Maybe its just my yoof and relatively little experience, but I get the impression that a lot of bikers think that a head angle of less than 70 is "slack", whereas I'd consider anything less than 67 as slack angled. Might be a dull question, but it got me thinking about how bikes are perceived in terms of handling, particularly when you read reviews of bikes that have "slack" angles.
Prime example for me is the Cotic Soul (having looked into buying one) where reviewers talk about it being nice and slack for confidence on descents, particularly with a 140mm fork (67.6). I find this odd, as my Cove Handjob is slacker angled with a 120mm fork (about 67) than the Soul, yet is considered a cross-country bike, with different riding capabilities to the Cotic.
Er not sure where I'm going with this arguement, but I guess when I've been looking at bikes with slack/relaxed angles I'm after head angles of around 67 but mags/manufacturers consider only 69 to be slack.
What would you expect? And does this represent the fact that most experienced bikers/manufacturers are used to 70/71 head angles because of historical bike geometry (of which I have limited experience)?
At the end of the day, probably makes no difference anyway...
