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Make my smuggler feel more like a patrol

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Make my smuggler feel more like a patrol

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flag drdp
Posted: Nov 22, 2023 at 7:59 Quote
I've been riding the 2022 mullet patrol for a year now and I love it. I wanted a do-everything bike for longer rides and picked up a second-hand smuggler from 2019. The trouble is that it doesn't feel "right" when pointed down something steep.

I realise the head angle is 3 degrees less slack than the patrol and there is 20mm less travel on the front, but I don't think that's where the problem comes as I've tried hardtails with similar geo and they felt ok.

What I'm feeling is as if I'm standing too "in the bike" and almost behind the front wheel rather than above it in attack position. It only feels like this when tipping in to a steep.

The smuggler is a large vs the medium patrol. This means the stack is about the same on both but the reach is 20mm more on the smuggler.

Has anyone experienced this before, or should I simply try some anglesets and stem stackers and use a process of elimination?
flag drdp
Posted: Sep 4, 2024 at 10:46 Quote
An update for anyone else that stumbles this way.

I tried higher and lower bars and changing travel but it didn't address the main problem.

Then I added an Angle set and it's made all the difference. The big feels so much better and I don't really see any downsides for the type of riding I do. YMMY

 


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