For clarity: I state "XC" in the title purely based on geometry. My Specialized Hellga has a 70.5 degree head angle and 73.5 degree seat angle.
So I've taken my fat bike fitted with 29+ tires on two Mountain Bike trail rides and both times I've been sketched out between thinking I'll go OTB going downhill or that I'll lose my front wheel and head off a cliff or bridge. I wanna gain more confidence but the more I do it the more I think that I should change something about my bike. That said between getting a different set of wheels built and all the other modifications that I made to my fat bike I'm kind of limited on being able to fund more upgrades to it.
The two "issues" that I experienced when I went out was losing traction on my front wheel/losing contact with the ground when hitting an obstacle, and not being able to shift my weight back far enough on my rear wheel when going downhill. The first issue could be fixed by better line choice, or by adding a suspension fork which would be the most expensive option. The second issue could be fixed with a narrower saddle (current one is 155mm wide) so that it doesn't hit my thighs when I try and move back since I'm a big rider, or I can get a remote dropper post and sell my lever dropper post.
Changing the Dropper is probably the best way to go atm from a financial standpoint, however I am curious if going to a suspension fork might be viable. The fork currently on my bike is tapered, however it has 135mm QR spacing, and an A-to-C of 467mm with a 47mm offset. For comparison an 80mm Bluto has a 491mm A-to-C and 51mm offset. I used a calculator and it would change my head and seat angle to ~69.34 and 72.34 degrees respectively, increase the front center length, decrease my BB drop from 60mm to ~50.8mm, and increase my trail from 83mm to 93mm.
Some of those things seem like good changes, however I don't know if they are all good changes or if the money required to both purchase a sus fork and new hubs and maybe new spokes would be worth the performance gains. I know it'd still be cheaper than trying to buy a hardtail 29+ bike.
Wanted to get some feedback on where I should go from here. For now I guess I'll just keep riding and hopefully I'll get better and won't be as sketched out.
So I've taken my fat bike fitted with 29+ tires on two Mountain Bike trail rides and both times I've been sketched out between thinking I'll go OTB going downhill or that I'll lose my front wheel and head off a cliff or bridge. I wanna gain more confidence but the more I do it the more I think that I should change something about my bike. That said between getting a different set of wheels built and all the other modifications that I made to my fat bike I'm kind of limited on being able to fund more upgrades to it.
The two "issues" that I experienced when I went out was losing traction on my front wheel/losing contact with the ground when hitting an obstacle, and not being able to shift my weight back far enough on my rear wheel when going downhill. The first issue could be fixed by better line choice, or by adding a suspension fork which would be the most expensive option. The second issue could be fixed with a narrower saddle (current one is 155mm wide) so that it doesn't hit my thighs when I try and move back since I'm a big rider, or I can get a remote dropper post and sell my lever dropper post.
Changing the Dropper is probably the best way to go atm from a financial standpoint, however I am curious if going to a suspension fork might be viable. The fork currently on my bike is tapered, however it has 135mm QR spacing, and an A-to-C of 467mm with a 47mm offset. For comparison an 80mm Bluto has a 491mm A-to-C and 51mm offset. I used a calculator and it would change my head and seat angle to ~69.34 and 72.34 degrees respectively, increase the front center length, decrease my BB drop from 60mm to ~50.8mm, and increase my trail from 83mm to 93mm.
Some of those things seem like good changes, however I don't know if they are all good changes or if the money required to both purchase a sus fork and new hubs and maybe new spokes would be worth the performance gains. I know it'd still be cheaper than trying to buy a hardtail 29+ bike.
Wanted to get some feedback on where I should go from here. For now I guess I'll just keep riding and hopefully I'll get better and won't be as sketched out.
