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Love you Vital but this is kind of a funny question. There are other variables that play into the equation. EG, STA and rear center plays into this too. That said, I'd like to suggest mountain bikes will eventually figure out what moto figured out 30 years ago. 63-64 is good for just about everything. Get offset right, get the rest of the bike's geo right and I could see a time where XC bikes have very similar geo to enduro bikes. "But it'll wander while climbing" - no, not really, you just need to get used to how a...

I more was poking at the fact we've got a chainstays thread, a reach thread and now a head angle thread all being recirculated...and they are all driving at the same thing.... "get a bike to handle well" There will be a special sauce ratio between reach, rear center, head angle, STA (for climbing) and bb height that'll make for magical handling. I do think people need to throw out the preconceived notion that "this wheelbase is too long, short, whatever" - again, i go back to moto - I watch dudes do things on far longer motos in tight...

Funny story regarding Greg Minnaar and frame reach. My first time working with Greg as my guest coach in a downhill camp he was still on Honda. The next year he was on Santa Cruz and riding a large V-10 (which had the reach measurement of most manufacturers medium downhill frames). Greg and I are both 6'3" and I was riding an XL Canfield Jedi at the time. I told Greg that his frame was too short for him. He laughed and said, who's the World Champion here. I explained that the sweet spot (where all your weight is...

There seem to be 3 ways of determining how a bike rides and how good it is. 1. Look at the geometry chart and suspension design on paper and decide from there. 2. The ABC method: I tried bike A, then I tried bike B that had a bigger X tube/angle and it rode better, so bike C having even bigger X tube/angle will therefore ride even better. 3. Actually riding the thing and seeing if it works and accept that taking single geo/suspension numbers in iscolation really won't tell you what you might expect. I think we're all discovering...

My Nicolai G13 has added 60 mm reach to my previous bikes. Combined with a 32 mm stem...it feels amazing. Have gotten so used to it that I've swapped my XC/Marathon bike from a large to an X-Large to try and replicate the longer reach measurement.

I am getting a steel FS frame custom made (3.9kg w/o shock) with geo based on balancing FC and RC. Hoping I have the numbers right to get the right amount of weight on each wheel, lowering the need to "hunt for balance and traction" or "compensating for the bike's weight bias": 445 RC to 845 FC, with 62d HA and 160mm travel F/R (monopivot). Had to go custom because I wanted a short seat tube (for max seat slammage) and mixed wheel size. Seat angle 80-81d, reach 490 for a 590 ETT. I'm 170cm/5' 7" with 76cm/30" inseam. ROS9...