Posts
174
Joined
12/19/2019
Location
Rancho Cucamonga, CA
US
I am very stoked on the mullet set up! I spent a lot of time on my friends mullet at summit this season and i'm sold on it! so here lies the problem, I can NOT afford another bike and I love my 27.5 YT TUES but I hate the fork so I want to swap the fork to a 29 and make my bike a Mullet. BUT! while I don't mind the addition of the 29 fork and wheel slackening the bike, I do absolutely hate the Idea of raising the BB. So the question is it possible to add a 29ER wheel and fork to my 27.5 Tues without raising the bottom bracket more than 4-5mm?
If those didn't also slacken they'd be perfect.
650B bikes in the 65.5 HA area are the prime candidates.
Besides offset bushings, a quick easy one is going to a narrower/smaller volume tyre in the back, easy way to shave some BB height.
Or if the bike has a kinematic to suit, running closer to 35-40% sag. But H/A gets slacker dynamically.
So if my fork is dialed, Geometry is up to date, and tires and tire size are the same that world cuppers run. Then am I allowed to look at mulleting my bike? Or do I still need a reality check?
Mullet'ed my 29er enduro bike with a heavy rear 27.5 wheel: almost no noticeable change in ride feel beyond increased chatter out back.
Mullet'ed my 27.5 e-bike with a 29 fork+wheel (same tyre: MM supergravity). Was worried about the the increased BB height (357mm for a 150mm travel bike), but interested in the -2degree head angle (66->64). Difference is night and day, feels way more stable, beating all my times by a handful of seconds on 1-2minute tracks. Only downside is climbing isn't great.
I wasn't expecting that much from putting the 29 fork and wheel on the 27.5, yet now i've put my 27.5 fork up for sale... Note that I am not a believer in low BBs to begin with after several horrible crashes from rock strikes to the pedals.
-Fork spring pressure
-More or less tokens than your fork
-Coil vs. air fork
-Rear shock sag
-Better or more recent seal/wiper/oil maintenance
-More compression
-Less compression
-rebound speed
-high speed rebound speed
-Fork model, air spring design, and shim stack tune (these features all vary year to year within manufacturer's models)
-Bar height
-Tire pressure
-Tire size
-Tire casing
-Tire inserts
-Head angle
-Chainstay length
-Stem length
-Grip compound/thickness
-Body position on the bike
-Last but not least the placebo factor, which is real. It affects all human subject tests of every kind, and this is no less true for mountain bikers who are excited to borrow their buddies cool trendy new bike.
There are an unimaginable amount of variables that affect bike performance, and that's why pros and suspension tuners try to minimize variables when testing. I've ridden a lot of different bikes, I've tested bikes for manufacturers, and I've ridden all the wheelsizes in every imaginable scenario. I'm not saying wheelsize doesn't matter, that would be too strong, but based on my experience it's really far down on the list. If you thought your friend's Capra rode through rough terrain better than yours, that's great and useful information, but I don't think it logically and necessarily follows that you would benefit from buying a mullet bike.
You do have a ton of great points and I am always playing with my bike set up cuz I'm a bike nerd. So I thought it'd be a fun thing to try on my bike since I want a new fork anyways.
Maybe taking your advice I could play with bar height to simulate the higher front end of the mullet although it wont change the feeling of having that 29er front wheel on a bomb holed bike park it should still help with the weight distribution aspect. thanks for the tips and the effort put into that response.
What you’re fighting against on steeper/faster/tougher trails is weight shift. As your front tire hits bumps, it slows down and your body weight shifts forward. This is inherently unnerving and your brain will instinctively slow down to compensate. Slowing down, by the way, compounds the frontward weight shift because now you’re pulling on the brakes. Bar height, 29” front wheels, faster fork rebound, and running a stiffer fork are all ways of combatting frontward weight shift and keeping your bars higher. There are a lot of ways to skin that cat.
Happy puzzling!
My bike isn't terribly slack nor low to start with so nothing got to extreme. I did lower my fork travel by 10mm to keep the bike a bit level.
At 5'11" with long limbs it provided no or maybe just 1 advantage but a few disadvantages.
First, done sloppy like this, I didn't like the geo changes for a trail ride at all. The front pushed like mad although I had a fast rolling low grip rear tire installed now (as my wife is more a XC rider), the slackening of the STA was positively unbearable, the rear end was considerably more chattery and rough feeling. I did shove the bike extra hard into a few turns and it felt nice and a few times I was able to do the Pro thing where the rear end pivots around the turn with no brake application and that was really cool. My bike has poor rear tire clearance and this was improved greatly.
In the end, for this application, on this bike on these trails at my height, mullet wasn't worth pursuing imo.
I'd still like to explore it more and I think for a gravity bike, or a shorter person on the right bike it has it's place and very well might be superior to other options. That said, I won't spend money to buy a mullet or convert a bike unless I had lots of testing time beforehand to quantify worthwhile advantages.
Recently I took it to Silver Mountain Bike Park and then to some traverse trail riding in the Black Hills of SD the following weekend. This setup was solid on muddy/ peanut butter bike park and only suffered on the rocky terrain of the SD trails by not being very nimble. I appreciate the compromise with this bike to reach into light downhill and still be a very capable trail bike!
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