MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
I've got a nukeproof scout 290 in large that I love - 450mm reach, 70mm bb drop, 65 deg head angle.
It's made all my other bikes feel a bit small, so I'm looking at a new 29er suspension bike (I've sold my xc full sus, and my trail bike (medium stumpjumper) is for sale too).
Options are a vitus escarpe, cotic flaremax, whyte S150 or a bird AM9. I can't help thinking that the s150 and am9 are going to be a bit too much bike for me and most of my riding (although I'm demoing both over the next week). The flare max looks good but I'm between sizes (same with the vitus, although the L is out due to the seat tube height). So, would 450mm reach on a full suspension bike feel long in the same way that it does on my hardtail? Or should I size up to 470-480mm reach (as on the L whyte, ML AM9 or L flaremax).
At 5'10 with long-ish arms and short legs I seem to be between sizes on almost everything. Even 450mm reach is about 25mm longer than my stumpjumper, but maybe I should go longer... interested to know what size bikes people my size are riding. I can't believe I used to ride a 16" patriot!
If 450mm feels better than your shorter bikes maybe even longer will feel even better. You won't know until you try.
I was in a similar position in that my previous bike was a hardtail (OK a fatbike, but still a hardtail) with a 455mm reach, which was longer than all my previous bikes and I thought it felt better. I've now got a large flaremax . It took a few rides to get used to it but now I'd say that even longer was even better for me.
the 450mm reach dimension gets longer when you sit on your hardtail due to the forks compressing.
i can’t remember how much by. I think it’s about 25mm, but I can tell you how much cotton twill typically shrinks when it is scoured from loom state. (8%)
I've had a similar situation come up recently, I'm 6ft 3in and so right on the line between L and XL on almost every bike's sizing. I ride an XL Vitus Escarpe 27.5, which has a reach of 495. I've always favoured XL bikes as I'm a bit longer in the arms and of course, longer is better... right?
I rode a size L Cube stereo at the weekend and a size XL, the XL has a reach of 478 and the L a reach of 458. I was expecting the L to feel tiny, however it felt bloody awesome and not short at all.
So yeah - test ride both sizes if you can, I'm seriously considering sizing down to a L next time round. Longer isn't always better... I think a happy medium is about right for most of us, unless you're regularly riding loads of gnar a moderately long, semi slack and fairly low bike is the way to go 🙂
I'm thinking of sticking with around 450mm reach, that's still a fair bit longer than my last bike... my hardtail sometimes feels a little long on slower steeper trails. I'll see how I get on with the L S150 though, and go from there.
At 5’10 with long-ish arms and short legs I seem to be between sizes on almost everything.
The other way to look at it is you have choice, that's the beauty of a lot of modern bikes with small enough seat tubes, and ideally lots of sizes in the range with small (c25mm reach) jumps. Take Birds sizing for example (because that's what I ride), at 5'7" I'm comfortable riding a M or ML. I can get the same effective distance between seat and bars using 35-50mm stems and sliding the saddle fore/aft, and the stem change would reduce the 25mm difference in reach to effectively 10mm. So the choice becomes about how you want the bike to feel and handle not necessarily how it fits, if that makes sense.
At 5’10 with long-ish arms and short legs
That makes you just the same size as me, and I ride a Bird (insert one of our bikes here) in ML. Generally I prefer the shorter reach on an HT as it means you can load up the front tyre a little more easily - on a full suss you can do it on a bigger bike without worrying about what the back is up to, but on a HT I find that a little more precision in both weight distribution and wheel placement is needed, so a shorter reach helps keep everything a little closer to hand. Hence why we don't correct our reaches to be the same when sagged.
Thanks Ben - I'm booked in to demo your ML demo am9 next Thursday. Looking forward to it...