The shortest I’ve tried was 70mm on a 70deg HA’d bike, not tried anything really short/slack, but I found if the stem got shorter out of proportion with the HA the handling got weird, and I wasn’t a fan of my Pitch on Singletrack, I like to get my weight on the front wheel when pedaling or in corners and it just felt like the the bike was too stable behind it and couldn’t do anything but follow it.

ETT: 640 630
HA: 65 65
SA: 74 72
CS: 439 425(?)
BB height: 348
Reach: 465 430
WB: 1236 1173
Crikey, the HT I’ve ordered isn’t a million miles away (large for large)

I had one once. Bent it within 6 months. Not covered by warranty even though I had no idea how I did it.

Were you the guy that suddenly noticed a kink in a Nicolai chainstay then tried to claim frame failure and got really narky when they told you to get lost?

Sorry but you would have to have an accident or be competing in Red Bull Rampage to bend a Nicolai.

I based much of my bike off what I learned experimenting on a M Mondraker. The problem was as before and the same with an Alpine, the XL has a ETT close but the ST is near 4″ longer than mine, I couldn’t even stand over it. I would call mine a M-L. But at 5’10” I don’t think I’m tall. My friend Matt has the same geo except for the Hebden 64 HA and he is 5’8″ or so and feels very comfortable on it.

As I mentioned too dropping closer to 340mm on 160mm bike is close to the mark for pedal strikes, you need to be aware of it and use 170mm cranks max. I can ride mine anywhere at 350mm but in Spain this year I started with 340mm and it was bloody awful. Traversing close to the mountain I was unable to pedal and tight trails with sniper rocks at the side were a problem, the 8-10mm made a massive difference. I didn’t really notice the steeper head , seat angle either after a short while.

Liink – his did the Vantage go with the angle set fitted? Why did you decide on 1.5 degrees? Interested to hear your experience as I’m thinking about the same approach.

Liink – how did the Vantage go with the angle set fitted? Why did you decide on 1.5 degrees? Interested to hear your experience as I’m thinking about the same approach. Also how tall are you and how does the large frame feel for your height?

So has anyone had a chance to swing a leg over/ride one of these yet?

I do wonder at which point the longer reach, starts to hamper things like manualing.

Awesome info here 🙂

@jimjam

Geo: Low/High
ETT : 662mm/667mm
HA:65.5/66
SA:74/74.5
CS: 432mm
ST: 430mm
BB height:342mm/350mm
Reach:487mm/492mm
WB:1236mm
160mm travel both ends (can take up to 180mm front but designed around 160mm)

@thisisnotaspoon
I had aexactly that problem excluding the HA, wanted long but not big seat tube, I not particularly tall. I cant see the issue with running a 10-30mm stem though.

I specced it to run a 10mm stem, currently trying a 30mm (wit hseat forward) for a lower front, but don’t know which I prefer yet/ When cornering on a bike with this geo central is the name of the game not big front wheel weighting, I feel the slacker head angles do help that.

I didn’t want a winch/plummet only bike and I use a lot of quad in pedalling so I didn’t want a crazy steep seat tube and the HA is a function of how you like it to feel on a bike this long,

It’s not necessary to have slacker than 67deg for stability to be honest for almost anything, but it does feel different in how the bike enters a corner and slower speed handling.

I guess I will find out if my pedalling position fears are unfounded with the change in position. 5mm saddle movement is worth 0.5deg on the seat tube.

It pedals well, tyres are important as it has uber wide rims on, and they make a big difference to the weight. its 30lb as specced in the picture, with the 30mm stem/Minion 3c exo 2.3’s and the 200mm Vecnum dropper it drops 750g to 28.5lbs.

It’s fair to say its not cheap to get it that weight, but it could be lighter too for the same cost ( it is/was somewhat cheaper than a full S-Works Spesh or SC Carbon Bronson/Nomad in a similar spec) .e.g. CK hubs aren’t light, it has a bashguard, could use lighter discs and the Fox 36 is lighter than a Deville..
So for little if any loss of durability I could lose just over another 1lb. but I like the BOS feel, CKs are bombproof and I like how the shimano discs feel