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It takes no crystal ball; a 'new' Tallboy LT is inevitable - they have been playing the game right and seeing where the industry moves in respects to 'standards' like Boost spacing, etc...
I'm calling it now - they are test mule-ing a 27.5/29er hybrid like the new Foes Mixer. I think the 'new' Tallboy LT will be:
27.5 rear, 29 front
shorter CS (via VP v3 linkage), likely 17.3"
longer TT, longer reach, lower BB...
steeper SA ~74
slacker HA ~76
130mm travel (basically a 5010 frame tweaked for 29er front)
I think the next 'thing' in the industry will be long travel 27.5 rear with 29 front. Lever arms make the front wheel more pertinent with 'rollover' - did anyone ever have a problem with their back wheel getting over a rock?
The last thing I would want is to make the bike 20mm taller and 3+ degrees slacker, unless it was for hammering lift assisted trails.
29" wheels add about 75mm to the overall length of the bike compared to 650b. If you put a Large E29 next to an XL V10, the E29 will be longer.
How long do you want your trail bike to be?
I agree the E29 is a tall bike, but it has 29" wheels and 6" travel. If you lower the BB, pedal strikes become more common, especially if you are a tall guy and don't want to run 170mm cranks. If you lower that bars too much, you lose that 'in the bike' feeling, and it makes it harder to manual and pop. This would be even more exaggerated if it were slacker and longer.
Yes you strike more pedals with a lower bb and lose some pop when manualing but these are trade offs when you consider we're talking about what is essentially a 29er Downhill bike built to go at warp speed on gnarly terrain. If people don't want that they can have fun on steeper, shorter, and higher bikes
I've been testing Pole -bicycles since the first prototype. And we've been pushing the envelope on how long and slack we can go with them. And we are still pushing
The 2016 models come with geometry that we've tested and felt comfortable with.
For example the 29r aimed for trail riding ( https://www.polebicycles.com/evolink-140-29-tr/
boasts a head angle of 64.5 degrees and the medium sized bike has a longer reach than an XL-sized competitors.
What we've figured out is that you can't just throw in a slack head angle. You need to have a long reach and a steeper seat angle to make it comfortable. And if concentrate only on the reach and the head angle you'll soon notice some differences in steering - so we've actually gone longer in the chainstay as well. If you're not doing trials, a longer and slacker bike is better everywhere, even on the climbs when you've got a longer chainstay.
The guys are currently updating the website with predefined build-configurations but you can take a look at all of the models geometries using the Bike-builder https://www.polebicycles.com/pole-bikebuilder/
Out of all the models my personal favorite is the Pole Evolink 140mm paired with a 150mm fork (which you can find in the bike-builder under Gravity Enduro "GE" Riding style). You can truly do everything with this bike and I don't see any reason going for a steeper and shorter bike than this.
Ever since we started going longer and slacker I've felt that there is no going back for me. I even had to get rid of my Intense DH-bike since it felt so awkward to ride once I've gotten used to a longer bike.
But these crazy dudes want a long, slack, 180mm travel 29" lightweight trail bike that they can ride uphill. Have you guys played with longer travel 29" setups?
For me the 150mm Fork has been enough for all the riding here in Finland once its set up correctly and for aggressive riding I would suggest throwing in an MRP Stage. For faster, steeper, rougher trails I can understand the need for "forgiveness" that the longer travel would offer. We are constantly trying out new things and in my personal opinion I can't see any reason that would be against 29" for longer travel. I'll keep you updated once we get our feet wet.
All of the steel-prototypes are actually still being ridden by happy customers.
1) sspomer has been asking about the functionality of a 7" downhill oriented enduro 29er. The functionality might be there for specific types of trails, but it's somewhat questionable, if really necessary for most types of riding (like 99,9%).
2) AGR97, ralle and me (amongst a few others) pointing out that it might be better to keep the super long + slack approach and pair that with a ~6" travel frame. The pole is interesting in that respect (also with the new suspension layout, compared to the prototypes), but for me personally too expensive (does it have a bottle cage mounting option?).
3) Couple of people talking about how awesome Spesh Enduro or Treks are, which might be true for average riding, but ever tried to ride a real downhill track on any of these? Might just be a little easier with a little more room towards the frontwheel.
I also remember that about 10 years ago a lot of people would ride a 24" rear wheel due to wheel-stability issues and making their bikes lower/ slacker. However you could really feel how the rear wheel would hang up on a lot of stuff compared to the front, so people dropped that idea again. I also think that if there is no specific need to go with a smaller wheel (i.e. you can't handle the big ones), one should stay with the bigger ones front and rear.
https://www.polebicycles.com/game-changing-bicycle-platform/
But we just got the first objective review out by Bike Radar, where Seb Stott pretty much sums up on where long and slack 29ers excel.
We are also working on a prototype 29er with longer travel on the rear so we'll see how it stacks up against the 650b downhill bike. As soon as we get the prototype out for testing I'll let you guys the verdict.
I plan to machine myself a new set of dropouts, paired with offset bushings, so i can use a longer shock, giving me more rear travel.
Post a reply to: slack, long-travel, pedal-able 29ers?