Hello there. Is a 430 reach too short for 171cm??

[James7475]

What have I started?!!! ??.

For the record, and using some of the great comments in this thread, I went with the 430 reach bike and have tried numerous bar/stem combos and have found that, due to my T-Rex proportions, changing the stock 50 stem for a 35 is my sweet spot...even on genuinely technical wet trails. Con-incidentally, it’s very close to what my measured, not calculated, RAD is.

I hope everyone is enjoying themselves as much as I am ????

 

[emtbjb]

If I were a shorter rider, the most important measurement would be standover/ seat height and having a max 27.5 size rear wheel for anything other than XC.
Bike sizing for me completely depends on what i want to achieve: If you're just trying to get down DH runs fast, longer WB bikes work the best (as per pinkbike grim donut video). I've been learning tricks on the easiest bike possible (a super short WB 26" street trials bike), such as endo turns, back hops, bigger bunny hops etc. and trying to bring these to the trails.
My sized down merida E160 27.5 (6'4" riding a Large with 460 reach/ 644 stack) is nice & poppy but still way harder to manual and american bunny hop than any analogue bike (even with short 235mm chainstays) but I agree with all the videos that the extra weight is great for airtime.
I found the RAD video pretty interesting, all of my bikes were within 2cm Rad measurement after cockpit set up.
Here's a great video on the 2 main uses for an ebike and geo required. Everything is a compromise, try as many different bikes as you can!

 

[James7475]

If I were a shorter rider, the most important measurement would be standover/ seat height and having a max 27.5 size rear wheel for anything other than XC.
Bike sizing for me completely depends on what i want to achieve: If you're just trying to get down DH runs fast, longer WB bikes work the best (as per pinkbike grim donut video). I've been learning tricks on the easiest bike possible (a super short WB 26" street trials bike), such as endo turns, back hops, bigger bunny hops etc. and trying to bring these to the trails.
My sized down merida E160 27.5 (6'4" riding a Large with 460 reach/ 644 stack) is nice & poppy but still way harder to manual and american bunny hop than any analogue bike (even with short 235mm chainstays) but I agree with all the videos that the extra weight is great for airtime.
I found the RAD video pretty interesting, all of my bikes were within 2cm Rad measurement after cockpit set up.
Here's a great video on the 2 main uses for an ebike and geo required. Everything is a compromise, try as many different bikes as you can!

I totally agree and I’ve been changing the stem length dependent on what I’m doing. This obviously changes the RAD and RAD angle. Thanks foe the video ??

 

[B1rdie]

Nice video! Most of my rides are what he calls “terrible trails”.
Just can’t see his point on needing more enagement points at the rear hubs… ebikes do not need this “upgrade” at all.

 

[DanMcDan]

Bizarrely I’m only 167cm and I always aim for a 450mm reach, most of my bikes are Med apart from my Nomad V4 which is a large.

 

[Gary]

And how do your bunny hops and manuals compare to taller guys on smaller bikes?

 

[Gary]

Nice video! Most of my rides are what he calls “terrible trails”.
Just can’t see his point on needing more enagement points at the rear hubs… ebikes do not need this “upgrade” at all.

Most of us don't actually *need* a motor.
A faster pick up at the rear hub is required if you ride normal bikes a lot and want your Ebike to engage similarly.
And that guy rides normal bikes a lot. Probably a lot more than you ride your E bike.

 

[DanMcDan]

Not sure, most people I ride with are on fairly modern bikes (long/low/slack)

 

[Gary]

I found the RAD video pretty interesting, all of my bikes were within 2cm Rad measurement after cockpit set up.

2cm is often a whole frame size difference.

 

[B1rdie]

Most of us don't actually *need* a motor.
A faster pick up at the rear hub is required if you ride normal bikes a lot and want your Ebike to engage similarly.
And that guy rides normal bikes a lot. Probably a lot more than you ride your E bike.

I, myself, ride more on bikes than on the ebike.
I dont see a difference on how much one rides their bikes that justify what is the reason why an ebike rear hub would have advantage to have more engaging points than the original dt swiss hub.

 

[Gary]

Because every Ebike motor has a freewheel mechanism at the crank/spider

it shouldn't take Einstein to work out the effect TWO freewheels working at the same time has on engagement/pick up speed.

I'm not sure anyone is saying it's absolutely essential to have a higher engagement hub... but it certainly is worthwhile

 

[Eddy Current]

@Gary that Tazer is waiting for you like ass up face down. Most reviews say suspension tune sucks but they don’t what a berm is. All they do is straight line plow thro rock gardens that’s why monster truck ebikes type is the most common design.

 

[Gary]

@Gary that Tazer

As in the Intense Emtb Jeff ingeniously chose to fit an external battery internally and hidden in such a stealth way that it ended up looking like it was giving birth to the next Haibike?

ass up face down

Paper bag over the entire thing and I still wouldn't

 

[Eddy Current]

As in the Intense Emtb Jeff ingeniously chose to fit an external battery internally and hidden in such a stealth way that it ended up looking like it was giving birth to the next Haibike?

Paper bag over the entire thing and I still wouldn't

keeping the analogy who cares if it’s ugly when is in 4? You don’t see the face! That bike suspension tune rides like no other on corners and this is not a beauty contest. Only the Focus has a similar leverage shape, and that’s all, can’t compare.

 

[Jamescoughlan]

Love that joy of bikes video, really enjoyable and interesting.
I’m 5’8 and my mate is a bit under 5’10 but he has longer legs but our arms are about the same length.
We are both so much faster on my medium Trek Rail with 40mm stem than his medium 2020 Merida eone sixty with 35mm stem. In fact we both agree that his Merida is actually pretty crap in comparison, surprisingly so. Even though my Rail is set up for my 85kg weight and he’s 70kg and considerably weaker than me.
Gawd knows what any of that means but we both agree the Rail is an incredible bike and is 100 times better than the Merida despite the fact we’re pretty different from a morphological standpoint.