Anyone here gone long reach and thought it was too long? Was it a dog or just a little more to handle?
Background:
Current bike is 160mm 27.5 with 425 reach with a 60mm stem so I will call that a dodgy 485 reach to bar center (acknowledging head angle stack change etc.) I originally went to order a longer bike as it appeared I was between sizes, but in the end the medium was at a killer price so I went for it and have ridden it for 3 years. It feels short in a number of situations, but I can race it at a pretty good clip but I guess I could also ride shorter bikes in the past too without spontaneous explosions occuring too often.....but almost always in race runs
New bike I have ordered (but isn't coming out for a month or two due to not being released yet) is a slack 160/150 29er with 485 reach and I intend to run a stem in the 30 - 40mm range. So a dirty 515 to 525 reach. Slacker than my current bike too so my dodgy reach number with stem will be effectively a little shorter. New bike seat angle is steep (77.8deg) so ETT will be 25mm longer than current bike which sounds good but I could handle longer to be honest. The thing that seems a little off is at 175cm tall with long arms it seems that apart from Pole etc. all the other brands would have me on a shorter bike. Hmmmmmmm. Rode a 480mm reach Pole machine in the carpark on the weekend and it felt sweet, but that ain't proper riding.
This won't be my only bike, I am still going to have my 27.5 150mm 65.5HA hardtail which is good fun. It measures up 15mm bigger than the duallie I will be replacing mainly due to stack being taller.