Just out of interest how far off the floor is your saddle and bars and how tall are you? I keep hearing talk of being "on" the bike not "in" it and so on and I want to know if I'm riding a gate compared to other people.

You might want to get a BB height in there too for proper comparison.

I dont get bike geometry but I know mine is quite high, BB is 13.5 inch up and I run lots of steerer and hi risers.

I dont know what my Scandal is, but I remember trying out a Scott Genius and it felt really tall, wheras my Stumpjumper felt a lot lower to ride, but the Stump had a notoriously low BB and the Scott was high BB.

My saddles are stupidly high and my frames stupidly big, but then i'm 6'7" with stupidly long legs and arms so i don't really have much choice.

My frames would no doubt be classed as 'gates' but it's either a gate or no riding so bit of a no brainer for me.

I always felt perched on top of my old 26" wheeled bikes but feel way more comfortable since i swapped to 29ers.

Pictures of you on the bike would be useful?

My Sultan is mahoosively high when I'm not sat on it. a saddle that is 40" from the pedals on unweighted suspension would smack most of you lot under the chin.

Height and saddle height aren't really related.

You could have two people the same height, one with long legs the other with short, which will make a big difference.

Also it depends on what riding you're doing. Flat riding = high seat to get better pedaling. Rocky downhill = low seat so you can move around on the bike more.

Also BB height is going to have a big effect.

Ask 10 people of the same height, and you'll get 10 different answers based on there body size, where they ride and what they ride.

I've got a boring normal FSR120, which has a "normal" bb height ie not super low but certainly not too high. Anyhow, with a good-for-pedalling height saddle and about 25% sag on the shock I can get my toes on the ground.

I run lots of spacers on the headtube and high bars to me it feels fine and doesn't wander on climbs but seems that I keep hearing talk of lower front ends weight over the front low BB's etc.

Tried the stem lower and I don't like it, the bike has a high BB and high bars so I expect my C of G is high too. Don't ever get pedal strikes and it's easy to loft the front end over things, just interested in other peoples riding positions and set ups.

I'm the same as you Jools – on my 19" 'dale I've got a stack of spacers to emulate the ride position I have on my 20.5" Rocky, which has a long headtube. I feel much more in the bike this way, rather than perched atop it stretching down for the bars

How high is your bike

mine's in me loft

That doesn't look wrong to me. Clearly you are a taller fellow than I (as are most) but looks like you got an inch or so drop to handlebars which most people find comfortable and gives a nice neutral weight in the centre of the bike.

im 6ft5, bike is a 21" trance.
GATE