Mike, another good one, definitely follow up with those other articles expanding on this topic, do like Andrew and try to find some actual bikes that do and don't lend themselves to being modified to either end.
To your premise that the engineers know a lot better than "me", I'm gona have to agree to disagree on that one, they know how to appeal to the marketing BS and I believe that is what drives design, not the other way around. I think maybe it's the road engineers I hate most really, they seem to give no forethought into the person who has to work on this bike and how easy or hard it will be for them to do simple service, like change headset bearings.
To the general premise of the article, I very much agree, but also it's brand/bike dependent, some designers just actually know what they're doing and can design a bike that actually can be pushed or pulled a little either way and still feel/ride good, others, well, let's just leave it at that....... I currently have a 2019 SC HighTower I had to service and the guy had the fork extended 10mm, has the flip chip in the slack setting and it feels HORRIBLE to just pedal about, floppy AF and the STA is so steep it hurts my knees, contrast that to my friends SB 150 that pedals and feels quite decent to just take for a pedal.
As to the Mulleting, if you know what you're doing, it can save/extend the life of a bike or help it tackle stuff better - I mulleted my 2014 Banshee Paradoxs to run 650Bx2.8" in the rear and pair that with a 29x2.5" upfront and have also over-forked them by 20mm and not one person has ever said anything bad about them, love how they handle. STA is a bit slack, but you can slide the saddle forward to compensate and while the Reach is shortened a bit, when you're on an unfamiliar bike in a strange country, having something that's maybe a tad "smaller" than what you're accustomed to is better than having something too big and long.
I also just mulleted my 2018 Kona Unit after riding my Phantom over forked and in the neutral setting, giving a HTA of about 67*, so putting the 650B outback on the Unit brought the HTA more inline with what I was accustomed to and feels perfectly normal and natural to me now - _when I first built the bike, this is how I set it up as I transferred all the parts off my 2008 Surly Monkey (that mullet helped slacken the HTA to a more trail friendly 69*) and I hated how it felt, so where you are in your riding and what you've tried, plays a big part in what you like._
March 20, 2024, 1:25 p.m. - Lynx .
Mike, another good one, definitely follow up with those other articles expanding on this topic, do like Andrew and try to find some actual bikes that do and don't lend themselves to being modified to either end. To your premise that the engineers know a lot better than "me", I'm gona have to agree to disagree on that one, they know how to appeal to the marketing BS and I believe that is what drives design, not the other way around. I think maybe it's the road engineers I hate most really, they seem to give no forethought into the person who has to work on this bike and how easy or hard it will be for them to do simple service, like change headset bearings. To the general premise of the article, I very much agree, but also it's brand/bike dependent, some designers just actually know what they're doing and can design a bike that actually can be pushed or pulled a little either way and still feel/ride good, others, well, let's just leave it at that....... I currently have a 2019 SC HighTower I had to service and the guy had the fork extended 10mm, has the flip chip in the slack setting and it feels HORRIBLE to just pedal about, floppy AF and the STA is so steep it hurts my knees, contrast that to my friends SB 150 that pedals and feels quite decent to just take for a pedal. As to the Mulleting, if you know what you're doing, it can save/extend the life of a bike or help it tackle stuff better - I mulleted my 2014 Banshee Paradoxs to run 650Bx2.8" in the rear and pair that with a 29x2.5" upfront and have also over-forked them by 20mm and not one person has ever said anything bad about them, love how they handle. STA is a bit slack, but you can slide the saddle forward to compensate and while the Reach is shortened a bit, when you're on an unfamiliar bike in a strange country, having something that's maybe a tad "smaller" than what you're accustomed to is better than having something too big and long. I also just mulleted my 2018 Kona Unit after riding my Phantom over forked and in the neutral setting, giving a HTA of about 67*, so putting the 650B outback on the Unit brought the HTA more inline with what I was accustomed to and feels perfectly normal and natural to me now - _when I first built the bike, this is how I set it up as I transferred all the parts off my 2008 Surly Monkey (that mullet helped slacken the HTA to a more trail friendly 69*) and I hated how it felt, so where you are in your riding and what you've tried, plays a big part in what you like._