# Tips - Making enduro bike better for jumping



## MightyTexan (Jan 23, 2020)

Hey guys - 

Here's my bike.. it has upgraded forks 160mm a 50mm stem and wider 780mm handlebars. I have the tires pumped up to about 55psi and the shocks are set to stiff af. The seat tube is cut almost as low as I can go.

Now that i'm used to it, i'm starting to feel its limits and want to make it better for jumping. It bounces around too much leading up to the face of the jump due to the tight suspension and lightweight small wheels. Never really feels planted/stable. Its fine for trail jumps and smaller/medium downhill jumps..but on larger ones it feels weaker.

Any tips on what can help?


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## plummet (Jul 8, 2005)

Are you talking dirt jumps or simply larger trail jumps? 

For trail jumps do not stiffen the suspension significantly or put smaller tires pumped to hell tires on. That , as you already explain, will make the run up and rest of the ride terrible. 

I would stay with the same wheels, tyres, pressure for trail jumps. If you are g'ing out then wind abit of low speed compression dampening on. Then go and jump. 

For dirt jumps at the jump park you could put faster rolling tires and pump the suspension up. The dirt jump park should be made for hard tails so it will be smooth. Make sure you adjust the suspension dampening to the new pressures. If you don't your compression and rebound will be way to fast and you will be thrown over the handlebars...............


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## MightyTexan (Jan 23, 2020)

Mainly the larger trail jumps.. like 10-20 ft tables and doubles and stuff. I thought the travel on the bike was good, but if I loosen it up to a normal amount I feel that I can't do as big of drops and step downs..also casing or overshooting jumps.

Would different shocks/tires/stem/rims help? The wheels feel super light and if I do a really hard turn I can hear them flex the rotor on the pads. The bike is pretty light like 30-35 lbs. 

After a hard ride I see the dust rings on the shocks show I use almost all of the suspension as it is right now.


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## Gman086 (Jul 4, 2004)

MightyTexan said:


> Hey guys -
> 
> Here's my bike.. it has upgraded forks 160mm a 50mm stem and wider 780mm handlebars. I have the tires pumped up to about 55psi and the shocks are set to stiff af. The seat tube is cut almost as low as I can go.


I like to run my bong hits at about 55 psi... but tires? Not so much. You risk blowing them off the rim at that pressure! Shoot for 30ish + or minus based on your weight. Shorter stem, tilt the seat BACK and drop all the way. That's fine that you stiffened the suspension but you DO have to account for that by increasing the rebound damping (because your spring rate and resultant kickback is way higher now). I like to dial in a lot of LSC for both the fork and shock for jumping so as to have more push off the lip and to make sure neither dive on short steep lipped jump faces.

Have FUN!

G MAN


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## MightyTexan (Jan 23, 2020)

lol that's hilarious. Yeah i think I got paranoid after my buddy said he destroyed a rim from running a tire low. Plus there is a dirt jump track around here and i found high pressure helped a lot for that. 

The original stem was awful and going to a 50mm was amazing... should I be looking at something like a 30 now? I noticed the pic shows the seat before I cut it down.. I'll make sure to tilt it back more.. I also noticed there's a bend in the handlebars after i bought them... are straighter bars gonna be better? I will play around more with the settings, I guess that is something I never have tended to..

When i see or hear downhill bikes or modern enduros going over jumps they look so much more planted and stable..


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## jeremy3220 (Jul 5, 2017)

Definitely lower the tire pressure. You don't need extra pressure for jumps designed for mountain bikes. Also, make sure you're slowing your rebound down to match the increase in shock pressures.


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## Gman086 (Jul 4, 2004)

MightyTexan said:


> The original stem was awful and going to a 50mm was amazing... should I be looking at something like a 30 now? I noticed the pic shows the seat before I cut it down.. I'll make sure to tilt it back more.. I also noticed there's a bend in the handlebars after i bought them... are straighter bars gonna be better?


Shorter stems help as you want to be more "upright" for jumping which is also why riser bars are better so you definitely do NOT want a straighter bar! Personally I go with a 35-40mm stem for all my bikes.

Have FUN!

G


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## eshew (Jan 30, 2004)

Shorter stem & wider bars if you haven't done that already. 

That being said, it's an older geometry bike, and I've found newer geometry bikes to be a bit better at stability while jumping. Longer reach & longer wheelbase for me helped a lot

Example 2012 Ibis Mojo HD not a great jumper
2015 Kona Process 153 very confident jumper


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## SHIVER ME TIMBERS (Jan 12, 2004)

lower tire pressure to around 28 (at least) ....also cut your seat post so it can go down further


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## MightyTexan (Jan 23, 2020)

Seat post is cut down all the way... Moving the seat back and tilting up just made it feel like going from a medium frame to a large..amazing tip. The tires say inflate 35-65 I think thats why I have been running them around 55. They are 2.1s so maybe wider tires would be better. Also just replaced the fork oil with some thicker oil. Also in the process found there is another air input on the left shock so perhaps they weren't both pumped up. I'm looking at possibly changing the rear shock to a spring shock in the future


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## MightyTexan (Jan 23, 2020)

The rims are also really light they are Mavic crossmax. I'm really surprised they have held up so far to the abuse.. are there any good cost friendly options and would stiffer/heavier wheels make a difference?


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## Gemini2k05 (Apr 19, 2005)

MightyTexan said:


> The rims are also really light they are Mavic crossmax. I'm really surprised they have held up so far to the abuse.. are there any good cost friendly options and would stiffer/heavier wheels make a difference?


Nothing on your bike is holding you back from progressing your skills, only you are (that's not meant to be a dig, it's meant to be inspiring). Skilled riders hit 20 ft+ doubles on hardtails with semi-knob narrow tires on all the time. You can become a good rider with what you got, but ya, you're gonna break sh*t along the way. We all did it. Unless you want to have things like 2 wheel sets and you swap one out for jumping, just wait until you break stuff to replace it.

Find some older people with a garage full of old parts and beg them to give it to you.

Re: "feeling planted and stable". I'm not sure if that's the right way to think about things. You don't want a "planted" bike if you're hitting jumps...the goal is to get in the air, not stay planted! DH bikes are planted because they need to hold lines through rough, steep terrain at high speeds. So they have slack HA's and low bottom brackets. You also don't want a "stable" bike for jumps, you want something unstable and maneuverable, especially if you want to do tricks! Think fighter jet v. bomber, sketchy and nimble BMX bikes, etc.


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## jeremy3220 (Jul 5, 2017)

Gemini2k05 said:


> You also don't want a "stable" bike for jumps, you want something unstable and maneuverable, especially if you want to do tricks! Think fighter jet v. bomber, sketchy and nimble BMX bikes, etc.


Depends on the jumps and your priorities. I wouldn't want to ride a BMX down high speed DH jump trails and I wouldn't want to ride a DH bike on BMX dirt jumps.


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## Nat (Dec 30, 2003)

MightyTexan said:


> the shocks are set to stiff af.


We need to talk about your suspension settings. Do you know exactly what they're at?


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## MightyTexan (Jan 23, 2020)

Thats good to know..I rode an old XC bike for a longtime and felt i could do it all on that, but once i switched to a full suspension and enduro geometry i instantly started hitting stuff twice as big..maybe i could have hit it on the old bike but that big difference and the smaller ones like the handlebar stem seem to help a lot. When I got the enduro i thought it would take forever to abuse the bike fully and now I bottom out the suspension every time i take it out.


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## MightyTexan (Jan 23, 2020)

Yeah they are roughly 60psi on each side and idk 100-200 in the rear. It has no sag and when I am on the bike on flat ground and jump downwards to compress the shocks it doesnt move much. 

Last time i took the bike out i deflated the tires a little bit and tried the thicker fork oil. It was working ALOT better and more stable... then after about an hour i looked and the front fork was set to lockout... i changed it back to the downhill setting and it seemed just ok after that.


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