- This is a GMBN Tech Essentials series.
Our easy to follow guide to setting up,
maintaining, and understanding your bike.
In this video we're looking at
the cockpit setup on a bike,
and we're gonna be giving you some tips
on getting some nice,
smooth cable routing,
avoiding things like paint
being taken off your frame,
and of course getting those
vitals all setup correctly.
Now in the cockpit of a mountain bike,
there can be a lot of things going on.
You can have multiple cables and hoses
for your brakes, your
shifters, dropper posts,
any cable actuated
lockouts you might have,
and then of course there's
other things going on.
You have to cram all this in,
and there's gonna be
the different position
of the things on the bars.
You might have some
light brackets on there,
you might have a computer
mount on the bars,
and things can get a bit messy,
so it's really important
to get things all in order,
so they're working to the best for you.
Now first up, let's take a
look at your overall position.
(upbeat music)
Now depending on your height,
your riding style, and of course the fit
of your particular bike, you
can have your cockpit setup
in various different ways.
Now the current trend is
to go for shorter stems,
and wider bars.
And the reason for that is the wider bar
gives you a bit more stability,
and a bit more control,
whereas that shorter stem
keeps things nice and agile.
If you're to have a longer stem,
your handling can feel quite vague,
and you can have a lot of weight bias
to the front of the bike,
which can feel quite unnerving at times
when riding steep and technical terrain.
Likewise, if you're gonna
have a narrower bar,
it can put you in quite
an upright position,
and it can mean you have
not as much leverage
over the control of the bike,
so it can feel quite nervous.
But there is a limit to this.
Now if we look at the bar width first,
this is quite an important one.
Now, bearing in mind I'm
about six foot three,
and I'm running a full width bar.
So the full width on a standard handlebar
is about 800 millimetres.
Now there is no right, and no wrong
for the way that you
would run your handlebars
on your bike, but really,
if you're a nice tall rider,
a wider bar makes more sense,
just like the fact that
if you're a shorter rider,
a narrower bar does.
Now I'm talking anything
from about 720 millimetres,
up to 800 mill.
But what you don't wanna
be is a short rider
having these big wide bars
that can actually hinder
the way you ride a bike.
It's all about getting
things into perspective
for your body fit.
Now with regards to stem length,
this one is actually really important.
Now, it's dictated by
the length of your bike.
The modern craze is to go for
the shortest stem possible,
to give your bike that real
agile, aggressive feeling.
But you can't just put a
short stem on any bike.
On my other bike, for example,
which is a longer bike than this,
I have a tiny 35 millimetre stem.
But on this bike, which is a bit shorter,
I need to keep my cockpit
in the correct position
for my height, and obviously
my position on the bike,
and that means using a
60 millimetre stem here.
So it's not the same for every rider,
but it's really important
to find something
that offers you the
correct amount of control,
but is not to cramped at the same time.
Now the length stem supplied on your bike,
if you're buying a a bike new,
is a good indication of
where you need to be.
Now just for example, if your bike,
assuming you have a new bike,
comes with a 70 millimetre stem,
that's a good indication
of the correct size stem
for your height, depending on
which size bike you went for.
But, you could still go
for slightly shorter stem
if you wanted your bike to
feel a bit more aggressive.
But you wouldn't wanna go
shorter than a 50 millimetres.
I would suggest that
going from a 70 to a 50,
is probably about as
far as you'd wanna go,
without ruining the handling of your bike.
As your handlebars come closer to you,
you're gonna be more upright on the bike,
which means you're gonna have less weight
on the front wheel.
Now whilst this will feel really good
when you're descending,
it creates problems
with other styles of riding.
When you're climbing and out the saddle,
it means your handlebars
are closer to your knees,
which means you might strike
your knees on the bars.
Now this is something we're gonna look at
with setup shortly.
Likewise, when you're climbing,
you're not gonna have enough
weight on that front wheel,
so you might find you have
to compensate quite a lot
in order to keep the bike balanced
and prevent it from wheelieing up a hill.
It's all about finding
the correct fit for you.
Don't be too swayed by fashions insisting
that you go for a shortest stem possible,
and a nice wide bar,
because it doesn't always work that way.
Another thing to take into account
is the height that you run everything at.
A nice low front end can give you
a nice riding position, and
a nice efficient position,
especially for climbing,
but it will also mean
that you will sacrifice
a little bit of control
on the steeper descending stuff,
and it can make you feel a bit pitched
over the front end of the bike.
But, you have to have the happy medium
that enables you to feel
comfortable when seated,
comfortable when stood,
comfortable when climbing,
and comfortable when descending.
You can't make a bike,
unless it's a particular bike
like a downhill bike,
excel in any one situation.
It needs to work in a
number of situations.
So again, don't be too
influenced by the fashion there.
And the final point with
your cockpit control setup,
is your actually rise of your handlebars.
Now you might note here I've
got nearly a flat handlebar
on this bike.
That's because the front end of this bike
has 29 inch wheels, and is quite high,
so I need to return my weight down again,
to keep an even weight distribution
between the front and rear wheels.
On my other bike, which is
also a 29 inch wheel bike,
it's exceptionally long.
If I was to have the same
low position on that,
I'd find it incredibly hard
to lift the front wheel of the bike.
So on that bike, I have a shorter stem,
and a higher bar, to
compensate for the length.
On this bike, an 800 millimetre bar,
and a 60 mill stem, with
just a single spacer
underneath there is perfect for me.
Now this is something that
you should experiment with,
because even just a little bit of rise
underneath that stem,
makes a huge difference
to how your bike feels.
Don't just ride it as it is.
Have a little play,
and you can actually
make things feel better.
(upbeat music)
Now once you finalise the position
you have your bars and stem at,
it's time to look at the
actual controls there,
and what I mean by that
are your shifters and your brake levers.
So, things like your dropper post remote,
your gear shifter, and your brake levers.
Now the brake levers are
the most important part
of the cockpit because quite simply,
they are the things that
stop you having accidents.
They're there for safety reasons,
they're there to control your speed,
they're there to stop you
when you need to stop,
and they have to be in
the correct position
for you to use at any time.
It needs to be second nature
to just use your brakes,
and therefore it's
really important to find
what's gonna work for you.
Now the obvious position
for a brake lever to be
would be rested up against
your handlebar grip,
which will be installed to the handlebars,
but this isn't always the
correct place for this,
because you're gonna have
a different preference
for the way you like to use the brake.
Some riders like to use two fingers,
some like to use three, some
like to use a single finger.
Now for example, I've got this loose,
just so you can see the effects here.
If I was to use a single
finger with my brake lever
in this position, the brake
lever is gonna hit my knuckles
before it actually bites.
Don't need me to tell you
that that is not a good thing.
If I'm using two fingers,
I can get away with it,
but I prefer to use a
single finger on my brakes,
and have more of my hands
holding onto the handlebars.
Now this has to suit you.
Don't be swayed by what I have on my bike,
or what your friends have.
It has to work for you.
It's a safety part of the bike.
So therefore, to make it work for me,
I will move my brake
lever inboard on the bike,
until the brake lever is in a position
where I can use it, and it doesn't strike
any of my other digits, and enables me
to use the brake effectively.
Now something else to note.
By having my brake setup so
I can use it with one finger,
it means I'm using the very
end of the brake lever,
so I've got a good
mechanical advantage there.
I've got more leverage
on that brake lever,
which means my finger has to do less work
to achieve more power.
So next up, there is two other factors
you need to take into account.
One will be how close
the brake lever blade is
to the handlebars.
If you have big hands, you're
gonna want it further away.
Likewise, if you have smaller hands,
you're gonna need it closer.
There's no right or wrong
to the way you like it,
but some riders like
to have the brake lever
rest in sort of the knuckle
of their finger here,
before it actually actuates.
This puts your hand in a powerful position
for closing your knuckle,
and basically stopping the bike.
If you're using a very end of your finger
on the brake lever, it's
gonna be more of a strain
for your finger.
But again, this is down to preference.
It's not just down to how
easy it is for your hands,
because you will adapt to this naturally.
You just have to find what is
more comfortable for yourself.
Personally, I like my
brake levers quite far out,
and quite far in, away from the bars.
The next factor is the
angle of your brake levers.
Now this is equally as important.
Now, you'll see in some videos,
some people like their brake
levers really far down,
and others like them really far up.
Now again, there's no right or wrong,
but they have different purposes.
Now, someone who likes
their brake levers down,
this will suit someone who likes to ride
out the saddle a lot, and sprints a lot,
because it's gonna be easier for your arms
to line up with those brake levers,
and more naturally suits the
way that rider wants to ride.
Someone like Blake, for example,
who's really into jumping,
he likes to run his brakes quite far down,
because they're out of the way,
which means if he's taking
his hands off the bars
for a trick, when he
goes to reach back on,
he's not accidentally
gonna grab the brake lever.
He's got access to the part
of the grip that he needs,
and the brake lever is out the way.
This is a really good way of thinking,
but it's not always the right position
for a rider wanting to grab the brakes
whenever they want,
because obviously it's
quite far out of the way.
Now the general school of thought
is to have your brake levers
run inline with your arm
when you're sat in the saddle
with he saddle at full extended height.
Now the theory behind this
is they're comfortable to
reach, and easy to reach
when you're both seated and pedalling,
and stood out the saddle
in an attack position.
It also means, if you have
to lean forwards all the way,
you can still get to them,
and likewise, if you have to get
off the back of the
saddle on steep terrain,
you can still reach them.
But then, there are still riders
that like to run their
controls quite far up,
nearly horizontal, and I actually
like this position myself,
and I had this tip from Rob
Warner, and Martin Ashton,
from many years back.
Now the theory about having
your brake levers higher,
is the fact that when your brakes are low,
you're basically resting
quite a lot of strain
on your hand, and you're
also using your hand
for braking.
So for gravity focused riding,
it can be quite strenuous on your hand
and on your forearm, and you can suffer
from things known as forearm pump,
which tends to happen
on really long extended rough descents.
If that's the sort of stuff
that you're gonna wanna ride,
have your brake levers that bit higher.
Really does make a difference,
because more of your body weight is taken
on the heel of your hand,
than it is on your actual grip,
which means your hand is gonna be stronger
for just doing the braking.
Admittedly, that angle can
feel a bit unnatural at first,
but running your brake levers higher
does put you in a bit more
of a stronger position on the bike.
You tend to see a lot of downhill racers
running their brakes quite high,
and again, like I said, trials
based riders do as well.
(upbeat music)
Now once you find a position
that you're comfortable with,
and it feels right, it's well
worth making a little marker
on your handlebars that correlate
to something on the clamp itself,
so you have a reference point,
if you ever need to move something,
which you will with regular
maintenance on a bike,
so you can get it back
to that same position
without having to relearn
where your ideal sweet spot is.
This is also useful if you
lend the bike to someone,
and they might, without telling you,
move your controls around.
It could be really infuriating.
So, something a lot of the pros do
is use Tipp-Ex or a Sharpie,
or any other sort of coloured
Sharpie, for example,
just to fill in some of the blank spots,
or make a little reference mark.
Neil did a bike check
on Angel Suarez's YT Tues downhill bike,
and on this little void
area inside the clamp here,
he'd actually coloured it in
with what looked like a red Sharpie,
so he knew, when travelling,
he can get his bike out of the box,
line this up, crank up the bolt,
and go and hit the track,
and he knew everything would
be in the correct position.
Of course you could see that,
but what I like to do is
make a little reference point
with a black Sharpie on a black bar,
that just lines up with the clamp itself.
It's so small that no one
will even know it's there,
except me, and it means every time
I can get my handlebars
setup exactly right.
Now next up is how securely
you tighten your brake levers
to the bars.
Now, usually it's either a
five millimetre Allen key,
or a Torx T25 key that
you'll need to secure this.
Now it's well recommended
to have a torque key,
or a torque driver of some kind,
and torque this up to
the recommended setting,
but well aware that it's a bit more
of an advanced thing to
have in your toolkit.
Not something that everyone
will have straightaway.
So we'll just put that to
the side for the moment,
and use your common sense.
Now you don't wanna be
over tightening this,
because A), this is a clamp and
it's going over a handlebar,
so not only can you damage the handlebar,
especially if you're lucky
enough to have a carbon bar,
what it can mean is, if you have a crash,
and you strike your brake lever,
you're more likely to
damage the brake lever.
What I like to do is tighten mine,
but only tight enough so they
don't really move too much.
Literally I can move this,
but what it does mean,
if I have a crash, it
can move out the way,
and there's far less likelihood
of actually snapping the
brake lever off the bars.
Now something to pay
particular attention to,
if you do have carbon bars,
is make sure that if this does happen,
and anything moves, you
don't score the bars,
because a scoring mark in
a set of carbon handlebars
can be the start of the end.
If you're unsure about that,
take it to your nearest bike shop,
or your nearest friend that's an expert,
and get them to have a look at it,
and see what they think.
(upbeat music)
Now, once your brake levers are set,
and you've finalised
your position of them,
then you can look at the
position of your gear lever.
Now, the gear lever
could have its own clamp,
in order to move it in
and out on the bars,
or it could have a built in clamp
like the MatchMaker system
on this particular one.
So, SRAM has a MatchMaker system,
and Shimano has the I-SPEC system.
What this means is your gear lever mounts
to the brake lever on the
bar so it's nice and neat
with a single clamp,
but it does mean you
have to fine tune things
to get them exactly right.
Now first up, you can
actually mount the shifter
slightly more inboard or outboard.
There's two mounting bolts.
Now, just like my brake levers,
I like my gear shifter
to be inboard slightly.
It might not be the case for you,
and it does depend how much you like
to move around on the bar.
So that is something
you can experiment with
when out riding.
But what's more important
initially to get right,
is the actual angle that you have them at.
Now for example, if you're
to have anything tucked
up nice and neatly under the lever,
of course it looks great,
and it's nice to use when you're seated,
and you're changing gears,
but as soon as you're out the saddle,
and you're sprinting, and you're
moving around on the bike,
you've gotta basically move your arm
quite a lot to get there.
It's not a good dynamic position
for your controls to be in.
And if you're having to
loosen your grip and move
to change gear, I don't need to spell out
what can happen if you're
somewhere rough on a trail.
Losing your grip, that
means you're gonna crash.
So what you wanna do is
have it slightly lower.
In fact, the lower it can go,
the better it is for
more aggressive riding.
However, there is a limit to this.
If you had your lever at
the maximum extension,
all the way here, this is great
for that aggressive riding,
however, if your bike is
slightly on the shorter side,
or you like a shorter stem,
meaning your bars are nearer you,
or you like riding in baggy shorts,
this can spell danger,
because it's possible when
riding aggressive terrain
out of the saddle and sprinting,
to catch shorts over those levers.
So just take that into account,
because I've crashed
like that in the past,
and it's pretty nasty.
So just be sure that you know exactly
where the best position is for you.
(upbeat music)
And the exact same rules apply
to your dropper post remote,
or if you have a lever
here on the left hand side,
the same thing.
You need to make sure it's
far enough in or outboard
that it's in a suitable
position for you to use.
Personally for me, I like
my dropper post remote
slightly more inboard, and slightly away.
And the reason for that is,
I know the types of occasion
when I'm gonna use it.
It's typically when I'm about to descend,
or hit something technical,
and in which case my body
weight shifts anyway,
so I'm already ready to move.
So I like to be able to
accentuate that whole movement.
You might prefer yours in
a more obvious position.
The point is, it has to
reflect the style of riding,
and it has to be in a
position that suits you.
The same rules apply,
although not necessarily
with this one, which
is quite a small lever,
but some levers, like
the Rockshox Reverb one
that's more like a shifter lever,
you're gonna have the same thing.
So if it's mounted all the way around
in a more aggressive position,
you could be prone to
snagging it on baggy clothing.
So just be mindful of that.
Even if it is clothing that you perhaps
just ride on a daily basis,
as opposed to when you
actually hit the trails.
Now the last thing to take into
account with your controls,
in particular the controls
on the underside of your handlebars,
are your dropper post, or
your left hand shifter,
and the right hand shifter,
are that they cannot strike your top tube
when the bars revolve around.
Like for example, if you put your bike
in the back of a car
without the front wheel on,
or if you have a crash.
It's likely your bars will spin around.
If you've got any sort of
bad frame clearance here,
it can mean you're gonna
scratch and gouge the frame.
This is not good on any type of frame,
but it's especially bad on a carbon frame.
So make sure you have
enough clearance here,
if the bars need to
rotate all the way around,
they're not gonna foul
on the actual controls.
Now this particular bike
actually has a stopper
built into the top tube here.
It's actually quite a nice design,
but it does mean you're limited
in how far you can turn the bars.
This is both fantastic,
because it means it limits it,
but it might not suit you as a rider,
if you prefer the option
to turn your bars further.
(upbeat music)
Now when you've finalised the position
of your brake levers and
all of your controls,
then you can look at things
like the cable routing.
Now here in the UK, we
run our front brakes
predominately on the right hand side,
like a motorbike, and our
back brake is on the left.
Now, whilst this doesn't affect things
in the grand scheme of things,
it does mean that our cable routing
is never gonna be as neat
as if you run your front
brake on your left.
The reason for that,
if your back brake is
on the right hand side,
like US style, your
gear lever is also here,
so you can actually twin
those cables together
and follow the routing
cleanly into the bike.
This isn't the case with us.
We have a bit more of a
mess of cables to sort out.
Now in my case, you can see I've got
a really long dropper post.
I've only just fitted this
post to the bike here.
And I actually need to trim this down,
because this is so long,
that it can actually get in the way
of a light being on the bar,
and of course it's just, it's not,
don't need this amount of cable here.
I can trim this right back,
and keep things nice and neat.
A few things to be mindful of
when you're trimming cables down,
and you're getting the routing correct,
is how much the cables,
when you're turning the bars
to the right or to the left,
can rub on your actual head tube,
because that means you're gonna
be taking paint off there.
Might not think so in the first place,
but it will happen over time,
especially when you ride
in mud and other conditions
where it kind of provides an
abrasive sort of sandiness
that literally, those
cables are just bit by bit
gonna dull down your paint.
So I can't recommend
enough getting yourself
some protective frame stickers.
They're usually clear, but
you can get coloured ones
that are like faux carbon
fibre, and stuff like that,
and so if you want them
to blend into your bike,
they can be there.
And effectively they just sit there,
and they take the abuse
that a cable would dish out
to otherwise directly to your paint work.
And if you wanna go
completely over the top
and make it as neat as possible,
this is really good if
you run your back brake
on the right hand side,
you can get some heat shrink,
or you can just do it with
cable ties or electrical tape,
and actually tie those cables together.
It looks really neat, because
it looks like a single cable
passing around the head tube of the bike,
and of course it's actually gonna
quieten down your bike as well.
Might not seem like it, but cables,
they do rattle around when
you're tackling rough terrain.
And you start removing little
bits of noise like this
off your bike, suddenly,
you can hear the terrain a bit more.
You can hear what's going
on, the wind in your face,
the noise of mud under your tyres.
It's a lot nicer than hearing
parts of your bike rattling.
So there we go.
I have my controls on my
bike exactly how I want them.
Got my bars at the length I like.
I've got them in the position that I like.
Got my controls mounted inboard.
I've made little reference
marker points there.
So, if I do need to move
them for any reason,
it's easy to get them back
in my preferred position.
I've also tightened
them, but not too tight,
so they will move in the event of a crash,
and hopefully that will reduce the chance
of breaking the brake levers,
if I'm unlucky enough for that to happen.
And I've also tidied up my cables.
Got a little cable tie
around these two here,
just to stop them rattling around,
and I've trimmed down
my dropper post cable.
In doing that, I've also needed to put
an anti sort of scuff protection sticker
on the front of the head tube here,
just to protect it against
that cable roaming around too much.
So, hopefully everything is
sorted on my front end now.
Now the last thing you might notice,
is I've got a computer mounted
on my stem here on the bike.
Now whilst this is really good for me,
it might not be the best position for you,
if you're gonna use a computer.
There are various different mounts.
You can mount them on the handlebar.
You can mount them on
the front of the stem.
There's lots of options.
If you're gonna mount on the
stem itself like this one,
you have to make sure
your bike is long enough,
because you can strike
these with your knee,
and if you do that,
it's gonna fire off into the bushes,
and that will always be a bush
that you will never find it again,
so, make sure if you
have this sort of kit,
and you're gonna mount it on a bike,
that you're mounting in a position
that suits your riding position.
Just take all of that into account.
Now if you wanna find out a bit more
about how I set my riding position up
with my bars and stem,
how I would do it on a
trail, click down here.
And for the rest of our Essentials series,
click down there.
There's loads of really
helpful, intuitive videos
for you to follow.
As always, if you like GMBN Tech,
and you like this Essentials
series of bike setup,
give us a huge thumbs up,
and don't forget to share and subscribe.
