Slack HTs

[Jason Musgrave]

can't really go too slack until you start getting really tall

Well at 6'3" and a 130 HT and a reach just shy of 500 I think I'm about there lol. That said 66.5/130 fork with a ~12.3 BB and short stays still sounds reasonable imho. Just gotta find it...

[Rich Beaudoin]

Opinion Warning: I do not wish to offend
MTB geometry and bike design has become region-specific.
Often big brand bikes are good at a lot, but not the best for some locations.
Hardtails tend to magnify this maybe because rear suspension can mask some design compromises.
I ride around Oregon (Ashland & Bend) as well as Colorado (family in Steamboat).
The trails are different in each.

[nahtnoj]

Opinion Warning: I do not wish to offend
MTB geometry and bike design has become region-specific.
Often big brand bikes are good at a lot, but not the best for some locations.
Hardtails tend to magnify this maybe because rear suspension can mask some design compromises.
I ride around Oregon (Ashland & Bend) as well as Colorado (family in Steamboat).
The trails are different in each.

This has always been true. Small MTB production shops - Fat City, Ibis, Moots, Litespeed, Brodie, etc. - very region specific.

[Jason Musgrave]

Yes this is very true.

[zambenini]

[sailor]

I've reads reports from people riding the nuke proof scout 29 saying the BB is quite low and that 29plus tires would definitely fit at the back although it is not officially said so. How wide is your clearance around your tires ?

I have a 29x2.35 E13 on their right now, lots of room. I would say a true 2.6 would fit but a true 2.8 would not. I think geo is quoted with a 130mm fork and I have a 140mm but the BB feels higher than my sentinel. To the OP a Kona Honzo with a longer fork hits the numbers you want. If you want the slacker HA and stack height the extra travel won't hurt much, you can always run extra pressure or an extra spacer to keep it high.

[rsl]

I've been keeping my eye on a Honzo for awhile as a way to get back into mountain biking. I noticed the new ESD is now on the website. Slacker hta than the standard Honzo. Thoughts?
KONA BIKES | MTB | HONZO | Honzo ESD

[chasea]

Yuuuuuuuup.

edit: chainstays could be longer (he says about every Kona)

[sailor]

I am with chasea 417 stays with a 63 HA and a 525 reach on an xl does not sound balanced to me. The new normal version looks great for what I would want in a hardtail that wasn't built for XC racing.

[suspectdevice]

That new honzo looks like an unridable hunk of shit.

[andrew flowers]

That new honzo looks like an unridable hunk of shit.

Depends where you live I think

Would be a great bike here. I wish the back end was longer but what can you get. Not an xc bike though, wheelbase is too long.

[sk_tle]

That new honzo looks like an unridable hunk of shit.

Based on what ?

[suspectdevice]

Based on what ?

Lack of front center/chain stay length balance in all the sizes. If you are going that short on the CS you might as well run less fork and more playful reach numbers.
Plus it’s steel, and who wants to ride a 7.5 pound steel frame?

[steve garro]

who wants to ride a 7.5 pound steel frame?

So much of what I will and won't build is centered around this

- Garro.

[suspectdevice]

I’ve long wondered who the people are that don’t mind riding a hardtail that is the same weight as a full suspension bike.

It’s crazy the weight difference between a cheap and common “way strong” aluminum frame(4.2 poundsish) and a generic heat treated steel frame for the same use case(another 2.5 pounds or so).

A really nice modern steel “hardcore hardtail” made with high quality tubing ends up being pretty dang expensive, and the market limited enough that even in the UK(hardtail’s last stand), the both Stanton and Cotic have actually brought a bunch of their hardtail production in house- it seems like it’s become prohibitively expensive/difficult to book production time to use name brand steel in Taiwan in the minimum quantities that “hardcore hardtails” sell in.

[marley]

I’ve long wondered who the people are that don’t mind riding a hardtail that is the same weight as a full suspension bike.

It’s crazy the weight difference between a cheap and common “way strong” aluminum frame(4.2 poundsish) and a generic heat treated steel frame for the same use case(another 2.5 pounds or so).

A really nice modern steel “hardcore hardtail” made with high quality tubing ends up being pretty dang expensive, and the market limited enough that even in the UK(hardtail’s last stand), the both Stanton and Cotic have actually brought a bunch of their hardtail production in house- it seems like it’s become prohibitively expensive/difficult to book production time to use name brand steel in Taiwan in the minimum quantities that “hardcore hardtails” sell in.

Different strokes for different folks