Mullet/MX bike – who’s ridden one?

2020 Evil Calling – seemingly few compromises but does end up slack in head angle.

Less worried about the slack head angle, more worried about the fact the claimed seat angle of 74.8deg is already optimistic for most people cos of it being “virtual” rather than actual (interrupted seat tube), and once you’ve slackened it by 1.5deg by mulleting it, you’re down around 72-72.5deg seat angle more than likely. Which is slack!

Evil Offering a far better bike to mullet… I’ve had one as a pure 29er, setup in the slack X-Low mode it had a 75.5deg effective seat angle (measured properly) at my saddle height with a 150mm fork. Drop in a 27.5″ rear wheel, that drops to about 74.7deg, but you then run it in the Low setting rather than X-Low and you get about 0.6deg back from the geometry adjust. In fact, you could run a 2mm offset shock bushing in the eyeletted end of the shock (but the wrong way round), to get the geometry back to 75.5deg with a 27.5 rear wheel fitted I’m sure. The thing is, I found my Offering a very agile bike as a 29er anyway, it never really felt like it needed more agility to me. My mate ran his mullet for a while, with the linkage in Low, and it worked quite well for him and was imperceptibly slacker than normal.

There’s a number of Cascade Components Mullet links for various bikes now, would be worth considering…

Cheers, mboy. Didn’t realise Cascade were doing mullet links too.

I’ll reiterate 2019 Stumpjumper EVO 27.5 as prime for mulleting. Even more so with the Cascade link to make it more progressive.

I have a Banshee Titan, tempted to try it in mullet. Thing is I already have a coil shock and a zeb, how will I live with being so koolaid drinky…? “Ooooh is that a mullet” and so on…?

I mullet a trek slash, high setting with 27.5 x 2.4 wt minion vs low setting 29 x 2.4 wt minion. Lose about 10mm bb height, maybe half a degree slacker head angle (by phone app) with mullet. Haven’t measured the seat angle but its the alu version which is steeper than carbon. Can ride it in either set-up anywhere and wouldn’t complain if it was fixed, but having the flexibility to change is a bonus to an already great bike.

Just been looking at a few off the shelf frames that would potentially be ideal for mulleting starting with a 27.5″ frame (harder than just fitting a 27.5″ rear wheel in a 29er)… The one that stands out so far…

Yeti SB140…

It has a 77deg Seat angle, is designed around a 160mm fork, has a 210x55mm shock delivering 140mm of travel. Fitting a 29er fork and wheel, but dropping to 140mm travel on the front would only slacken the angles by about 0.8deg which would be manageable, and the BB height wouldn’t suffer too much either. Or maybe could drop to 130mm travel 29er fork, and put a 5mm spacer in the shock to reduce rear travel to 127mm… You’d end up with a 127R/130F travel trail bike, 64.6HA and 76.6SA, static BB height of about 343mm, and it would almost certainly be a hell of a lot of fun!

Banshee Spitfire probably wouldn’t be too bad a shout either… 130mm 29er fork up front, 5mm reducer in the shock to reduce rear travel to about 123mm (or even just a 2.5mm to recue it to 128mm), and the adjustable stay position would help with geometry adjust too.

Basically, if you’re coming from a point of view of converting a 27.5″ bike to a 29er front, you want one that was designed with “reverse mullet” travel specs… That is to say, a bike that was designed to be massively over forked from the factory.

Any of the current range of bikes from Last can be run as a mullet so can be added to the list;

Glen (145mm travel)
Coal (160mm travel)
Tarvo (160mm standard, MX link adds 10mm travel)

Last use an ‘mx’ link to even out the geometry.

@richwales – are you on a 2021 Slash ?

It’s 2019 model – think that’s the same as 2020? Before they added the storage compartment.

Thanks, got a 2021 on order so going to try it out on this…

“ you could run a 2mm offset shock bushing in the eyeletted end of the shock (but the wrong way round)”

Would that work or would the offset bushing gradually work itself around to the shortest i2i length, moving each time you hit a big bump or bottom out?

Would that work or would the offset bushing gradually work itself around to the shortest i2i length, moving each time you hit a big bump or bottom out?

It works fine, had to do it before and it was fine. I guess if you didn’t do the shock bolts up to spec, it might work itself round over time, but torque those bolts up properly and it’s going nowhere.

Just remembered that the Whyte S-120 and T-140 models share the same frame… The T-140 uses a deep lower headset cup to take into account for the smaller wheel, which is easy to swap for a regular headset cup I guess.

“ Just remembered that the Whyte S-120 and T-140 models share the same frame… The T-140 uses a deep lower headset cup to take into account for the smaller wheel…”

That’s like the most recent Liteville 301, which is designed to handle 29 or 27.5 on the same frame. And those first Stumpjumper 27.5 had that too but with very bodged geometry…

I have been tempted to try it on my Banshee Phantom for a while as I can adjust the dropouts.

Going to have a 140mm fork on it soon, but I’ve got the drop outs in the low position.

I’m thinking 27.5 rear, 140mm fork then shifting the drop out to the neutral position to get a bit of BB height and seat angle back.

There’s nothing at all wrong with it being 29er, it’s just curiosity as I’ve never really had a bike designed for (or close to) it before.

I had an offering, tried the “low” setting with 27.5 rear, 140mm pike.

Benefits –
Tipped into turns more easily

Drawbacks –
Everything else.

BB was too low.
SA started out on the cusp of slack ended up too slack.
Backend felt like it was hanging up.

I didn’t get any agility benefits.

Do I still want to try a mullet again? Yes.

I still feel there has to be benefits with agility and turning, just needs the geo to match it. Only thing that puts me off is feeling of backend getting hung up, but that might have been because my front triangle was dodgy a rattled like a mofo you could feel through your feet.

I’ve been casually looking at this for a couple of weeks –
https://www.mulletcycles.com/product/the-peacemaker/

Looks are an acquired taste, but $2,000 including a shock is decent money. Shame they don’t give you much on geometry saying that’s like their Coca-Cola/KFC recipe. What a load of balls!

I’ve been casually looking at this for a couple of weeks –
https://www.mulletcycles.com/product/the-peacemaker/

Looks are an acquired taste, but $2,000 including a shock is decent money. Shame they don’t give you much on geometry saying that’s like their Coca-Cola/KFC recipe. What a load of balls!

I like the look actually. But then I do like oranges too.

Website/general aesthetic is a bit Sick! bikes though, which worries me.
Along with 1 hardtail for sale, half a dozen other models “coming soon”.

Probably unfair, as a small new company from colorado has probably no idea who sick! are/were.

Found a good candidate this evening. Current version of the YT Jeffsy 29. It’s got a flip chip, steepish seat angle, highish BB height. I can live with a small water bottle.

Rare as hens teeth though at the moment, even 2nd hand.

Website/general aesthetic is a bit Sick! bikes though, which worries me.
Along with 1 hardtail for sale, half a dozen other models “coming soon”.

The moment I clicked on that link my immediate thought was “oh great, another Sick!”… And then there’s loads of nonexistent links to upcoming models, and the only existing model is entirely lacking in any kind of detail, especially geometry… WALK AWAY!!! FAST!!!

Found a good candidate this evening. Current version of the YT Jeffsy 29. It’s got a flip chip, steepish seat angle, highish BB height

My friend mulleted her 29er Jeffsy, she said it improved the bike no end! She wasn’t happy or confident on it as a 29er, with a 27.5″ rear wheel but in the steeper setting she reckons it’s loads better… Stock seat angle is reasonably steep too which helps, as the 27.5″ rear slackens it about another 0.4deg even over the 29er even taking into account using the high setting instead of the low.

I’m sold!

Seeing a big old wheel sticking out the front is hugely confidence inspiring in steep rough dh sections. This in on a 2021 kenevo. I will be keeping it in this configuration.
I would not buy a new bike now that wasn’t available with a mullet/mx setup.

“I’m sold!”

This is as high quality science as when Giant told us that 27.5 was the best of all worlds…

This is as high quality science as when Giant told us that 27.5 was the best of all worlds…

I’ve got a feeling some of those graphs are Giant’s.

The one interesting bit is the cornering/turn in radius of the smaller back wheel which they mention briefly and then dont really explain…

I’ve spent all these years going over my handlebars for nothing on my stupid symmetrical wheel sizes.

“ The one interesting bit is the cornering/turn in radius of the smaller back wheel which they mention briefly and then dont really explain…”

There is actually a bit of truth in all their claims – it’s just the presentation turns them into hyperbole.

Regarding the lean angle and cornering radius, it’s to do with the reduced circumference of the tyre as you move onto the shoulder vs the crown of the tread. The bigger the wheel, the smaller the percentage change in circumference across the tread for a given tyre profile.

I think this is why a narrower and less square rear tyre also feels good to me – it wants to turn inside the front’s arc.

“ I’ve spent all these years going over my handlebars for nothing on my stupid symmetrical wheel sizes.”

Having inspected these accurate diagrams I’m sorry to tell you it’s not a wheel size issue which can be easily solved by swapping your rear rim and tyre. You actually need elevated chainstays and a dropped top tube, so a whole new frame.

Thought I’d bring this thread back from the dead after having a bit of fun yesterday. Behold the mulleted G160

Managed to get a really good mix of trails in on it yesterday, and struggling to find a situation that didn’t seem a bit better. The fork wasn’t ideal (older dual position Lyrik RC with a 51mm offset) but even then the front end felt really good, I think a 44 offset would calm the steering a bit further though

Head angle is hovering between 63 and 64 degrees
BB drop should be around 34mm from the front axle

The fork is a loaner so mine will be going back on shortly, definitely giving me food for thought though