Yep, we're really going to get into this. It's a big one and full of different opinions. This is aimed at anyone and everyone who rides a mountain bike so if reading thinking "I know this," then skip on a bit and you might find another part that is helpful. I've tried to assume little or no prior knowledge. If your reading this thinking, "wow this sound pretty advanced stuff," focus on the main points and drop me an email if you want some more help.
First of all, there is no one set way to set up your mountain bike. We're all different and like different things so naturally this applies to bikes as well. This is a rough guide, a starting point, a few suggestion and things to try.
Secondly, I'm not even starting on suspension set up. That's for another time but for now your suspension manufacture of choice will have set up guide on their website to get you going.
Thirdly, you'll need a few tools to get this done. A set of allen keys and a pump are a must but there might be other tools mentioned that are going to be really useful.
Contact Points
We're going to start with contact points; the parts of your bike that you interact with in some way.
Saddle
Your saddle can be adjusted in three different ways; height, angle and backward and forwards. We'll cover height first and the first things to mention are dropper posts. Dropper posts are seat posts that go up and down remotely using a lever attached to the handlebars. Saddle height - Whether you have a dropper post or a standard fixed seat post, there is still a saddle height that is going to give you the best pedalling efficiency. The easiest way to find this is to sit on your saddle and but your heels on your pedals. Keep adjusting your saddle height until your legs are straight (heels on the pedals) at the furthest point of the pedal rotation (around the 25past position). When you put the ball of your foot on the pedal you should now have a slight bend in your leg. It's this position that is going to give you the most efficient and comfortable pedalling position but lets not confuse pedalling position with riding position. Mountain biking often involves your bike moving around underneath you to track over trail features. When you have your saddle set up for efficient and comfortable pedalling, it does not work well for moving the bike around lots particularly when you are heading downhills. Yeah you can make it work and put up with it but it's less than ideal. If you have a dropper post, perfect, need your saddle out the way, push the lever and off you go. If you don't have a dropper post? Number one solution - get one. Other than that you can keep putting you saddle up and down throughout a ride or you can compromise on all your riding positions by dropping your saddle a inch or so and putting up with it. Ultimately your solution is probably going to depend on the type of riding you enjoy.
Saddle Angle is next and it's a little simpler. Start with it flat. Put a spirit level on it if you have one otherwise by eye will be fine. Ride it and see what you think. If it's not comfortable then change it a little bit and have another go (you're more likely to want to angle the nose/front of the saddle down a few degrees). You might find that your saddle angle seemed ok riding up and down the street but after a longer ride it's not so comfortable. Don't just assume you have an uncomfortable saddle. Try adjusting its position first.
Forwards and backwards - Finally, the rails of your saddle will slide through the clamp at the top of the seat post to allow it to be adjusted backwards and forwards. This is a far less critical adjustment in mountain biking as your style of riding has more of an influence. However, for the best pedalling efficiency and comfort there is an ideal position; here's how to find it. Find a place where you can rest against something whilst sitting on your bike. Sit on your saddle in your best pedalling efficiency seat up position. Place the balls of you feet on the pedals over the pedal spindle/axle. Position your cranks horizontally with your pedals at 3o'clock and 9o'clock. You'll need a plum line (a piece of string with something tied to the end will be fine) or a helper for the next bit. Now look at the foot and knee that is forwards. The front of the knee should line up with the pedal axle/ball of your foot. In other words, if the plum line hangs from the front of your knee, it will hang in line with the pedal axle. Adjust the saddle backward or forwards until you've got the spot!
Handlebars
The next part to think about are the handlebars. If you got on your bike and rode it without doing anything to your handlebars, you'd probably quickly get used to the feel of their position and think nothing more of it but there are a few things that you can think about.
Bar width - Whilst some bike manufacturers spec different width handlebars on different sizes of bikes many do not and your bike may come with bars anywhere up to 800mm in width. If you are a slightly smaller person like myself this could be a bit wide. Try doing a press up with your hand really far apart. Give them a go but you might want to cut them down a bit. This is very personal and pretty final (once cut you can't go back) but anywhere between 740mm and 780mm might be more like it. Don't forget to cut the same amount from either end of the bars (if you want to drop 20mm then cut 10mm from both ends). If you're in anyway unsure but think cutting your bars down might be worth doing, GO AND SEE A BIKE SHOP. That's my disclaimer!
Stem length - Your bike has been designed to handle in a particular way and altering the stem length will likely change the handle for the worse. Most modern mountain bikes are equipped with a pretty short stem and I'd stick with it.
Bar height - You can adjust the height of your bars by moving stem spacers. Your bike will likely have spacers underneath and/or above the stem. By swapping these spacer around you can lower your stem or lift it up. This is fairly advanced and if you are at this point in your riding, you probably know how to do this so I'm not going to explain how. But I will say something about why. Again there is no hard and fast rule here and it comes down to the type of riding you are doing. If you ride lots of steep techy descents then you might like a higher handlebar position. If you love the climbs and flat out XC riding then you might want to try a lower bar height. Everything else is a sliding scale in between. Of course you can also swap your handlebar for one with a lower or higher rise to achieve the same thing but I'd try the cheaper option first.
Bar roll - Your handlebar will roll or twist by a few degrees in the stem clamp. This will change the reach very slightly but it will also change the angle that you hands are at on the bars. If your saddle height in correct and you find your hand position uncomfortable or maybe you get a numb pinky finger after a while, it might be worth playing with bar roll to see if you can find a more comfortable hand position.
Brake lever position
For me, this is a really important but often overlooked part of bike set up. Instinctive use of your brakes driven by muscle memory is one really key part of riding your mountain bike safely and quickly. You just can't do this with your brake levers in the wrong place. Modern disc brakes are powerful so we're setting our brake lever position for one finger braking using Peter Pointer.
Position on the bars - you can change the position of your levers by sliding them along the handlebar. Start with your hands on the grips as you would normally ride and move the brake lever until your index finger (peter pointer) rests towards the end of the brake lever.
Lever reach - Most brake levers have some form of reach adjustment. Can you imagine driving a car and not being able to reach the brake pedal? Don't do it on your bike either. Whether its a manual winder or an allen key adjustment, move the lever so you can easily reach it with your index finger. Make sure you try this standing up on the bike as you'll need to use the brakes standing and sitting. we'll return to reach in a second.
Lever angle - Now we're getting into the finer details. The lever angle is the angle the lever sits at; from horizontal to vertical and neither of those is likely to be any good. There are a couple of schools of thought here but lets start with what we need. We need to be able to hold on to our handlebars securely and brake at the same time (reach the levers comfortably). When we're mountain biking, whenever the trail starts to point down or get rough or twisty, we stand up on our bikes to allow it to move around underneath us. These same situations are when our brakes are going to be most important whether for speed or safety and lever angle is affected by whether we are sitting or standing. For this reason I would set my lever angle from a standing position. So to find a base, starting position, stand on the pedal in attack/neutral position (standing up, pedals level, weight central, slight bend in arms and legs). Now think about the position of your hands on the handlebar/grips. You're looking for the palm of your hand to be weighted. Now imagine a line that runs down you arm, through your hand and along your index finger to the brake lever. Start with that line being straight. Once you have this starting position you play around a bit. If you move your lever down closer to vertical, it tends to make you roll your hand forward and can transfer weight from the palm of your hand to your thumb joint as well as tightening the back of your hand and forearm. This only gets worse when you sit down. If you move the lever toward horizontal you can end up with and uncomfortable bend in your wrist but can make the lever easier to reach. Have a go and see what feels comfortable. Personally I like to run my levers a little up from that starting position. When you're doing this go back to lever reach if you need to.
Pedals
The final contact point is of course pedals but in terms of bike set up, you put them on your bike! There are all sorts of points of foot position that I could talk about, whether you're running flat pedal or a clipless pedal system. But, I'll save that for another day.
Tyres
A different type of contact point but non the less important. There are lots of great tyres out there with lots of complicated symbols and acronyms on the the side of them. For most of us we're going to use the tyres our bike came with and when they wear out we'll replace them but we're probably not swapping tyres for different conditions. Ride your bike and get used to the way your tyre feel. Most tyres these days tubeless compatible and it's well worth setting them up as such. If you're not confident doing it yourself then get your local bike shop to do it.
Tyre pressures - Like so much of the set up advice I've talked about already, there are many variables that affect tyre pressure. To help with this, generally speaking the following things are true. Higher tyre pressures are more resistant to pinch punctures and offer lower rolling resistance in certain circumstances but they give a harsh ride and don't grip as well. Lower tyre pressures offer more grip and comfort but you run the risk of pinch punctures or rolling a tyre and burping air out. The secret is finding a balance between puncture protection and grip.
The larger the volume of the tyre the lower the pressure you can get away with. Skinnier tyres = high pressure.
If you are riding in an area with lots of rocks and big square edged hits then you are probably going to want to run higher tyre pressures. If your riding is based in loamy woods then you can get away with lower pressures. And then you have the sliding scale in between.
If your riding style is fast, loose and aggressive then higher pressures are a good idea. If you're light on the bike and smooth as a tube of crisps then you'll be able to get away with lower pressures. And then (again) there is a sliding scale in between. You can see how this can get confusing!
Based on a tubeless set up (you know it makes sense) 2.4 - 2.6in tyres 5'10" (177cm) rider weighing 12st ish (76kg) then low to mid 20s PSI in the front tyre and mid 20s in the rear is a reasonable starting point. Use the info above to adjust i.e. if you are heavier or your riding style is aggressive, big jumps rock gardens etc. then go up in pressure. If you are lighter or you're riding smooth loamy trails then go down in pressure. Then it's a case of trial and error. Struggling for grip and not having a problem with pinch punctures - drop your pressures a bit. If you keep getting punctures or burping air, then increase pressures. Don't forget that if you're going to ride in a new area then you might need to change your tyre pressures particularly if you are going somewhere rockier than your normal riding spot.
So, in summary, there are a few base starting points with setting up your mountain bike but there are also many variables that means you can't just set it by the book and that's that. If you're starting out, set your saddle height but be prepared to change it, sort out your brake lever set up, find a good middle ground for your tyre pressure and then go and ride. If you're experienced then start delving deeper into things and see if it helps. Writing your settings down can be a big help if you start to get serious and allows you to be analytical about your bike set up. If you need any help or advice on bike set up just ping us an email.
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