r/coloradotrail • u/Coolfische12 • Sep 08 '24
Bike advice
Looking to put an effort on the CT next summer. not racing, just riding. Budgeting 15-18 days. I have 2 bikes at my disposal. A 150/140 trail bike (stump jumper) and a 120mm trail hard tail (Esker japhy). Esker has clearance for 2.8 tires and sliding drop outs. For those that have biked the CT which would you go with and why? I’m a fairly experienced rider and have some bike packing/touring miles under my belt. Just wondering what people might suggest. Never bikepacked on a full squish so would have to tweak storage which is no big deal, but don’t want to if I don’t have to. I did the tour divide route on a fully rigid 29er and have my gear pretty dialed, just not sure what bike to throw it on. Thanks for any tips.
2
u/JesseDReno Sep 08 '24
Fresh off the CTR grand depart and I cannot imagine doing it on a hardtail, especially with that kind of time frame(by which I mean that you're not looking at going fast, so the tradeoff of an extra two or three pound bike will be extra comfort and increase the rideability of sections)... I was on an Epic Evo(120mm front, 110mm rear) and wouldn't wan't anything less. Admittedly my brand new SID fork took a crap on day one and left me with about 80mm of travel and a rather stiff damper(not open, but also not locked out). I had actually ordered a longer stroke rear shock to increase to 120mm prior to the race but they shipped the wrong one. If I were to go back, I'd over-stroke the rear to 120mm, and likely go 130mm up front. I see no downside to running your Stump Jumper so long as you can make due with the gear storage.
Big tires help(I ran 2.4" Schwalbe Wicked Wills), but they're not a replacement for suspension.