Forum menu
Stalker alert. How was the bike today? I see you were out at FOD when checking who beat me down doeys today 😉
So I christened it today...
[img] 
?oh=fc5f09d70653ad25895c60281beb88aa&oe=5ACF8217[/img]
My thumb is still very sore sadly after a road bike spill 4 weeks ago, so I was having to be a bit tentative (could barely hold onto the bars after a few runs!), but crucially the bike juts felt good from the off. The looooong (to me) wheelbase wasn't an issue at all, on some tight twisty singletrack, I barely noticed it was 60mm longer than my Evil at all. The reach does feel at the upper end of comfortable though, I think I might need to come down 5-10mm on the stem length soon.
Otherwise, well I swapped the SIXC cranks out for some old 4 bolt RF Atlas I had kicking around, the carbon SIXC's just had zero clearance on the drive side chainstay unless spaced out so that the chainline was crap. My old Atlas' had about another 3mm so that was sorted. Oh and I swapped the 125mm highline post out for a 160mm version... MUCH better!
Conditions in the FoD today were bonkers dry! A few hefty puddles here and there, but mostly super dry grippy loam. The Shorty was overkill on the front for sure...
Stalker alert. How was the bike today? I see you were out at FOD when checking who beat me down doeys today
You need to pedal faster mate! I could barely hold onto the bars and was riding like a princess today!!! 😆
Awesome conditions though... Sooooooo dry for this time of year!
Oh and Joe @ Starling SERIOUSLY has a cult following... The "oh wow, look a Starling" comments (bearing in mind I was nowhere near the trail centre stuff) were numerous!
You need to pedal faster mate!
Always. Today's excuse is I have a cold. Certainly can't blame the ground conditions 🙂
Bike looks and sounds awesome. Shame I missed seeing it in the flesh.
Looks really good!
Big fan of what you've done there. I'm mulling over a respray for my Swoop after a year of hammering and was thinking going conservative with battleship grey but that's got me thinking....
That's lovely.
Did you get the coil Ribbon? How does it compare with the air if so?
Did you get the coil Ribbon?
Been on order since I heard they were putting it into production. Mine’s in the very first batch coming, which last I heard was due with the distributor any day soon. Will chase it up this week... Sold my air Ribbon to a friend in the meantime, so slung my old Stage on for now with the travel upped to 150mm.
Mark, remember your frame is an early model with a slacker seat angle than latest builds. If it feels too long pedalling, the steeper seat angle will solve. I'm assuming it felt good size whilst stood up attacking?
Mark, remember your frame is an early model with a slacker seat angle than latest builds.
I've got the saddle slammed forwards, but also I don't like overly steep seat angles anyway...
I'm assuming it felt good size whilst stood up attacking?
It's definitely longer than I'm used to Joe, but then I knew that when I decided to have it. I spent, like many people I guess, many years riding bikes that were technically too small for me. The realisation of that came when I was starting to ride more technical trails a few years ago, and all of a sudden I started going OTB on almost every ride. I've since experimented with position and found, to a point, that longer is better. I am however "only" 5ft10, I have a relatively long leg and short torso, and I'm not far off as inflexible as a person can be, hence the Mondraker/Pole/Geometron "make it as long as possible then just shorten the stem until the rider can reach the bars" approach doesn't quite work for me. The week before you offered this frame up for sale, I had spoken to Mojo about a G-13, and they were convinced I'd want the 510mm reach size, or at least the 490mm reach if I was being cautious. I've ridden a Whyte G-160 RS a couple of times with a 480mm reach in a medium, and good as it was I felt a bit of a passenger, and I preferred the small (with a 455mm reach was still longer than anything I've owned before). And when you look at the EWS fastest riders, many of them aren't riding especially long bikes either, just crucially they're a bit longer than years gone by...
What I'm saying is I'm not sure I'd want a longer reach, but yes it certainly feels good descending. The wheelbase however wasn't an issue, despite being 60mm longer than my last bike, it felt incredibly balanced and even on some tight twisty singletrack, it cornered admirably. In fact I'd go so far as to say that even after a short 3hr ride, it's one of the most balanced bikes I've ridden and I didn't notice any shortcomings whilst riding it.
I'm looking forward to putting a lot more miles in on it... 😀