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Hi all,
as per the title really. thinking of treating myself to a new fork anyway and was wondering if I can get away with going Mullet at the same time. Partly thinking of doing this so i will have frame only options in the future.
Anything I should be considering?
I have done this with a 27.5 bike and it has been no problem at all. I did use a fork that gave the same corrected length as the original
I've done this on a 27.5 bike and it was a bit rubbish really. Lifts the front end by 40mm (if staying on the same travel), raises the BB a considerable amount and shortens the reach quite a bit too (took mine from 479mm to 461mm). SA and HA has around 2 degrees taken off them. Some of these changes you can offset in different ways of course, others not so much.
If changing for anyway I'd consider getting a 29er model, but keeping the current front wheel instead
www.bike-stats.de is good for playing around with these things
As long as you're sensible about travel it'll be great. Maybe add an angleset, they're another great life extender.
I love this, lots of older 29ers can be improved by sticking a 650b wheel in the back and lots of 650b bikes can be improved by sticking a 29er in the front. The new wheel size category is Greener Grass
@Mashr something wrong with your maths there on reach btw, raising the front end by 40mm can't have that much of an effect unless you're changing something else too, it's a few mm.
Couple of mates have done this, 2017 Mondraker dune and 2018 Whyte g160, both said the bike rides better afterwards and are still using them. Another mate has a Jeffsy 29 with a 27.5 rear wheel and although I said he may have issues with pedal strikes (I sold him the frame and fork) he reckons its spot on as well
As long as you're sensible about travel it'll be great. Maybe add an angleset, they're another great life extender.
I love this, lots of older 29ers can be improved by sticking a 650b wheel in the back and lots of 650b bikes can be improved by sticking a 29er in the front. The new wheel size category is Greener Grass
@Mashr something wrong with your maths there on reach btw, raising the front end by 40mm can't have that much of an effect unless you're changing something else too, it's a few mm.
what's considered a reasonable head angle these days? bike is currently at 65 degrees already so the double effect of a longer fork plus angle set might make it very slack. though they did sell the top end model with a 180mm fork rather than a 170mm.
wasn't going to change the travel as its 165 rear and going less in the front than the back just feels wrong but i dunno if it actually is
something wrong with your maths there on reach btw, raising the front end by 40mm can't have that much of an effect unless you're changing something else too, it's a few mm.
If you want to doubt the Germans then thats up to you. Makes sense to me though as you're pivoting everything around the rear axle, but the top of the steerer (for reach measurement) is starting from well above the horizontal
You might be able to just have a smaller effect on geometry by going for a 150mm 29er fork & wheel from 170mm 27.5"? Then you're more in the realms of a slight over-fork in terms of geometry changes.
In terms of less travel at the front my old Cotic Rocket 27.5 was 160 (maybe 157?) rear and I ran that with a 150mm front (suggested was 150-170), it felt really good.
A 150mm 29er wheel & fork will probably outperform a 170mm 27.5 on most terrain from my experience on trail riding & tamer end of Alps trips (not proper black downhill lines, just natural Reds etc), the extra wheel & tyre size feels like it adds more capability than 20mm of suspension on the smaller wheels. It might be different if you're smashing rocks on fast downhill runs where travel is probably still king.
I think when Cotic started endorsing mullet setup on their existing bikes they actually recommended using the angleset to steepen the head angle back closer to stock rather than doubling up, but that was talking about going for a smaller rear wheel on a 29er rather than a bigger front on a 27.5 and was to keep it around the 64-degree window and restore a few mm of reach.
