Interesting. Pete and I both found the large to be comfortable at 500 mm and Deniz was on the medium at 460 mm which he got along with as well. At the same time if your sweet spot is 480, that could be an issue.
I've been told that many top level gravity racers have stepped back from riding the longest reach they can and are riding shorter-reach bikes with slightly longer stems, and I can see their point. It's nice to feel that stretched out "in-the-bike" feel while also having a little more maneuverability.
I was recently at a camp where Fabien Barel was expressing the same sentiment about an eMTB. Fab was one of the first to advocate for going to a longer bike for stability as I recall, but to him the advantage was stability. His feeling was, if stability isn't an issue for the bike you are riding (and eMTBs are very stable) it might make sense to go down a size.
May 3, 2023, 8:36 a.m. - Cam McRae
Interesting. Pete and I both found the large to be comfortable at 500 mm and Deniz was on the medium at 460 mm which he got along with as well. At the same time if your sweet spot is 480, that could be an issue. I've been told that many top level gravity racers have stepped back from riding the longest reach they can and are riding shorter-reach bikes with slightly longer stems, and I can see their point. It's nice to feel that stretched out "in-the-bike" feel while also having a little more maneuverability. I was recently at a camp where Fabien Barel was expressing the same sentiment about an eMTB. Fab was one of the first to advocate for going to a longer bike for stability as I recall, but to him the advantage was stability. His feeling was, if stability isn't an issue for the bike you are riding (and eMTBs are very stable) it might make sense to go down a size.