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#Mountain bike geometry calculator Patch
(Broadly, trail is the distance by which the front wheel’s contact patch trails the steering axis.)Įven as those changes have created challenges for bike fit, “the reality is that bikes today are faster and safer,” says Barry Anderson, a biomechanist and lead fitter with boutique shop and fit studio Cyclologic, in Scottsdale, Arizona. In an effort to keep handling consistent with the larger wheels, designers realized they needed more trail to slow down the steering a bit, and they obtained it partly through slacker head angles. Īccording to Peter Zawistowski, director of engineering for Yeti, the change in wheel size on full-suspension bikes-from 26 inches to 29-was pivotal to the geometry shifts. Just 15 years ago, a jump like that would have been considered a legit feature on a downhill course. Although there was a less technical “B line,” almost every rider in both the men’s and women’s fields confidently hit the drop. “The product informs the riders and the riders inform trail development, and it cycles back on itself.”įor an example, look at the Sakura Drop, a five-foot-tall step-down that was a crucial part of the Tokyo Olympic cross-country course. “It’s a spiral of evolution,” says Travis Brown, a member of the 2000 Olympic team who now runs mountain-bike research and development for Trek Bikes. They’ve ridden harder, putting new demands on bikes, which in turn have become more capable, and thus cyclists have moved on to ever more technical terrain. As suspension has gotten better, mountain bikers have moved on from four-wheel-drive roads and smooth singletrack to technical trails. But it also means the size-mediums of today fit very differently from the mediums of a decade ago.īike technology exists within a feedback loop involving the bikes, the riders, and the trails themselves.
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That’s shorthand for a longer reach and wheelbase, (sometimes) a lower bottom-bracket height, and a slacker headtube angle. The geometry makes for bikes that are more stable when descending, particularly at high speed and in chunky, technical terrain. With the exception of cross-country race bikes, the modern trend in mountain-bike geometry is best summed up in a phrase you’ve likely seen in reviews: long, low, and slack. How did it happen? Can it be fixed? And what the hell can you do about it if you already bought a bike? How We Got Here It’s still an insane number of people on ill-fitting bikes. “But 90 percent of the people buying a new bike are on the wrong size.” Let’s say that’s overstated by half. “If you’re six foot four, then mazel tov, bikes finally fit,” he says. Specifically they’re too big in a dimension known as reach, which is essentially the horizontal distance between the top of the headtube and an imaginary vertical line that runs through the center of the bottom bracket. He’s also the creator of a fit system called RideLogic that addresses what he sees as one of the central challenges of full-suspension bikes right now: they’re too big. He’s personally worked with, by his estimate, about 8,000 mountain bikers, ranging from total novices to World Cup downhillers. McCormack is one of the foremost instructors in the sport, a Boulder, Colorado–based skills-book author, bike fitter, and coach with more than two decades of experience. But if you won’t listen to me, listen to Lee McCormack. I know, because it almost happened to me too.
![mountain bike geometry calculator mountain bike geometry calculator](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/6fUg8bzlD1I/maxresdefault.jpg)
And I have no idea just how hard you ride.īut here’s the thing: I’m probably still right. I have never seen you on any bike, much less your current shred sled, which is of course totally dialed. If you bought a bike in the last five or so years, there’s a substantial chance that the frame is too big for you, your seat is too far forward, and the handlebar needs to be cut down or even replaced.īut bro! you spray at me from the tailgate of your lifted TRD Pro, You don’t even know me, bro! I hate to tell you this, but your mountain bike probably doesn’t fit you.