I agree with so much of this! This is why the hardtail I built up last year doesn’t have such a steep seat angle, doesn’t have such a low BB, and I run a long fork on it to get the BB height, seat angle, stack and reach to where I wanted.
The geometry chart for my Moxie is quite confusing because it’s for a static 140mm fork and assumes your saddle is super low for the effective seat tube angle measurement – like most owners I’m running a 160mm fork and with the saddle up high it’s just under 75 deg before sag, so about 76-77 sagged – perfect!
I think there’s also an argument for lower BB height on smaller frames as the shorter wheelbase benefits from the extra stability and helps with the break-over angle, and smaller riders suit even shorter cranks. And I’d argue for a mix of steeper angles (or at properly corrected for saddle height) and chainstay lengths on larger frames.
“… I was just finding that the Squatch was too low… …My palms and my toes were taking a battering. Too much hand-pressure from the low front end. Too many times booting roots and stumps on trails from the super-low 80mm(!) drop BB.”
I also have a hypothesis that a lower BB on a hardtail results in the rear tyre hanging up more on square edge, due to the rider’s inertia pulling the bike into the bump as the BB rotates forwards and down around the rear contact patch.
“As bikes have got longer, I’ve been digging higher front ends and higher BBs.”
Paul Aston has been doing some interesting testing on this front!
“ I appreciate the oft trotted-out argument that forks with more than X amount of travel are unsuitable for hardtails due to geometry change at bottom-out yadda yadda yadda. Balls. Not true. The proof is in the riding.”
Having ridden everything from 100 to 160mm forks on my hardtails and found I like the longest the best, I agree!
Full-sus bikes’ angles change more when we’re riding them as both ends move independently – we just ride about this, it’s part of riding MTBs. You’re never at the end of the travel for long, it such a brief moment before all that spring force brings you back.