Slack geometry newbie!!

I have just bought my first bike that is not 71/73 degree angles. It’s 66.5 and 76 respectively. Whooooaaahhhhh!!! How different!!

I realise this is now a long out of date experience for most, but wondered if you could point me towards any YouTube guides/articles etc. that discuss how to adjust riding style. I know JUST RIDE IT will eventually get me there 😂😎

130mm up front. 120mm rear.

I’ve watched a few, but keen to hear your experiences and any advice that helped you make the transition.

Cheers.

29er?

Pretty similar Geometry to my Whyte S150.

Biggest change for me is trying to stay central on the the bike. With a slack HA, your front tyre is a good way in front of you. You need to stay central to keep weight over the front tyre to avoid washing out.

For me that’s probably the biggest adjustment. I was used to hanging off the back to keep from going OTB but with a slack bike with a long reach unless you are riding seriously steep stuff going OTB is much less of an issue than keep weight on the front tyre.

Yes – 29” wheels. 👍

I’ll pretty much echo the above. Before I leant that long low slack = stop hanging my arse off the back like it’s 1997, I had a few incidents with the front wheel washing out from underneath me. Fortunately nothing that I didn’t recover from, but definitely a case of “Yeah, I’m an enduro hero, I’m an enduro h…. Oh, bugger!”.

Gradually I got more and more used to centring my weight on the bike, keeping my chest further forward and arms bent to push the front of the bike into the ground more. It’s been a revelation. More speed and control everywhere and some crazy lean angles that would’ve sent my straight to the floor on my old Kona running Velociraptors.

This vid helped:

Excellent. Good to hear it’s not just me!! That video is exactly what I was after. Cheers!!👍

It really has been a revelation for me. 6’2/187cm, riding XL 29ers for years but recently went more extreme geometry and wish I’d done it sooner: 64.5 HA, 76.0 SA, 535 reach and 1341 WB on a 160/145 29er. My ‘regular’ trail bike then felt so weird in comparison that I sold it last week!

Echo what posted above. I’m a few weeks into it now and definitely getting the hang of it and unlearning how I’ve been positioning myself on bikes previously. Currently using a 50mm stem to encourage my weight further forward, despite the enormous reach.

Yeah definitely takes a few rides to make it work.
Keeping central on the bike means pushing into the bars more than with old skool geo, once you’ve got that you can really lean into turns

Yes, watch various videos and practice being intentional about riding style until you get the hang of it.

Despite doing that, I have fallen off my bike a few times because I’m not very good it is slack, low, and long. Washout, pedal strikes, getting stuck in a tight turn, not being able to place the front wheel where I wanted it on a climb. Slack also means it doesn’t like to stand up leant against anything; keeps falling over, so now I always lay it on the ground pre-emptively.

I’d summarise as:
1. You’re unlikely to go OTB, fight the instinct to hang back
2. Arms bent, elbows out – keep the weight forward
3. Keep a higher gear on rough terrain and get in some well-timed half pedal strokes instead of spinning

Also if you still use your old bike for anything (e.g. commuting, local rides), remember which bike you’re riding before sending it down steps or getting the 26″ front wheel stuck in a shallow ditch.

Suggest you look up podcasts, interviews etc with “Mr Geometron” Chris Porter who is pretty much responsible for the shift to long slack low bikes building on work done by Cesar Roja at Mondraker. CP has a lot to say and is a mine of useful info.
Start with Steve Jones and Porter chatting on YouTube.
(Ps he has come round to the 29” wheel now. At least on the front).

I moved over to. geometron in 2015 adding 4” to reach, a fair bit to the chainstays and knocking 4 degrees off the head angle of my current Large “all mountain” bike.
Generally I run slacker than 63. For all purpose riding.

Bit faster rebound, more compression damping on the shock – or more air would push you forward onto the bars in flat corners.