Apologies if already covered. On Fatbike.com. You can link to it from the JonesBikes Facebook page. An hour of Jeff talking about his bike philosophies. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Very insightful. Engineering wise I can relate to a lot of his thoughts. Bloody awesome bikes he turns out.
I really like my jones but I've always thought his media stuff doesn't really explain what he's doing. this included. mumbling mess
Cheers for that, I don't own a Jones (i wish) but have spent time riding with jeff so it'll be an interesting listen.
from personal experience I think his opinion that when you combine the plus tyres at the right pressure with his riding position you negate the need for front suspension a bit misleading to the vast majority who don't get to really test ride one of his bikes.
Theres no doubt the bikes are dynamite on gravel and fire roads also cool for doing slow-mo almost trials (not tricks) riding but blasting around at any speed on uneven, un-groomed terrain is not for the inexperienced, myself included.
If you already ride rigid hard it's probably not a problem but if you come from road or suspension beware, just because your weights not on your hands does'nt mean that front end won't beat you up.
Theres no doubt the bikes are dynamite on gravel and fire roads also cool for doing slow-mo almost trials (not tricks) riding but blasting around at any speed on uneven, un-groomed terrain is not for the inexperienced, myself included.
There's a point where you need to slow down when it gets rough, agreed. Fair to say though that Jones bikes benefit hugely from the ability to wheelie/manual/bunny hop to some extent, if not to trials/4X mastery level. Understand how to unweight each wheel as needed and it can be suprising what you can get away with. They seem designed to maximise that sort of input. Fast random rough stuff can get too much for any rigid bike but his bikes handle that sort of thing better than most (any?) other rigid bikes up to that point.
his media stuff doesn't really explain what he's doing
There's a couple of better videos on his site, one with a rear pov camera showing the space frame flexing, another when he talks about his bike layouts, they were pretty good I thought.
I enjoyed the interview.
I,m thinking of adding a plus Spaceframe to my Ti 29 Spaceframe. Adding a 3.25" plus tire to the front of my Jones has transformed it!
The thing I like about my jones (29) is that may not be as fast as a full suss ( and I have tried to chase a few so I know its/I am not up to it) but it will give you warning when its getting near the point of crashing i.e it tells you when to back off , saved me a few times , when I had a go on a friends full suss bike I initially thought it was amazing and then I found my self on my ass with not warning ! - mightiest be me though 🙂