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2supple Liked a reply to forum topic New EVIL Offering - Forum Hot Seat with Evil Bikes
11/6/2025 10:29am
Who’s upset? Just because a lot of riders don’t know what chainstay length they prefer doesn’t mean it doesn’t make a big difference in ride feel. Size-specific chainstays are expensive, sure—but it’s interesting that most brands now think it’s worth the cost, while Evil doesn’t. Based on my own riding experience, I believe Evil is wrong here. A size XL shouldn’t share the same chainstay length as a size small. It’s disappointing, because I like a lot about Evil’s bikes overall, but uniform chainstays are a dealbreaker. I ride a large and haven’t ridden a 435 mm CS since 2019...
This forum topic has 141 replies.
ntm95 Added a reply to New EVIL Offering - Forum Hot Seat with Evil Bikes
11/6/2025 7:51am Sure, you can ride anything, I've had a great variety of bikes as well. I think everyone knows how to ride a short chainstay bike, elbows up, aggressively low, drive through your shoulders/hips in corners. The traditional riding position and technique. If that works best for you, play on. And you are correct that a f/r ratio is only one...
ntm95 Added a reply to "Exciting" bikes
11/5/2025 1:44pm Agreed on the stock vivid air being trash. An ext storia was a revelation in comparison. I found the drag from the hp drivetrain to be excellent in comparison to others I've tried (claymore, range, slash). And the braking behaviour has been good for me, much better than something like the claymore that pretty much locks up. Like I said...
ntm95 Added a reply to New EVIL Offering - Forum Hot Seat with Evil Bikes
11/5/2025 9:59am I used to have a nukeproof giga 297 in xl. It's dimensions and f/r ratio were almost identical in xl. It was a great bike, until I got a taste of that long chainstay front end grip, and then there's no going back. I'd be curious which size the f/r ratio was designed around ? It seemed common practice to...
ntm95 Added a reply to New EVIL Offering - Forum Hot Seat with Evil Bikes
11/5/2025 8:27am Great looking bike. Very short chainstays equating to a 1.9 f/r ratio in size large. That's moving in the opposite direction to where most bikes are headed lately. Medium looks good at 1.83 f/r though. The large and XL are going to be relegated to "arizona" bikes, where corners are slow, and the steps are large. Short chainstays are good...
ntm95 Added a reply to "Exciting" bikes
11/5/2025 7:54am Almost entirely the geo and the f/r ratio. The high pivot is fairly calm through the pedals, but doesn't feel like a high pivot in most places. You feel it in some corners, doing hp rear end lengthening things, but not as pronounced as other hp bikes I've ridden. Also doesn't have that squishy feeling, it's quite firm earlier in...
ntm95 Added a reply to "Exciting" bikes
11/4/2025 2:53pm Brian Cahal should have a review out soon of the dreadnought v2. He has been on one all summer. His stuff tends to be pretty spot on.
ntm95 Added a reply to "Exciting" bikes
11/4/2025 2:52pm It directly replaced an arrival 170. But I had a claymore, slash 6 and a bunch of others prior to that (nomad 6, giga 290, enduro, etc.). I had the opportunity to try a Madonna for a few days and liked it. I'd say it was like half way between a vanilla enduro bike and what the dreadnought v2 is...
ntm95 Added a reply to "Exciting" bikes
11/4/2025 12:34pm The dreadnought v2 never got a fair shake really. A one or two day test isn't enough time to retrain ones approach to cornering. It requires such a different riding position that the better you are with a traditional bike, the worse you are going to be with the d2. I was not thrilled with mine at first, but as...
ntm95 Added a reply to "Exciting" bikes
11/4/2025 9:41am Agreed on the arrival's quality. Absolutely crazy how far ahead of every other bike I've owned it was in terms of carbon layup and fit and finish. It made early strides towards a longer wheelbase with a better f/r ratio closer to 1.8. It's downfall was the odd sizing (large was a medium, xl was an xxl), and way too...
ntm95 Added a reply to Suspension Component Technology/Functionality Discussion
10/30/2025 10:08am The compression ratio as measured on an installed shock inherently factors in the negative chamber. Like you said, it roughly gives an idea of average spring curve in so far as a start and finish. You can take additional measurements at given shaft extensions to plot more points, but it all seems like a faff anyways. My own opinion, but...
ntm95 Added a reply to Suspension Component Technology/Functionality Discussion
10/29/2025 2:29pm Nothing fancy, or particularly useful. Simply gives you an idea of spring rate progression vs a linear rate progression. In the context of the OP, they're looking for "pop", as in a higher progression rate/compression ratio. That data might be useful to them in so far as to compare an x2 to something like a float x, in order to...
ntm95 Added a reply to Suspension Component Technology/Functionality Discussion
10/29/2025 12:35pm Average spring curve.
ntm95 Added a reply to Suspension Component Technology/Functionality Discussion
10/29/2025 8:26am I'd agree that it's going down the rabbit hole to actually measure volumes, shaft displacement, piston area, transfer port locations and attempt to extrapolate a curve. The layman can suss out 90% of what they need by simply calculating compression ratio. But it's all arbitrary in most cases anyways when we are talking about applying this to a trail bike...
ntm95 Added a reply to Suspension Component Technology/Functionality Discussion
10/29/2025 8:09am Absolutely, if that's what you are after. Even with a coil though, I thought the v2 was plenty "poppy". It's the nature of the dw link and relatively short chainstay. My terrain here in western canada tends to be higher speed stuff though, so I am definitely bent that way in terms of bike setup.
ntm95 Added a reply to Suspension Component Technology/Functionality Discussion
10/28/2025 11:29am I'd say no. Those ratios can be calculated easily enough by a shockwiz, or anyone with a shock pump and a couple minutes. A "spunkier" ride developed through a higher ratio air spring is typically more detrimental to descending performance as a whole. It simply makes the damping more inconsistent. Can't say as I've ever heard of a ripmo described...
ntm95 Added a reply to Modern Geo Talk: Chainstays, Stack, Reach, and Bitching About It
10/24/2025 4:06pm If anything there is a point where on really steep stuff where it can pitch you forward a bit more, if your fork setup is marginal and you're going slow. But that's really steep, slow stuff that's full of steps, that most people don't ride regularly, if at all. And is exactly why everybody in arizona rides a bike with...
ntm95 Added a reply to Modern Geo Talk: Chainstays, Stack, Reach, and Bitching About It
10/24/2025 11:55am I'm running a dreadnought v2 with 470mm reach and 470mm chainstay in mullet configuration. It rips. Corners harder than any of my other bikes, makes traction where there shouldn't be any. Running a relatively high bar position to go with that, 645mm stack, 30mm under the stem and 50mm bars. I'm 6' with long legs. Requires a recalibration of riding...
ntm95 Added a comment about feature MRP Lift Damper Long-Term Review
10/22/2025 8:57am
Personally, at 190 pounds, I found the grip 2 to be quite poor. It had a tendency to "spike" at higher shaft speeds. The x2 was an improvement, and an avy open bath hybrid coil damper was a large improvement upon that.
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This feature has 82 comments.
ntm95 Added a reply to FOX Podium Inverted MTB Fork - Questions, Answers, Reviews
8/8/2025 9:42pm Ah, Craig isn’t that bad. He is just a dude that’s lived through 30 years of marketing “experts”. It’d be hard not to become a little salty. It’s one of the reasons I’m asking questions here about the podiums. Historically robot is pretty spot on with his reviews in my opinion. The glowing reviews of the podiums that are out...
