- This topic has 2,143 replies, 197 voices, and was last updated 7 months ago by tall_martin.
-
Anyone ridden the Mojo Nicolai yet?
-
ChainlineFree Member
@Simon, did it not work for you or just time for a change? Just interested, feedback is always welcome to consider both improvement and in understanding people’s differing perspectives.
simons_nicolai-ukFree MemberEven if we are lucky enough to have a number of bikes to choose from most of us want/need “one bike to rule them all” – the default bike that’s the one you’d take on a trip where theres a mix of riding or you don’t know what the riding will be. All bikes have strengths and weaknesses. I know I can ride and enjoy the stuff the G does really well on a bike I find more rewarding on the stuff it (in my view) is not so good on. Other people’s priorities will be different.
WooksterFull Membersimons_nicolai-uk, what’s the stuff it’s no so good on mate? Interested to hear your experience having loved with the bike for a while.
sharkattackFull MemberWhat kind of riding are Geometron owners doing? You doing serious mileage in backcountry pedal fests or smashing berms on DH tracks?
Any videos available?
You ever take it off any sweet jumps?
plecostomusFree MemberI ride allsorts on mine, raced it dh and enduro, big mountain days and everything inbetween. Can’t fault it on anything really only thing I’d have is a bottle cage mount.
Some more videos and pics in my Instagram
juliansFree MemberJust wondering, but given how long these are, do they fit on a thule 591 roof rack?
duirFree MemberWhat kind of riding are Geometron owners doing?
Mainly big mountain days in the Lakes/Scotland often with high mileage or local secret trails in the woods.
ChainlineFree MemberAll sorts for me, big days out in the mountains, xc blasts at Trail Centres, uplift days at BPW and similar, Finale uplifts, 24hr XC course in Finale. It’s my one bike except for my CX bike that doubles as a road bike/local bridleway basher.
simons_nicolai-ukFree Memberwhat’s the stuff it’s no so good on mate?
When we’re selling Nicolai’s I always try to steer people to the right bike for them and I think it’s all in this thread if you read back through. I found it happiest when it is was ridden fast downhill or pointing straight up the fall line to get back to the top of a run. It works well enough at trail centres where the singletrack climbs tend to be fairly open and if they have some tricker sections they’re shorter features you can go up and over rather than being extended techy climbs.
Where it really suffers is in tight and slow tech, whether up or down – it’s not the bike for “trials” style riding.
I tried it for long days out and flatter terrain and for me it’s definitely not the right tool for the job on those – but as other have said, you *can* ride it on those in a way you couldn’t on other bikes with the descending capability of the G. I enjoy the climbs as well, this bike climbs but it isn’t about that.
Nicolai’s usage chart is honest about this – it’s an Enduro/Gravity bike that’s will stretch to a bit of ‘all mountain’.
duirFree MemberInteresting stuff, good to have some different points of view rather than us over enthusiastic owners who never complain!
I have found the Geometron to be exceptional on slow tech climbs. I believe this is because of its stability due to a long wheel base and long chainstay which allow the constant laying down of power without traction loss or the slack front end coming up.
If I was to give some criticism I have always found the Fox 36 to be harsh considering its a 180mm fork. I find it particularly harsh on long rough descents in the first part of its travel. The forks are off at Mojo just now and will hopefully come back much better. The X2 however is a dream!
I was also having some difficulty with front end grip on steep tech descents. I had put this down to the fork not being quite right and the slack head angle but I recently took the spacer out from under the stem and ran the stem right up against the headset. I could also have run lower rise bars instead of the 30mm rise ones but the spacer removal was miles cheaper. I couldn’t believe the difference this made and I finally seemed to find the legendary geometron grip!
Its a bike that is very sensitive to setup and a lot of time needs to spent getting it to ride how you want it to. I could have saved myself a year of tinkering by doing a mojo demo day!
singlespeedstuFull MemberI must say though i’m loving mine on uplift days and local descents* I am finding it very slow on local flat trails and kind of draggy on fire road type climbs.
It has however got a vertstar supergravity magic mary on the front and the same tyre in trailstar on the rear.
Maybe that’s what’s dragging it down a bit?
Think I need to try some other tyres for local stuff.*Which is my main reason for buying the bike and I have other bikes for more XC local rides.
speedstarFull MemberThe wait is literally killing me now!
Stu TBH I have a supergravity Magic Mary on the front of my blur LTC and it is most definitely super-draggy. But coming down it’s like I can properly attack the trail instead of going into sections with uncertainty as to how the tyre will react. All about balance of what you need it for I reckon. I won’t keep it on in the summer though as I think I will go with the evo trailstar. But for winter slop..
duirFree MemberIt’s all in the wheels and tyres, I currently use a Baron Projekt 2.4 rear and Magic Mary snakeskin 2.35 front for winter and it feels pretty sprightly. Have not found a need for anything heavier on the front even on the rockiest terrain but the rear tyre needs to be tough. I would ditch the SG casings and go for something lighter, my combination has held up on the rockiest Lakes descents all winter with no issues so will cope with uplift days no problem.
That said, it’s a big travel, aluminium bike with 62 degree head angle so it’s never going to sprint up the fire road! So loosing a few 100g off the wheels in rolling mass will make a huge difference.
What wheels are you running?
singlespeedstuFull MemberFlow mk3 on Pro4 hubs.
Not the lightest but should be up to uplifting dutys.speedstarFull MemberI got a reduced pair of Blue AM wheels in the Superstar sale so am now blinging the grey and blue all over! Never been this ponsonified with a bike!!
singlespeedstuFull MemberJust taken the vertstar off the front and swapped the trailstar from the rear to the front. Fitted the only other 650B tyre I had to the rear.
The accelerate up and down the road test seems a lot more responsive like that.
Think I’ll save the vertstar for uplift days.duirFree MemberI also found the Mavic Crossmax XLs make a huge difference. I tried the bike with a Hope/DT 471 wheelset and it felt really draggy so I guess the fancy wheels translate to being super efficient. Thats a real shame as I hate fancy wheels with silly spokes and only really bought them because of the 2 year insurance that Mavic do not do anymore.
ChainlineFree MemberI’m in the polar opposite camp to Simon on the tech stuff, particularly climbing, I find it amazing at tech climbing, tight or not, steeper the better, and yes tyres make a huge difference to grip rolling.
Same on flatter stuff, I love how it feels and my fun is often derived from how hard I can drive it round a corner and in generating that front end grip.I spend a lot of the year on a semi slick rear riding it like Colin McRae in an Impreza in Sweet Lamb, as long as the front wheel is facing in the right direction it’ll be reet
But I also agree that it, like every other product, is not for everyone, we all ride differently or have particular aspects of bikes we prefer. I think as long as people are honest with themselves about that, it’s all good. It’s often easy to feel like you should like whatever is being touted this week, plus tyres, ebikes, fat bike. It’s also ok to try these things, see if it works and if it doesn’t to change. That’s called choice!
thepodgeFree MemberSlight tangent but since people are here maybe you can clear things up…
Where does Nicolai UK sit in all this because it seems I either go to Mojo or Nicolai direct depending on what variation I’m after.
GotamaFree Member^^^ I bought my G13 (which I understand is a Nicolai bike rather than Geometron per se) through Mojo if that confuses you any more 😀 Even more confusing is that it also has Geometron on the seat stays! The benefit for me was that by getting it through Mojo I had a huge amount of help from one of their guys local to me in setting up the suspension which was a huge plus.
thepodgeFree MemberIt almost seems like if you want a black one go to Mojo, any thing else comes via Nicolai direct
simons_nicolai-ukFree MemberNicolai now distribute direct and Nicolai-UK are a retailer, as is Mojo (the Nicolai-UK name came from when we were acting as UK disty).
Nicolai will also sell to you direct from their website but the price will basically be the same whoever you buy from. As will warranty cover.
The Geometron name refers to the long/low/slack geometry – Nicolai use it in their catalogue and on their website. Mojo’s “special edition” of the G16 is a degree slacker and has a slightly lower/shorter seattube (if the geometry charts are accurate). I’m sure you can get one from Mojo in whatever colour you want if you’re prepared to wait but probably only carry stock in black.
ChainlineFree MemberBlackand raw from MOJO but yes any colour, custom etc as per retailer.
The MOJO GeoMetron(G16) in addition to the changes Simon mentions also was planned to have a different (83mm) BB width and (must check), wider bearing placement which was the reason for the BB change proposal to widen the bearings to the same place as on the GPI (which was the inspiration) for improved stiffness (not that it wasn’t/isn’t stiff enough) and to allow more heel clearance with a Boost rear end and straight chainstays.
I’ll see Chris at the weekend and check if that did happen. Essentially the same BB as the G19 but that bike doesnt (yet) have the ST angle and remains as per mainstream DH bikes.thepodgeFree MemberSo I can get any Nicolai from Nicolai direct or one of their retailers but I can only get a Geometron from Mojo… That’s much clearer.
Now all I need is enough to buy a mildly custom Saturn.
duirFree MemberSo I can get any Nicolai from Nicolai direct or one of their retailers but I can only get a Geometron from Mojo… That’s much clearer.
Not quite, you can get a Geometron from Nicolai too, that’s where I got mine (frame). I would have preferred to buy it from Mojo and do a setup day as I bought the shock and forks from them but at the time they didn’t do the longest with the lower seat tube so I had to go custom. As far as I can tell Geometrons are available from Mojo or Nicolai but the Mojo one has a few tweaks as mentioned above.
As for waiting for custom colours etc I was very surprised how quickly mine came in from Nicolai it was under 8 weeks where my last Nicolai was 3.5 months!!!
rollsroyceFree MemberThat’s my G13 in it’s natural habitat. I went with the float and 34 build and I don’t regret it. The 34’s are super stiff in 140 length. similar to the 160 pikes i had on my last bike. Every time I ride it, it just keeps getting better!
rollsroyceFree MemberCheers Wookster! It was on a Lakes hikeabike over Fairfield and down Great Tongue. We weren’t really expecting the foot and a half deep snow and whiteout on the peak! Was worth it though for the epic single track to finish!
speedstarFull MemberSo I have just had an email from Nicolai to say my Geometron frame is going to be delayed by 6 weeks 😥 What do folk think i should do? Wait? Try and get one of the ready to ship G-16’s? Go somewhere else? I have Vallelujah in about 6 weeks so i was hoping to have a bigger bike than my Blur before then. I have all the parts but the frame ready to go on a 27.5 beast..
wigglesFree MemberIf you ordered from Nicolai direct, then give mojo a call as they just had a big delivery and have quite a few frames in stock at the moment.
speedstarFull MemberThanks Wiggles i’ve emailed them. Will they just send a frame and shock or do you have to go and do the test thing?
wigglesFree MemberNo they sell frames with shocks & forks etc as bundles now. They will get back to you with what is available but there were plenty a few days ago
ChainlineFree MemberSpeedstar, they will also set up the shock for you based on weight/anticipated riding style.
There is one BUT in that the Mojo frame has an 83mm BB to allow wider bearing spacing, straight chain stays, more tyre clearance and more heal clearance.
If you have a Hope crankset ready to go thats easy as you can just swop spindle over. Mojo do good deals on Hope with a frame if thats the case. Otherwise you may need a different crank to suit.
6 weeks is a lot even for Nicolai but I know they are buried in orders at the moment and trying to get the EBOXX3 out. Not an excuse.
thepodgeFree MemberSomeone earlier in this thread said they’s had a Nicolai on test for a month or so, perhaps see if you can get the same to ease the wait.
ChainlineFree Memberor buy the Mojo one and benefit from the changes 😀 word on the street 😉
Although if it’s ordered there may be a cancellation charge I guess.
speedstarFull MemberHI folks,
Thanks for your replies. It was a production order so no money has changed hands. I’m sorry but 6 weeks extra is not acceptable from a customer service perspective. They really need to not promise the earth if they can’t deliver. I am interested in the MOJO frames although I have all the kit ready to go for the frame that was supposed to be delivered by the 16th.
I have bought a Mondraker XR frame instead and will be cancelling the Geometron sadly. Chainline, people just don’t have the time to wait around forever for things. If a company promises something then it needs to deliver. I’m really very disappointed as I genuinely believe the Geometron was going to be amazing but, given that at the time of order the frame was supposedly “in stock,” I have already waited well over a month and that would be 3 months by the time it was delivered. Not a good outcome.
honourablegeorgeFull MemberSure I saw a Nicolai social media post this morning saying they has loads of G16s in stock
rollsroyceFree MemberHi Chainline, just wanted to say I’m bloody loving the G13! After a bit of research, I discovered the rear shock is a 190 x 51 which is just a reduced stroke 190 x 57 shock? Is there a reason why the travel at the rear is limited to 133mm by the reduced stroke? Was it purely as that was what was discovered to ride best? On rough calculations a 57mm stroke would give 148mm. I personally don’t think it needs anymore travel but just wondered. Thanks. R.
speedstarFull MemberWell Honourablegeorge, it seems that MOJO are also the victim of this 6-week extension. Really poor customer service as I was promised twice very recently that the frame would be with me around the 16th February. I’m really disappointed but I can’t wait around as I have all the parts waiting to go on and enduro’s to train for. It’s just not what I expected from a company like Nicolai..
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.