HendersonMike

@tobiusmaximum: hahha!! You got me.

@subwaypanda: I like to say my wingpspan is 175mm. Makes me sound tall! and here in the USA, I like to tell people I am 170mm tall, makes me sound taller... because 5'7" is SHORT!!!

@roma258: You have that right, these bikes are made for the chunky Enduro courses, but you also have to realize that they actually benefits us LESS SKILLED the most. These bikes are easier to stay on the bike because they are so forgiving. It takes more skill to stay on a bike with shorter wheelbase and a shorter reach. Then again, I am tallking about chunky downhilling here, and 90% of the time, we are NOT even downhilling much less chunky downhilling. For an all day Trail Bike, I do believe these long Enduro bikes to be too much work. They are about 10 lbs too heavy, the Seat Tube Angles are just too steep, and the Head Tube Angle just to slack. I think for an all day trail bike, 66 deg HTA and a 74 deg STA is ideal. The legs seem to work harder when the STA is too steep. The wrists also work harder when STA is too steep. As the days drags on, we feel it. however, if we are riding 3 hours or less, then these newer Enduro Geo are just fine. These bigger bikes do FEEL slower and cumbersome, but sometimes our FEEL is all wrong, because the reality is different. I am actually going faster on these bigger bikes, and I am still able to make the same turns the same way as I would on a smaller bike. "If the car feels good, that means you are going too slow" -- Mario Andretti. Basically what Mario is saying is you should always be on edge, and you should NOT based how fast you are going on FEEL ever! Then again, most of us to NOT ride for speed, we ride just to have fun, but you have to admit, it is nice to stay on pace with the Bros with less effort. We all seem to have it wrong when it comes to these bikes. 90% of the time riding does NOT involve techy climbs and chunky Downhilling. I would first set up the bike for the 90% first, get that reach perfect with the correct handlebar sweep, length, and height. Then from there work on the other 10%. Even with those steep seat tube angles, those Super Techy climbs are impossible if our Conditioning is off. I have about a 5 minute section on my local trail network I have only cleared twice on my best climber (Ibis Ripmo, 76% Deg STA), and only reason I was able to clear them at all those 2 times was my conditioning was at it's peak. Most of the time, it is NOT. As for Downhilling, unless we have shuttle service, we only get about 5 minutes of Downhilling for about every 50 minutes "Uphilling". So therefore, TTL is the most important Geo Measurement of them all in bike set up if we are setting up a pedal bike. The other measurements are still important, it is just TTL is the most important for a pedaling bike. For me personally, I have found that any bike between 590mm to 615mm is perfectly OK with me. I can play with stem and sweep a little bit to even fine tune if need to. As for Reach, I have found 460mm to be my absolute max for Reach, I am even ok with 415mm, but a bike with a longer Reach is just easier to DH with, as we have more room to move around the bike, and it does seem harder to go over the bars on longer bikes. There does come a point that reach is too long, and it seems more work to weight the front end. For me, that is 460mm (I think). It is best to just ride and ride. I often travel without my bikes because I feel it is too much work lugging a bike around on vacation and worrying about if it would be jacked or not. I often rent bikes on "bike trips" to allow me to do other things. When I do rent bikes, I try to go for something different, both in design as well as sizing just to get an idea of how other bikes feel.

@Svinyard: I am really liking the 2021 Commencal bikes, people will be amazed how well built and finished they are. The Paint job and attention to detail on my Furious frame is just amazing. Made from 6069 T6 Aluminum and braced in all the correct places for stiffness. I bought frame only and built it up, so I was able to closely see all the details when building it up. The cable routing channels are nicely done and the routing of cables was super easy. The numbers on these 2021 Commencals are spot on perfect geo wise. Finally the bike Industry gets their sizing correct! Only thing that is a negative is they will be about 2 pounds heavier than any carbon bike, but is that really a problem? The biggest problem with Commencal the Company is we they do NOT offer a way for us to Demo them. I really want to try a 2021 Commencal Supreme Mullet DH bike in size Medium, but there is no place to try one. The Reach on the Medium Supreme is 455mm and Wheelbase is 1290! That thing must be smooth as silk to ride. My Furious is 1223mm WB and I feel it is so plush and soft, that I can only imagine how awesome a 29er Front wheel with 1290mm Wheelbase Commencal DH bike would ride. One thing I realized about longer bikes is they feel slower and more cumbersome, but the reality is actually opposite from feel, because I am still able to make the turns, and my times are faster! Then again, 90% of biking is more than speed, it is about feel, and my Furious in size Small and 1223mm WB just feels awesome. I think I will ride my Furious for at least a couple of years before even considering upgrading to another "Lift and DH" bike.