I both agree and disagree with your points on chainstay length. Agree: longer is better, almost all of the time. I've been riding a Gnarvana (with 450mm CS) the last couple months and the added stability feels soooo good when going fast, or in chunk. Disagree: I'd rather see a bike come with adjustable CS. I think most manufacturers will hedge their bets towards shorter, so adjustable would let them spec it on the short side but me run it a bit longer.
I really think the next bike I buy will be designed as a mullet. I've played around with a few conversions, but these invariably have issues that I don't like (BB way too high or way too low, HTA & STA way too slack). I'm 5'8" / 172cm so I can and do ride a full 29, but it becomes a bit of a handful on tight, off camber corners. When I've ridden mullet conversions, they've felt incredible on those types of corners. They do feel less good on square edge chunk/holes, but there's not a ton of that where I ride, so I really think a proper mullet would be the "bike for trails I ride, not the trails I want to ride." Ideally, GG will make a set of stays for a dedicated mullet, so I don't have to wait until 2023 to get this. ;)
Jan. 5, 2021, 9:07 a.m. - Andeh
I both agree and disagree with your points on chainstay length. Agree: longer is better, almost all of the time. I've been riding a Gnarvana (with 450mm CS) the last couple months and the added stability feels soooo good when going fast, or in chunk. Disagree: I'd rather see a bike come with adjustable CS. I think most manufacturers will hedge their bets towards shorter, so adjustable would let them spec it on the short side but me run it a bit longer. I really think the next bike I buy will be designed as a mullet. I've played around with a few conversions, but these invariably have issues that I don't like (BB way too high or way too low, HTA & STA way too slack). I'm 5'8" / 172cm so I can and do ride a full 29, but it becomes a bit of a handful on tight, off camber corners. When I've ridden mullet conversions, they've felt incredible on those types of corners. They do feel less good on square edge chunk/holes, but there's not a ton of that where I ride, so I really think a proper mullet would be the "bike for trails I ride, not the trails I want to ride." Ideally, GG will make a set of stays for a dedicated mullet, so I don't have to wait until 2023 to get this. ;)