Chris Birch Bike Tips

[nathan steeleMember]

doing the usual facebook look about when i came across 10 tips from chris birch on how to improve the feel of your bike

‘Ten ways to improve your bike for less money than an ugly sticker kit!

Fit a new clutch cable. As cables get worn they develop tendinitis and get more and more drag. This makes fine control of the clutch much more difficult and wears your hands out.

Check your sag. Getting the rear suspension sag set properly allows your bike to handle properly. It’s important, and free.

Repack your muffler. Keeps your bike quiet and keeps the correct amount of back pressure. Super important on two strokes.

Replace your exhaust seals. Leaking exhausts cost power and torque and make your bike sound like junk.

Clean and lubricate your throttle and lever pivots. Smooth controls make for effort free precise control of your bike.

Change your fluids, brake fluid, clutch fluid and fork oil. It’s not as hard as you may think, check out a YouTube video

Put your levers in the right place. Slightly less than parallel to the ground is a good start. If they are pointing at the ground it’s impossible to have good control when riding aggressively/downhill/braking.

Put your handlebars in the right place. Start by lining them up with the forks. Handle bar raisers are not a good idea. Don’t believe me? Look at a photo of David Knight or Ryan Dungeys bike. No raisers there.

Use the right tires for the right conditions. Learn how to change them yourself. Use mud tires in mud and desert tires in the desert. Seems obvious but I regularly get people showing up to ride in muddy forests with Maxxis deserts and they can’t ride anywhere.

Clean or replace wheel bearings, swing arm bearings, linkage bearings, steering head bearings. Steering head bearings should be smooth but be set tight enough to feel the slightest bit of drag.

This is from seeing hundreds of bikes at my schools and I think these are a lot of the common things people overlook. I hope it makes your riding more enjoyable!’

Now most of it was straight forward and basic general knowledge, but i’ve bolded and underlined one tip that has me beyond confused! why are bar raises a no no ? due to my height ( around 190cm ) ive always had bar raises on my bike because i felt far too uncomfortable without them.

Anyone out there be able to help me out here as im pretty stumped as to why it’d be a no no

[scott bockingMember]

Taller bars feel more comfortable but come at a cost. The more weight you shift off the front end the slower the handling. Probably makes no difference to us but a pro wants maximum front end contact. Check out some downhill mtb footage online. They run low stems and flat bars and turn like they are on rails.

STM

[Matt BakerMember]

Its not just the pros that can feel the difference.

I am 185cm tall and I started out with 25mm risers, recently started dropping them, went from 25mm to 15mm to 10mm and now I have none. Its not just the cornering that feels better, I find that I have more control when standing and powering over rough ground (less head shake)

[glennMember]

Have beer with yah mates after the ride. That makes ya bike feel like
Good

[Matt BakerMember]

Boony wrote:

Have beer with yah mates after the ride. That makes ya bike feel like
Good

Not so good the next day though :sick:

[scott bockingMember]

I went from a high bend bar to a low and it definitely feels better. I too am a tad over 6 feet.

STM

[nathan steeleMember]

Cheers for putting some light on this guys, I’ll have to give it a go

[Author]

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