Question about Reach and cockpit length on AM and trail bikes

[ChrisJC]

Hey Team, another question for those riding bikes with more than 100mm travel! I'm building an Intense Spider 29c (size L frame). I'm running a 50mm stem and 780 wide bars with a similar drop to my other bikes. Dropper is 0 deg setback. When I compare the seat tip to handlebar centre distance to my size L Anthem X 29er, The intense is around 20mm shorter. The Anthem has a 60mm stem and 20mm setback dropper (dropzone) which accounts for much of the difference. Is a shortish cockpit the norm for modern trail/AM bikes despite having longer effective top tubes?

cheers
C

 

[schred]

I'm not really sure about your comparison to the Giant, if anything sounds like the Intense is 1cm longer, frame v. frame, which is the only thing that is comparable apples to apples.

But yes, that would appear to be the trend, longer TT, shorter stem, wider bar.

 

[ChrisJC]

I'm not really sure about your comparison to the Giant, if anything sounds like the Intense is 1cm longer, frame v. frame, which is the only thing that is comparable apples to apples.

But yes, that would appear to be the trend, longer TT, shorter stem, wider bar.

Yes, nothing is the same. Seat and head tube angles are totally different and wheelbase is around 80mm longer. Just an observation that the cockpit is a bit more bunched up on the Intense; but considering the seat tube angle is steeper and Head tube a lot slacker than the Anthem, the result using similar stem and bar setup will be a shorter cockpit.

 

[stickso]

TT is a rubbery figure dependent on the seat tube angle. A better comparison is reach which is the horizontal distance from the BB to head tube.

XC bikes which are designated for a longer stem will have a shorter reach than a AM/Trail bike.

 

[schred]

Yeah what he said.

Got your comparo, there's a few bikes that might be an example of what you were observing, the POL bikes discussed a week ago seemed like that, steep SA, very slack HA, front wheel right out in front. Maybe check the geo charts and see if it reveals anything although unlikely.