Another Sick! brand? Mullet Cycles

Have you seen their Insta post from today?! Genuinely does read like a Sick! back story!

Erm, no, they banned me! Is it any good?

I’ve seen the back and forth with Foes on Vital. Absolute cringefest.

Well, that’s escalating badly. Awful suspension design plus delusional behaviour, it really is Sick 2.0

Oh my, that comments section has kicked right off!!

[Foes enters the room…]

They honestly think they’re onto something that the rest of the industry is too stupid to figure out.

They are!! I have spent a lot more time reading that stuff despite having absolutely no intention of buying a product. I barely ever even click the links on new bike releases here on pinkbike or on mtbr they are dull as dishwater, same shit trotted out every month.

They figured out how to capture haters, critics, instamorons , and a lot of people like me who visited for the pure entertainment of it all. Some may even buy something

They definitely figured out how to do something ever other press release hankers for.

They figured out how to capture haters, critics, instamorons , and a lot of people like me who visited for the pure entertainment of it all. Some may even buy something

How did it work out the last time a company did that? For both company and customers?

All the copy and press reads a bit ‘MTB for flat earthers’.

It’s very definitely “try hard counter culture”… Sick Bikes turned up a notch if you will!

I’ve seen the back and forth with Foes on Vital. Absolute cringefest

There’s a response in there somewhere from user “Primoz” that simply says “There is no such thing as bad publicity?”

Sums up their approach perfectly to me!

Not a very interesting result. BB drop is minimal, that’s about all that stood out.

I think that’s the thing… Their “secret sauce” is so run of the mill that they’re scared to admit just how average it is… BB height and the 35% digressive shock leverage curve aside that is…

Let’s not forget that their USP is the mixed wheel sizes, something that many other manufacturers are now offering form the factory, and something that many people have done off their own back on their existing frames anyway (sometimes modifying geometry to suit, sometimes not). It’s widely acknowledged now that a 27.5″ rear wheel paired with a 29er front will aid the bike to turn in a little quicker and to feel a bit more direct, without sacrificing any stability. However, this is only one very small characteristic amongst a frames design criteria, arguably the geometry and suspension performance are far more important than the wheel sizes yet their USP relies on them proving the opposite is true in order to sell their frames…

BB drop is about the width of a chain.
Static bb drop of big travel 650 bikes is about the same.

Although as you will have to run about 10% sag to avoid bottoming out, it will sit higher.

Let’s not try to counter marketing with science now… That would be wholly unfair! 😉

I went to see if there was any new Instagram activity just to find they’ve deleted almost all of the comments overnight. They’ve only left a handful of positive ones.

It’s hard to argue with tried and trusted methods… Censor the unbelievers, repeat the anti-establisment underdog mantra ad infinitum, give the easily suggestible a platform to vocalise their support uninhibited. 🤷🏻‍♂️

How did it work out the last time a company did that? For both company and customers?

Some people made money, some people lost money… It definitely proved to be an unsustainable long term business model though if that was ever a prior concern.

So these guys have deleted all the comments?

Note: 30% Restocking Fee applied to returned Deposits

Win win!

Note: 30% Restocking Fee applied to returned Deposits

Win win!

Begs the question… Why bother creating a product in the first place? 🤷🏻‍♂️

Everyone just acting like the specialized big hit didn’t exist, what the hell?

Everyone just acting like the specialized big hit Cannondale Beast of the East didn’t exist, what the hell?

FTFY.

Those head-badges though. Put me down for two at that price. Bargain!

Well….. that turned ugly fast.

Why on earth would anyone embarking on a sales/marketing campaign post all that?!?!?

Sounds like there is a long running feud here between foes and “mullet mike” (as I shall call him) which is now being played out in public – seems like a excellent way to introduce your new brand to the MTB community, lol. Maybe I’m just out of touch and this is all some sort of weird new viral marketing strategy?

Have pinkbike spotted this yet?

Maybe I’m just out of touch and this is all some sort of weird new viral marketing strategy?

It’s basically Donald Trump’s (and a whole lot of other hucksters’) strategy reheated. You say something outrageous, get media attention, then keep turning the outrageousness dial up more and more. You just keep getting free media attention. It might alienate the majority of people, but some will admire you for being edgy and “saying it like it is”.

The mullet “The Peacemaker” page 1(a seriously dumb name) is screaming out for a resticker “The Pisstaker” 😆

dyna-ti
Free Member
The mullet “The Peacemaker” page 1(a seriously dumb name) is screaming out for a resticker “The Pisstaker” 😆

I’m sure someone on here could knock up said name up on a pic of their bike.lol

dyna-ti, you best make sure you ™ that name now.😉

Everyone just acting like the specialized big hit didn’t exist, what the hell?

I know, right? Like nobody has been doing mullet bikes for years.

I know, right? Like nobody has been doing mullet bikes for years.

To be fair, I haven’t seen any companies really put any great thought into mullet bikes in the last few years. Weirdly, the old BigHit and Trek 69er seemingly had a bit of thought, all those years ago. Every current option just seems to be a bigger wheel (and fork?) shoved into a 27.5 frame. Which obviously causes some pretty drastic changes in geometry, not all of which are necessarily welcome (E.g. raised BB, for one).

So, a company that is paying attention to this trend, investing in thoughtful design and jumping in with two feet would be great.

On the other hand, these guys seem to have just bought a boatload of cheap frames with unknown geometry and a ridiculous suspension design. It’s a shame.

The comments from Foes have been taken down, and the world seems a less colourful place this morning

Superficial

To be fair, I haven’t seen any companies really put any great thought into mullet bikes in the last few years.

There are a few – Geometron have the G1 designed to take the smaller rear wheel with a bolt-in chip that keeps the same Geo, and you can shorten the stays with a second part if you want – they’ve probably been doing mixed wheel size longer than Mullet have, mind.

They’re in the minority though, the Intense that was reviewed on Pinkbike comes to mind, where they just stuck the smaller wheel in and to hell with the geoemtry, which is a joke.

The comments from Foes have been taken down, and the world seems a less colourful place this morning

The comment section is still a shitshow full of obvious shilling, though. The owner’s comments about ‘cancel culture’, his ‘militia’ of fanbois and being a ‘real man’ give a flavour of who you’re dealing with.

I don’t think he has fanbois, it’s just him registering new accounts and posting

The most telling stuff is from Vorsprung – you’d normally expect companies liek that to play it safe and be quiet, but such is the scale of bullshit being posted that he felt compelled to get involved.

“To be fair, I haven’t seen any companies really put any great thought into mullet bikes in the last few years. Weirdly, the old BigHit and Trek 69er seemingly had a bit of thought, all those years ago. Every current option just seems to be a bigger wheel (and fork?) shoved into a 27.5 frame. Which obviously causes some pretty drastic changes in geometry, not all of which are necessarily welcome (E.g. raised BB, for one).”

That’s not true at all. Most of the current options involve 29er bikes with adjustable suspension through changing part of the linkage or moving a flipchip to compensate for the 19mm smaller radius of a 27.5 wheel. And there are also bikes that are full 29/27.5 mullet only.

Just looking at one of the biggest brands of the lot, the Specialized Status is 29/27.5 whilst the Stumpjumper Evo can be 29/29 or 29/27.5

And if you go to the smaller brands, you’ve got Orange, Banshee, Forbidden, Nicolai/Geometron, Liteville, Starling, the list goes on and on…

Yeah the Vorsprung response is telling. They usually come across really well and happy to get involved in the comments on Pinkbike, they do a great job of presenting the facts to help people understand what they’re up to. Effectively the polar opposite of what Mullet are doing

To be fair, I haven’t seen any companies really put any great thought into mullet bikes in the last few years.

Specialized? Alchemy? Geometron? NS Bikes? Canyon? Santa Cruz? Starling? Liteville?

EDIT: Hah! chiefgrooveguru beat me to it! Took me five minutes to remember the name of Liteville…!

To be fair, I haven’t seen any companies really put any great thought into mullet bikes in the last few years.

Not being common isn’t the same as not having been thought about. It’s likely that all the bike manufacturers have looked at it and mostly rejected it apart from fairly niche purposes.

I just remembered I was looking at Pivot and Kona last week… add them to the list… both using flip chips so you can use either a 29er or a 275 rear wheel. I’d say that more companies have put thought into mullet bikes than haven’t.

Hope do a mullet kit for their HB130. New link with bearings which takes the travel to 140mm and does some kinematic stuff and a new rear wheel with tyre.

“The owner’s comments about ‘cancel culture’, his ‘militia’ of fanbois and being a ‘real man’ give a flavour of who you’re dealing with.”
I wondered what Ant Middleton was going to do with himself.

they just stuck the smaller wheel in and to hell with the geoemtry, which is a joke.

The owner mulleting a bike to change the geometry is a well known scenario. But if it works for some owners to do just that, and many do, why not offer it in a brand new bike? I wouldn’t necessarily call it a joke. Its not sending the geometry to hell, it is sending it (hee hee) to a well-defined place the owner may prefer.

Two and a half grand for an alloy single pivot frame with “secret sauce” geometry. Shut up and take my money!

Looks like a bad Orange copy made by a Jordan Peterson fan.

Where was the Vorsprung comment? Missed that one, I like those guys

Vorsprung
2/26/2021 2:56 PM
I usually refrain from commenting critically on other companies’ press releases, however there is a huge amount of straight up bullshit in there as pertains to physics claims. For starters, a falling rate rear end (ie leverage ratio increasing as the suspension compresses)… about the only thing the suspension/framebuilding parts of the bike industry have broadly come to a consensus on is that a straight up falling rate is really not a good idea. Among a great many other things, on their DSSP marketing page they’ve got a graph of the “shock characteristic” from Linkage, but evidently haven’t realised that graph doesn’t have anything to do with the frame, it is a graph of the shock’s spring curve that you input into the program. They’re also claiming that their singlepivot is inherently superior to other singlepivots, for Reasons (TM). A huge chunk of the talk about handling (taken from their web page) is also just straight up BS, for example the “axle force line” is not a thing. They’ve got force vector lines drawn all over the place in ways that are meaningless.

Then there’s another (even longer) comment after one of the supposed fanbois has a pop at them

Ta- that’s brutal

It is brilliant when gobby shysters get called out and roasted on t’interwebz.

I guess they’ve just got to hope there’s enough plonkers out there willing to buy a shit (and probably non-existent) bike just to ‘stick it to the bike industry man’.

Otherwise it just looks like a poor Sick! ponzi tribute act.

Is anyone else hoping they see this thread and start posting? My life is that bereft of anything at the moment that it would actually make my day if they did.

Go ahead and PM a link to this thread to one of the Mullet shysters. Or don’t. I’m not sure we need the drama.

Can’t you go and argue over there?

My life is that bereft of anything at the moment

U ok hun?

😀

But yes it would be quite funny if they turned up. Sick! 2.0 Seriously doubt it would happen though

I’m loving the ‘there is no bad publicity’ idea as that died years ago.  Now whenever anyone sees BS marketing they automatically thing that’s Sick! ™.  I think after the DecorMyEyes thing Google stopped people trying to game search results with bad reviews

Google Changes Its Rank Algorithm In Response To DecorMyEyes Story | TechCrunch

Surely mullet bikes should be called Chelsea bikes.Long at the front ,short at the back.