MTB - Effective Top Tubes

[tjdixon911]

I've been looking around at a new HT considering one from the list below;

Bird Zero AM ETT 635mm
Orange Crush ETT 640mm
Whyte 905/9 ETT 655mm

The ETT's are for "Large" bikes which according to size guides (and from my recent bikes) is what I should be riding.

I currently have a Spectral AL ETT 625 IIRC and a Giant XTC which is something around 620 I think.

Over the past couple of years bikes seem to be getting longer, what is the reasoning behind this? Is it to run shorter stems or is there more to it? My xtc is longer than the spectral taking into account of the stem.

I can get to look at the crush / Whyte locally which puts them out front, but there are only mediums locally in both..

[phil-sti]

Longer bike is more stable at speed but then can be difficult to turn quick. This is countered by shorted stems and long bars.

[anonymous-user]

ime, "turning ability" is set more by bottom bracket height than wheelbase.

Modern "long front centre" bikes keep the riders mass in the middle, but lengthen the wheelbase to bring more stability, especially when the trail is steep. My Dune is a good example of this trend, and it's incredibly stable when going fast downhill (think pretty dam close to a full on DH bike ime) but can still be turned well and "man handled" about due to it's low BB and relatively low mass.

[Minnsy]

If it's any help... I have the whyte 909... long and slack. Goes uphills well, goes down even better. Excellent bit of kit...

[tjdixon911]

I've currently got an Orange Crush on demo - just been for a 25mile blast round the local trail centre (Thetford) - great bike BUT I found it too similar to my spectral and a little under geared for my liking - it has a 30t chainring upfront and looking at the clearance it doesn't look as if it will take much bigger.

I'd imagine the Whyte / Bird will be similar feeling bikes and I'm not sure it's what I'm after, I don't want something to compete with my Spectral, I want something that will sit along side it. Maybe I need to look more towards an XC style, which will then compete with my Giant XTC (29er) but that has become more of my winter warrior so I don't mind so much...

[tjdixon911]

I rode my spectral yesterday, repeating a lot of what I rode on the crush on Friday - it's Definatley not the right bike...

Thought I would share a picture with you though.



So I have been looking at XC bikes - I like the Grand Canyon range, the top end alloy frame can be had for £1499, whilst a slightly lower spec (but not significantly) carbon can be had for £1649 - the two between the 2 is slightly different with the alloy being longer 620mm ETT compared to 610mm on the carbon - I assume XC bikes are naturally shorter to be run with longer stems? There is very little difference in weight, I think the alloy is lighter.

Alloy: https://www.canyon.com/en-gb/mtb/grand-canyon/gran...

Carbon: https://www.canyon.com/en-gb/mtb/grand-canyon/gran...

I didn't really want this to turn into a what bike thread but is there anything else worth looking at?

[jamieandthemagic]

It's weird I was in same position, thought I should be getting a large bike of some makes, having had an 18.5 FSR Enduro pro (large).

Then since the geometry changes, and some other variations, I found a medium Yeti was spot on for me.

So ultimately, you need to go try them. Before you buy.