Wondering if anyone has attempted to mullet a 27.5 hardtail at all? I have a scandal and a new shape 27.5 BFe, with the Scandal currently built up and the BFe frame stripped. Previously ran the BFe with a 140 yari and would like to try it with the 130 revelation from the scandal. Would that have a huge effect on the ride?
Doesn't sound crazy. Not tried it myself, but it looks like you have most of the bits to make it a fairly low cost experiment. Try it and let us know how you get on.
Given it's not designed for 27.5, the smaller wheel will drop the BB somewhat - I didn't find the BB on my BFe super lo on 29, but you're going with a shorter fork also, i think it might be noticeable
A Bfe is for 27.5, a BfeMAX is for 29. I think theyre talking about putting a 29 front end on a 27.5 bike as opposed to a 27.5 rear wheel in a 29 frame.
I'm tempted to try this too, would need a new fork (or just new fork lowers?) and a front wheel. Maybe an angleset to steepen the head angle back to what it should be like they recommend doing with the rocketMAX. It might raise the BB a bit - I know the previous generation to the current ones was known for having a high BB but I think they lowered it a bit in the current version based on this feedback.
Have you asked cotic themselves? A phone call to Paul/Sam to see if they know of anyone doing it might be the way to go, their both incredibly helpful when I've called about these random ponderings before.
Ah yeah I probably wasn't very clear, the BFe is a 27.5 frame so bottom bracket raise is probably the main concern. Though given the frames designed for quite range in fork length might be ok? Not a bad call about contacting cotic, might drop them an email.
I’ve done that to a Pace 527 with a 29er front wheel and 120 mm forks, I think they otherwise recommend 130 to 150 mm forks in 27.5 flavour. Works fine for me, but I have not much to compare with.
If you use a fork that’s 40mm less travel the geometry will be almost identical.
What the stock head angle on the 650b BFe? I have a 26" BFe that can run a wide range of travel options (120-160 IIRC) so there's probably room to play. Slackening the HA might compensate slightly. I'd just give it a go and see what happens.
Im tempted to do similar on my Bird Aeris 145, it's running 160mm front and rear and I'm thinking of putting the 145mm rear link back in and using the 140mm 29" fork off my hardtail. If it doesn't work then it's a pretty quick swap back
I've done it (and still got it) as a rigid bike using a Jones fork and a 3.0 Minion. I also tried it with a Reba at 100mm. The rigid I bloody love, definitely big BMX style of a bike, a great balance between being playful and confidence inspiring. Obviously it's not an easy to put together combo, but I had a Jones spaceframe that I cracked, so had the fork going spare.
The version with the 100mm Reba was fine, but slightly neither fish nor fowl. Let like it wanted to be ridden like a hardcore hardtail, but didn't have the travel to make it work. Obviously that makes it sound like the rigid bike wouldn't work either, but I guess I ride that like a rigid bike with benefits...
WildHunter2009
Ah yeah I probably wasn’t very clear
No, you were perfectly clear, i just saw BFe and though BFeMax
Going to end up somewhere in the ballpark of a BFE with a 160 fork for with the 130 up front, I guess, not too bad, front might be a little wandery
sanername got any pics of that? Sounds interesting.
Something a bit like this
stooge moto bars, pedalling innovations and 9 point 8 dropper are the other highlights 
Not a BFe but I did do a rigid mullet of a 26" 456 with a 29" front wheel.
It is currently built like that while I try and work out whether it's 140mm vanillas are as knackered as I think they are and retire it from front line MTB duty.
That particular combo has been quite good to me for winter mud plugging in the past but overall compared to my better and considerably newer FS I'm not really interested in it as anything other than a back up bike - that's more about its age, geometry and weight than the mullet.
You've probably got a better combination of parts to do a mullet than I had.
If you've got the time and inclination to give it a go then why not but if you like it your scandal is going to be missing bits 😄
That Jones truss fork thing is an abomination in the best possible way. I do actually have a vaguely suitable rigid fork so that might get given a go as well!
The scandal is in some ways a better bike, well it's definitely faster but there's just something not quite as fun and confidence inspiring about it compared to the BFe. I'm not sure quite what it is yet to be honest, this to urge to experiment.
Its probably worth a whirl if you have the bits.
Personally I'd be most concerned about BB height and seat angle. I'd expect it to be moar betterer with a slacker head angle (my BFeMAX recently got a -2 degree headset and the slacker front end has.had no noticable drawbacks for me).
My previous bike was a 29er NS eccentric which I ran as full 27.5, full 29, and finally as mullet (helps if you have mates who have old wheels they don't mind loaning for a few weeks...). Ended up as mullet as that seemed the best all round setup to me, but all the combos worked fine, nothing exploded, and I didn't die.
