The Honeymoon Period – Riding the Pole

Now, many of you will be wanting to know just one thing, is it fast? Well, let’s come to that in a minute because to jump right into that answer would miss out what I think is the biggest benefit of the new-school geometry – that crazy steep seat angle. Now, I’m no XC warrior, I have no idea what my FTP is and I must admit to liking a beer or two in the evening, so at a porky 14.5 kg I thought there was no chance #thegeometryaffair would excel on the climbs – how wrong was I. While the reach of 510 mm gets everyone excited, many telling me I would be stretched out like a hippy yoga instructor, a quick exercise in high-school trigonometry tells me the very steep 77.5° angle brings the seat approximately 40 mm closer to the bars than a bike of say 75°, so not much different from the norm, but more importantly 40 mm more forward in relation to the bottom bracket.

With your weight noticeably further forward over the bottom bracket, not hanging out the back of the bike, this mistress climbs very effectively indeed. On paper it should be a terrible climber, but it punches uphill with massive traction and an efficiency that makes you second glance for the motor, you just feel in a better biomechanical position. No, it’s not explosive, it’s too lardy for that, and standing sprints are not it’s forte either. But sit on the forward seat and start spinning and there is nothing that the bike cannot power up. Steep technical climbs feel like you are velcroed to the ground, and the long chainstays keep the front wheel well weighted with no wheelies or hunting. It is one of the best climbing bikes I have ridden, allowing me to keep up with, and frequently outclimb, those on much lighter bikes. Swapping back to a slack seat angled bike felt like I was climbing with the handbrake on, the position just felt bad. It’s time for the industry to listen up, steep seat angles are just better! Why don’t all bikes have very steep seat angles? Well, the ‘far forward’ position is only possible when combined with a longer reach – to enjoy the benefits of a steep seat tube, you have to change everything.

So, is the new school geometry fast?

OK, so now we get to the really fun stuff, is it fast! Short answer – damn right it is! The love affair got hot pretty quickly, the crashes were noticeably faster. The new geo took some adjustment, it took a lot of experimenting with bar height (now at 109 cm) to get a nice setup, too high and it feels like the bike is running away at the front, too low and the back end feels light at the back, fishtailing around in the turns like a slammed pickup truck. You do have to adapt your position somewhat for aggressive riding. if you ride hanging off the back of the bike it feels pretty dreadful, like trying to drive a fast car from the back seat, and beginners may struggle. However, the instant you throw your weight forward and ride centrally, grip levels spike through the roof, the long chainstays and central weighting allow you to drive the 64.5° front end sharply through the turns at outrageously fast speeds. It’s like the first time you drive a fast car, you leap at every opportunity to bury the throttle, I have to admit that for my personal riding style, #thegeometryaffair has fired up a rocket inside me.

Some people talk about head angles as if they are gospel, that’s slack so that will be better downhill, focussing on just a single number, but in fact it’s just one part of the jigsaw puzzle that makes up how a bike rides. Yes, slack head angles do make high-speed cornering more stable, but you need long chainstays to keep weight on the front and keep that wheel tracking. The 64.5° front end of #thegeometryaffair is pretty out there for a 29er but it’s the 456 mm chainstays which keep the wheel weighted and driving hard, you really can ride like an idiot and get away with it. The long front centre means I can run a 40 mm stem without nervousness or tucking under when you are white knuckling it down something crazy. I am currently running a 51 mm offset fork, so am probably soon to be behind-the-times, but the bike seems highly resistant to being knocked off line. I have gotten away with a couple of monumentally shit lines, ones that I am sure would have punished me on a less stable bike.

“But it will not get round the corners!”

“But it will not get round the corners!” How many times have I heard that! True, if you have a proper 180° switch back, you know, the ones where you need to ‘Liteville’ hop your way around, then yes, the long geo is a flipping handful, so if you local trails have names like “Switchback 101”, “Death by right angles” and “So tight it hurts“ then maybe the new school geometry is not for you, but I hardly ever ride turns like that as I like to ride trails that are actually fun. I have found short and long radius turns, hard cuts and and hooking through the tight woodland trails are effortless, not once was I jammed like a gate between the trees or cursing the long frame, as relationships go it has been a most excellent one.

In fact, tight corners are a surprise strong point, the low slung frame and super stable front end mean you can lean the frame over into the turn with massive traction on the front, let the rear drift and wait for the traction lifeline that will pull you out. It’s when the trail opens out that the magic really happens, fast turns and off-camber traverses, the long wheelbase and relaxed handling gather obscene speed like a runaway train. It’s addictive as hell, and I am smashing PR’s on every ride, moving up through the natural order on my home trails – buzzing tyres of those who would normally drop me. The radical geometry has made me faster, fact.