gearing VS body weight

[AlpineAce]

Im wondering if that's something to consider?

So I kind of feel like its takes just a little more effort to get the front wheel off the ground, and when it does come up it comes up a bit fast, not as controlled as I would like. 

wondering if a lower gear would give less pop and make the front come up smoother?

not sure what my gearing is (stock echo 24)

[AlpineAce]

oh yeah, im about 195lbs

 

[AdamR28]

I wouldn't say those two things are really linked, no.

[DYAKOV]

Did you ride an old school bike before the echo? 26” lower bb, heavier frame? Just keep going and you’ll get used to it. Don’t do the mistake to go lower gear. When I first started riding I couldn’t get hold of parts so I had a 18-18 gear ratio on a mod bike. It basically feels as if you had the chain off. Obviously that’s an exaggerated example but it thought me to do all the essential moves like pedal kick, side hop, gap etc by just throwing my body without kicking on the pedals. End result is I can’t do a proper pedal kick on a wall without finding the end of it so I could take my front wheel out the edge.. or my side hops are something like back hops in a way. I’ve been trying to relearn moves but it’s proving really difficult to break a habit.

[Mark W]

In fairness, with gearing for 24" bikes it's a bit of a tricky one as with an 18t front freewheel/sprocket, the 'ideal' ratio is around a 13.5t rear sprocket.  Leads you to either go for a 14t to get a bit more trialsy pop/acceleration, or 13t to get a bit more power out at the expense of that acceleration.  It might be worth seeing what you're running just to check.

That said, for getting the front wheel up, you're kind of better off learning to help do it by using body movement/inputs rather than focusing too much on the gearing of your bike.  If you ride natural or any tech setups where you can't roll the bike forward then learning to get the front end up by changing your gearing won't help you out.  

Like with all aspects of setup, it's about a compromise.  You're best off focusing that compromise to favour the aspect of riding that's most reliant on it - for gearing, that's going to be gapping or doing moves from static, so not going too hard (and losing that snappy/fast accelerating feel) and not going too light (so not getting as much power out) is important.  That's why gearing has typically settled on one normal ratio for each wheel size.  You can dial things in a bit with crank length if you want, but for the problem you're talking about it seems like practise and technique adaptation is probably the best solution to it.

[Paperclip]

Sounds like you just want to be toying with a new stem idea if you're finding it hard to lift the front up easily. 

Different bike but similar experience I just this week rebuilt my 26" up and hated it with the 110x35 stem it wouldn't lift up easily at all. My efforts seemed to be going entirely into setup rather than the move whatever the move was (bunnyhop,tap, gap or wheelswap). Then to just giving a 120x35 a go. Everything else set up the same so just a tad more rise/reach and now my bike effortlessly pulls up and finds that sweet spot on the back wheel. 

Tartybikes are still open and running so it's a pretty good lockdown project if you decided to order a fresh stem. Surprisingly their postage seems to be running normally as well.