Just measured the BB height on my Patriot. It’s 350mm on the normal shock setting and 320mm on the slacker one. How does that compare with modern enduro type bikes?

350mm is slightly on the high side (though not if it works best with a lot of sag) and 320mm is ridiculously low. That’s centre of BB to ground on flat ground with normal sized tyres and no sag?

Both measurements were to bottom of the bb shell. So add on a bit I guess. It’s a 26er remember.

Wheel size has no bearing on BB height, only on BB drop. You need to add 22mm to those BB height measurements to compare to other geometry charts, as the BB shell should be 44mm diameter.

Both are high.

Why all of a sudden do you care?

Bronson 341
Nomad 340

For example

but how all the numbers interact and how it sits in it’s travel make the difference (if enough)
The better question is what do you want to be reassured about
a) Your bike is comparable to modern bikes and still a trail weapon quiver killer.
b) Your bike has outdated geo which means to ride it like you do makes you in fact A RIDING GOD!
c) That explains my last crash I need a new bike.

Why all of a sudden do you care?

I am curious as to the difference between this and a modern equivalent. I’m not replacing anything, no money of course. May experiment again with the shock mount position again though.

Maybe some wider bars again.. But to address the steering slowness, maybe use the steeper setting..

I had my Patriot 66 (180mm travel) set up with a 64ish degree head angle.It meant the bb was about 300mm high.I crashed a lot,smashed a lot of pedals.
Now these days I’ve not ridden a bike where I thought the BB was too low or clipped a pedal because of it.

Mine was always a little difficult in twisty bits, which are my favourite, until I lowered the bb and the fork to lower the whole thing.

I can alter the sag by adjusting pressure and the rate of the shock.

My Spitfire has 12mm of BB height adjustment (and the angles change by a degree too) and I notice a pretty big difference between the two extremes.

There’s nothing modern about low BBs. BBs were nice and low in the early-mid 90s and then along came suspension and designers gradually raised them to unweildy heights to compensate for buffoons who couldn’t figure out that pedalling during a compression would result in a grounded pedal. (anyone remember the freeride bike explosion) Only in recent years have they followed the trend from DH and are finally getting back to nicely low. Notable exceptions would be DJ/4X bikes where things stayed relatively uniform throughout the years. (stiff little bikes designed to turn, pump and jump well)

Be careful running lots of sag. excessive sag makes a bike harder work to get through tight twisty sections, more of a chore to accelerate and robs you of pump. Also, bare in mind more comfortable in the rough isn’t necessarily any faster.

My advice would be go FULL ENDURO or ignore fads entirely.

I do hope all of this helps.