Anyone actually changing seatstays/bikes often?

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Anyone actually changing seatstays/bikes often?
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flag provin1327
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Posted: Jun 9, 2021 at 10:31 Quote
I am considering purchasing a GG Smash and Gnarvana seatstays once GG gets their production back up and running. I am wondering how often people are actually changing out seat stays and components to convert their GG bikes. I think think the GG modular platform is a cool idea but not very realistic if you are having to swap out a complete fork, shock, wheels, etc. After doing some research it seems that going from a Smash to a Gnarvana would actually be pretty simple and reasonable for the occasional swap for an enduro race or bike park day. Swapping air springs on a Fox 38 to go from 150 to 170 is doable, not ideal since you have to drop the lowers but as long as you are careful and do not spill oil out of the lowers it shouldn't be too bad. Using a shock like the DVO Jade coil 230 x 65 would mean just removing a 5mm spring clip spacer when going from the Smash (230 x 60) to the Gnarvana (230 x 65 with no limiting spring clip).

Does anyone have any experience doing this? Or, if you are swapping seat stays are you swapping other components too?
flag kbgav
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Posted: Jul 12, 2021 at 9:12 Quote
I have been riding my bike as a Smash for the last year and a half, and I'm about to convert it to a Megatrail to try smaller wheels and longer travel. Personally, while I do enjoy working on my bike, it will not be a regular thing to switch back and forth. I could see maybe installing a mullet front end on occasion once I have it set up as the Megatrail, but even that will be rare (and only if I like the mullet setup, which I have not yet tried).

Still, I'm pretty excited to have a nearly-new bike (I'll also be installing a new drivetrain and rotors/pads at the same time, all due to wear) for much less than the cost of a new bike.
flag stubs179
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Posted: Sep 4, 2021 at 3:36 Quote
I will be switching often i think? I am a travel nurse and we live in a 34' 5th Wheel. Contracts are 13 or 26 weeks so we move often and could be anywhere in the US that we want to go. Because we live in the camper (N+1) is not an option for me. GG's modular platform was a big reason i went with them. I purchased my bike as a Trail Pistol but built it up with Stans Flow rims and more enduro geared parts. I converted it to a Pistola pretty soon after as it more suits my riding and i like it a lot. I also have the stuff coming for a Gnarvana so i can have a short travel bike for places like FL where i currently am and a big bike for when i am in places that Sedona or Bellingham.
flag chrod
Posted: Oct 10, 2022 at 10:07 Quote
IMO GG's modular platform is more useful for DIY tinkering and partial upgrading rather than weekly swapping configurations. Guessing that over its lifetime the average GG is probably built up in 3+ configurations, rather than swapped over every week for different types of riding.

I use the trail vs gravity mode on the Megatrail every couple weeks.
I mulleted the MT and have swapped back to 27.5 for a park day, and a 29er fork rebuild.
I use a Mezzer so travel changes require disassembly but no extra fork parts.
I'm going Gnarvana soon and expect to keep the MT config but might not use it too often.

Want to mullet your Megatrail? You only need to buy a front fork+wheel and a headset cup, not a whole new bike. Or start from a Smash and do the reverse with stays+shock and a rear wheel.
After a season on the mullet, if you want to go Gnarvana you only need stays and a rear wheel.
In the process you've bought seatstays, fork/shock, tires, and wheelset, maybe $1k-$2k+.
But you could have sold the old bike and bought a different one for about the same money, maybe less.

Config changes need to be fast and require basically no new parts to really be worth doing regularly. Forks that require an air shaft swap rather than using travel spacers make the GG approach more cumbersome. Having a second fork or shock is easier but expensive. If you still have to do a lot of work to swap back after a park day, you might not actually do it.

I think GG would win the game if they would:
- Add adjustable dropouts or a flip chip for chainstay length
- Hell, size-specific rear ends
- Offer a variety of adjustable-angle headset cups
- in-frame storage
- Full-carbon rear end on every model, backward-compatible
- Revise the Smash for 150+mm, 443 chainstay, and 65mm stroke.

And if GG refined frame aesthetics (just a bit), and updated graphics they'd take everyone's money.
flag BenLow2019
Posted: Oct 11, 2022 at 7:47 Quote
chrod wrote:
I think GG would win the game if they would:
- Add adjustable dropouts or a flip chip for chainstay length
- Hell, size-specific rear ends
- Offer a variety of adjustable-angle headset cups
- in-frame storage
- Full-carbon rear end on every model, backward-compatible
- Revise the Smash for 150+mm, 443 chainstay, and 65mm stroke.

And if GG refined frame aesthetics (just a bit), and updated graphics they'd take everyone's money.

Good call.
I would also like to see some of these. In-frame storage is so common - I'm surprised they don't already offer it. Part of me says that in-frame storage is the best but the other part says that they'll have to make the tube bigger and it will make the bike ugly. I need to see it done right. Tough to do. I really like the look of the frame right now.
And the angled headset cups in addition to the standard long/short option seems like a real missed opportunity - I'm even more surprised that this isn't already a thing by now.
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