Drop bars on a hardtail: Is this the best bike for the Leadville Trail 100?

May 02, 2024

Photo: Courtesy Dylan Johnson

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The Leadville Trail 100 MTB race may get a lot of flack for not being a ‘real’ mountain bike race, but it is still best raced on a mountain bike.

Even though much of the front of the pack — which includes the 70 men and women in the Life Time Grand Prix series — are gravel racers, they’ll still race Leadville on mountain bikes, even if they’re stripped of things like rear suspension, dropper posts, and anything more than 100 mm of travel.

Leadville just wouldn’t work — or rather, it would just suck — on a gravel bike.

However, some riders are asking if there might be something in between.

Also read: Preview: The 2023 Leadville Trail 100 MTB race

“If they were putting on Leadville for the first time ever in 2023, they’d probably advertise it as a gravel race,” said Grand Prix competitor and YouTube sensation Dylan Johnson. “But that doesn’t mean I think a gravel bike is the right bike. Leadville falls in this gray area between a gravel and a mountain bike race where you can choose to underbike with your gravel bike or overbike with your mountain bike.

“Or, you can create a bike that falls perfectly into this gray area and actually have the right bike for the course.”

For Johnson, the right bike this year is a hardtail with drop bars. He’s running his Factor Lando with 400 mm bars and a 70 mm stem (he declined to name the brand). A Fox 32 Step-Cast fork will give him 100 mm of front travel, he’ll run a Transfer SL 100mm dropper post, and the drivetrain is Eagle XX1 AXS.

Johnson told me that he’d had the idea of using drop bars at Leadville since first riding the course last year. This summer, he took the idea from a flirtation to a full-on commitment. He raced both Big Horn Gravel and the Crusher and the Tushar on the drop bar/hard tail set-up, underforking it with the gravel-friendly Fox 32 Taper Cast suspension fork. The plan was to get familiar with the feel of the bike and be able to make adjustments before Leadville.

Johnson raced to 24th in a ridiculously stacked field at Crusher and to third at Big Horn Gravel on the drop bar mountain bike. Both of those races have climbs as steep and descents as technical as anything at Leadville. Johnson said being able to descend at a similar speed to what he can do with flat bars has been one of the make-or-break criteria for using the drop bar set up.

“It feels a little sketchier, I’m not gonna lie, but it felt in control enough,” he said. “My time coming down Columbine the other day was within seconds of my time coming down Columbine in the race last year. I’ve done some times on Powerline that are really close to some of my fast times on Powerline, as well. It’s not losing a whole lot.”

Which begs the question: where is the gain? Johnson said that aero, while not everything at Leadville, is a lot. And, since aero bars are now banned, riders have to be more creative in looking for that advantage. A drop bar mountain bike is how he’s finding compromise.

“I think they’re [aero bars] a pretty big advantage at Leadville,” Johnson said. “I used mini aero bars last year and thought they were a huge help. I still think that standard mountain bike bars with aero bars would be fastest for this race. The average speed of this race is pretty high, 16-17mph, and there are a lot of flattish road or gravel sections where aerodynamics are quite important.”

Last year was Johnson’s first Leadville 100, and he finished in 6:25, 20th overall. He thinks that 6:30 is in the cards this year, and “even if that puts me in 30th, I’ll be happy if I improve,” he said.

Keegan Swenson won the race last year in 6:01 on a Santa Cruz Highball hardtail with 100 mm of front travel, a rigid seat post, and and itty bitty aero bars. This year, the defending champ will be on a similar rig albeit sans the baby bars — but he too was considering swapping out flat bars with drops.

“I gave it a go, but I couldn’t nail the fit/position,” Swenson said.

Hopefully, Johnson nails it.