR DeathGrips

    18:11 or break a leg (seriously not joking)

  14. YOOOO that sharpie idea is KILLER. i am always measuring with a tape measure and then trying to reset my angles. i F with my bars a lot so its so annoying.

  15. I tried riding my levers up higher for a better grip but I really can't ride my levers higher up cause it starts to hurt my wrists when I'm doing longer runs, I NEED them in a extended position of my arm, just feels more comfortable and less pounding on my wrists because it extends on through into my arms

  16. Terrific info, as usual, Doddy. Thanks.

    On the cable discussion, make sure the cables are long enough to rotate the bars fully in EACH direction (so as not to restrict the bar motion), and then remove the excess if any. Learned that the hard way unfortunately!!

  17. LOL I went from a 630 mm bar and a 90 mm stem to a 740 mm bar and a 35 mm stem. It feels great honestly, I felt like a roadie at first.

  18. Shame none of the companies that make bike computers have thought about doing something to help you find it if lost. Their linked to your phone so it'd be easy to have some sort of alarm that you can activate if it's come off your bike and you're not totally sure where. Really easy for them to do as well.

  19. These are basics… and soooo many people need to see this because they're not doing the basics. Great video.

  20. He
    My question is
    Whats the difference between organic, metal, cinterd ect ect pads its always confused me ive always used cinterd year round. Whats the best pad for year round use?
    Thanks in advance

  21. Building a new bike soon and planning to do all the work myself, been watching these videos non stop and they've been a huge help already 👍

  22. Hey, I'm just recently becoming a mountain bike enthusiast and i was hoping you would do a video on your recommendation for a bike that i could start with.

  23. Good to know that GMBN Tech now has "Fails & Bails" @ 15:57.
    Someone must have borrowed your XL Nukeproof Mega and changed the cockpit settings.

  24. Love that crash you had with blake where you disappeared into the ferns. The brakes thing is great for stopping arm pump. Top vid again fellas.

  25. Doddy, take the tether that came with the garmin and install it on the computer. Wrap the tether around the steer tube under the stem, putting the computer through the mood of the tether. Adjust it so it’s snug around the steer tube or stem between the two bolts, then lock it in the mount as normal. I hit mine with my knee or body often enough where that will save you from losing it.

  26. Going from 735mm to either 705 or 715mm. Thanks! Not sure about the stem though, seems to be good for now.

  27. I've been playing around with brake lever height. Used to ride super flat, then tilted them down a bit more to encourage myself to ride more in the center of the frame as opposed to hanging off the back. I feel more in control, but now my thumbs have been going numb a bit. I am going to try tilting them back up again a bit based on your tips re hand position. I think I am putting too much weight on my thumbs now.

  28. Dear Doddy!
    Hope you can help me on this one! I'm buying a 2016 alloy Mondraker Summum and have the option to chose M or L size. I'm 1.77, with 1.80 ape index.
    Today I ride a 2014 Mondraker Summum M size. Changed from a Trek Session 88 2012 also M. Everyone tells me to go for L size, by the way i'm a bit concerned about cornering, jumping and also sending some whip, as I like a lot. Tracks are steep, fast and curvy. What you think will be better?

  29. But what do I do if my geometry is too slack for my wicker basket Doddy? Can't do enduro without a picnic for the half way point. 😉

  30. I realized that at lot of people ride way too large bar for nothing, the general consensus seems to be 800mm is the best on enduros. Just cutting your bar to 780-790 can make a huge difference on the control you have over your bike. Great detailed video man

  31. I ran my brake levers angled high for a number of months and it ended up giving me muscle cramps and some tendinitis. It was causing me to rotate my wrists under too much. I lowered them back down and the situation immediately improved.

  32. I feel Brake levers blades close to the bars helps reduce arm pump.
    Single finger for sure. Modern brakes are so powerful.

  33. Does anyone make a short aftermarket brake lever? I have shorter fingers, and moving my brake lever in to where it won't hit my other fingers puts my shifter too far away

  34. #askgmbntech I love how all mtb experts always suggest to experiment with different stem lenghts and bar widths, as if everyone has a bunch of different stems and bars just lying around to experiment with in the first place… any other suggestions or rule of thumb? Thanks, Theo

  35. Doddy, I have the same breaks as you, however I have small hands so have adjusted them to fit my hands and finger reach, the only issue I have is when ever I want to put full lock/bite on my breaks the leaves blades are against the grips, How can I fix this

  36. Great vid. Im just starting to make cockpit adjustments on my new build. Wow I would love to have a shop like his. Every Park tool imaginable. Sweet.

  37. #askgmbntech So I've got a bit of a conundrum for you. While installing a new dropper on my Vitus Sentier, I also wanted to rejig the positioning on my brake levers & shifters (2 x 10 with Shimano Deore SL-M610 shifters). I wanted my brake levers set for 1 finger braking ie moving them inboard but doing so, with the standard mounting order working from the middle out, of shifters then brakes meant the shifters were too far away so moving my shifter outboard of the brakes, so they mount between the brake lever mount and the grip, allowed me to get the brake lever right but the shifter isn't the best fit due to the indicator on the top of the Deore Shifter stopping me butting it up to the brake lever clamp. So my shifters now sit a bit too far into my hand space which isn't ideal. So is it possible to use a different set of shifters with the Deore front FD-M618 and rear RD-M615 derailleurs, which don't have the pointless gear indicator taking up space? Thanks, Mike 🙂 Good tip on the clamp force by the way!

  38. is there a difference between these two theoretical setups: flat bar with 20mm spacers under the stem or 20m rise bar with no spacers under the stem? In theory, the hand positions/locations should be exactly the same.

  39. #askgmbn Neil is always banging on about one finger braking, ok, great, I’ve moved the levers inboard. Now I have to move my hand a mile to reach the shifter. What have I done wrong? SLX levers and shifters.

  40. Good info and very helpful for me to come back to as i'm just getting my new bike adjusted to fit me better. Mechanical advantage, I've not heard anyone say that since I was an apprentice at college about 35 years ago. Nice work as usual.

  41. Can those steering stoppers be purchased individually? I wouldn’t mind having one, I don’t do bar spins so have no need for my bars to spin 360 degrees

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