Great article! While I used to be a short-chain stay snob (trail hardtail with sub-400mm stays— maneuverability, man!!!), I found on my new-to-me bike that stays circa 40mm longer did not affect wheelies and bunny hops nearly as much as my indoctrinated self would have believed.
But like the SC guy, I balk when people talk about making all sizes “ride the same”. A 5’ person’s relationship to the bike is going be be totally different than a 6’-6” person, no matter what the chainstays are doing. Everyone’s already adapted to the way their size interacts with all sorts of things in the world, bikes included.
To put it another way—- ultimate similarity would be achieved by reducing / increasing wheel size, frame tube diameters, etc., etc., right? But then the 5’ person bike has a super short wheelbase and tiny wheels which approach the terrain of the trail in a completely different way than the 6’-6” bike.
I also think options/ adjustability is better than size-specific
Aug. 5, 2021, 5:59 p.m. - ackshunW
Great article! While I used to be a short-chain stay snob (trail hardtail with sub-400mm stays— maneuverability, man!!!), I found on my new-to-me bike that stays circa 40mm longer did not affect wheelies and bunny hops nearly as much as my indoctrinated self would have believed. But like the SC guy, I balk when people talk about making all sizes “ride the same”. A 5’ person’s relationship to the bike is going be be totally different than a 6’-6” person, no matter what the chainstays are doing. Everyone’s already adapted to the way their size interacts with all sorts of things in the world, bikes included. To put it another way—- ultimate similarity would be achieved by reducing / increasing wheel size, frame tube diameters, etc., etc., right? But then the 5’ person bike has a super short wheelbase and tiny wheels which approach the terrain of the trail in a completely different way than the 6’-6” bike. I also think options/ adjustability is better than size-specific