Skeen profile

“Aluminum has a lower strength-to-weight ratio than steel, meaning that more volume of aluminum is required to make a frame that holds up to our strength standards. This is why you’ll notice that the tubing used” 

Can someone explain this a bit further? I thought aluminum tubing has thinner walls and larger diameter compared to steel to achieve needed strength for a frame. And it appears this generally results in lighter aluminum frames than steel. I am speaking in generalities because i must be misunderstanding something somewhere.  The jump from “strength to weight” to “more volume of aluminum” has me a bit confused. 

And the bike looks awesome, cant wait to get a matching set of full suspension chromags for me and my (currently 2 year old) son in a few years.

I haven’t owned a serious mtn bike that weighs less than 33lbs/ 15kg since 1999. One factor i think of but never hear discussed is how a rider adjusts/ automatically trains to get used to the bike weight they ride. If i only ever rode sub 30lb bikes a 38 pounder would feel real heavy all of a sudden. Also being 200 lbs+ myself, i can agree the rider weight to bike weight ratio makes sense.

I haven’t owned a serious mtn bike that weighs less than 33lbs/ 15kg since 1999. One factor i think of but never hear discussed is how a rider adjusts/ automatically trains to get used to the bike weight they ride. If i only ever rode sub 30lb bikes a 38 pounder would feel real heavy all of a sudden. Also being 200 lbs+ myself, i can agree the rider weight to bike weight ratio makes sense.

From hoarding bolts and fluctuating self perception of mechanic skills to frakenfixing my son’s  bike (at least the mounting bracket for his toddler seat) I could relate to the details and enjoyed your writing Cam!

I believe that rather than focusing on either wheel independently the mixed wheel effect is a product of the difference in radius between the two. Things are way more dynamic when riding, but to simplify, if two wheels of different diameters (and radius) are tilted at the same angle, the smaller one will complete the same degree of a turn with a shorter circumference or arc length. This translates to a smaller rear wheel completing turns faster than a larger one. So on a mixed wheel bike, the rear end will complete turns sooner than a comparable bike with a sized up rear wheel. This is my layman’s physics interpretation of what i think is going on. I’d be interested to hear who agrees or has a different take.

Agreed about demos. I was on a 2011 Reign X from ‘12-‘18 when i bought the Guerrilla Gravity. It was the first modern geo bike I rode and I liked it right away. The improved kinematics made it really easy to like and the rest i got used  to easily enough. From there i added a shorter stroke air shock to the mix so between the two shocks i have 4 travel options plus coil or air. 

For the ESD, the sliding dropouts have allowed me to learn how different chainstay lengths impact handling. 

I still haven’t decided on my optimal geo although it will obviously be different for each bike and its primary use. Thanks for the great article to keep me thinking about all of this!

I converted my 27.5 GG Megatrail to mixed for a number of reasons and it has been great. After adding a Honzo ESD to my quiver i wanted the HTA on the GG to be a bit slacker than 65.5. Also the Z1 on the ESD made the Ribbon on the GG feel noodly so i wanted to size up stanchions to a stiffer fork. I also found the BB to be a bit low for my liking in slack mode. So now in low mode the BB is 7mm higher than it used to be in tall mode. HTA is 64. Reach stayed about the same as i had room to move spacers to lower the stem. Everything about this geo change is great, although when riding hard berms on flow trails i need to keep the shock open, when locked i feel a bit too high above the bike. The mixed wheel effect is real. I can make much tighter turns and had to relearn the feel to some degree in order to not oversteer some turns i could barely make (at speed) before. It has been a great experiment. I may go back to 27.5 front wheel with the 29 fork just to play around with things but anticipate i will always have at least 1 mixed wheel bike in rotation from now on.

I remember lure of the beast of the east having a high BB to clear logs and other obstacles but never heard about the mixed wheel feature. That was back before the internet went mainstream so it was really hard to find details about these things. great article by the way! The only danger is it making me want a G1 even more.

Thanks Andrew I love your kid kit articles. My mini shredder is only 2 so the only experience i have to add so far is a horn or bell (safety and fun).  And some kind of storage bag to stow the gloves and snacks, and to make the bike just like dad’s. Peace!

I picked up a new honzo with deore 4 pot brakes in November. The front pads never bedded in but the rears did. I called the shop about the issue and they claimed they send all new bikes out the door with fully bedded brakes (so it was my error according to them even though I received the bike with neither set bedded and the rears worked in just fine). I stubbornly rode the bike with a crappy feeling front brake u til I finally replaced the front pads with galfers today. I cleaned the rotor with isopropyl before and did a quick/ partial bed in on the street and they are already feeling better than those pre-contaminated pads that came with the bike. I wonder what happened with those, but the rear shimano pads bite well as do the new front galfers.

A few honest questions (not trying to bash) how much more torque can an average ebike put out? How much more likely are unskilled ebikers going to spin out and wash out steep tough climbs because they can just dump in bonus power instead of ride up with finesse? I am not worried about trail wear from more laps, just unchecked torque ripping up steep climbs. Any insights out there?

I have a 2018 mega trail, it has 2 rear shock mounting positions to switch travel between 165 and 150 mm along with a slight Geo change.

I got a second, shorter stroke shock with same eye to eye so Geo is the same but travel is reduced to 145 or 135 mm. This is basically the same as a shred Dogg but with my same longer travel fork. Although I air up the fork so effective travel matches the reduced rear.

I think the 29" smash could do the same thing but recommend just contacting guerrilla gravity they are super helpful folks.