MTB Geometry Is Changing - Get Ready For HIGHER Stack

Man that was funny. I’m glad Stack is finally getting acknowledged for having something to do with it. I got a Spire XL, but the front end is super low. Recently road something with a high stack and it felt so good, up and down. You can get a spacer that goes on the the fork crown, but most bikes already have their steer tube cut.

I couldn't agree more with your take. I really hope, thats the way forward. I've tested a few enduros this summer. Most came with low fronts, short stays and long reaches. Your neutral position had to be on the aggressive side (low upper body) to get a good weight distribution. This takes away from your range of motion and also feels less playful. Though short stays adds to the snappy / responsive feel, a relaxed neutral position to me is still the most important attribute of a good setup.

If you have long legs and arms and a short torso like me. The high stack will feel so good trust me. I’m 6’3” bikes finally fit

As a tall, 6'5" rider, I'm super happy to see so many complaints of similar experiences with long and low bikes. I'm pretty tired of my neck hurting, and trying roll something steep and feeling like I'm getting pulled over over the bars. I know you can't just scale every dimension of a bike when creating larger sizes, but what are we doing when we get down to 1.2 stack/reach ratios? According to 99spokes, the stack reach ratio of the XXL Spire High setting is 1.21. For Medium, it's 1.35!!! Might as well give them different names because they're totally different bikes. I'm over here hoping for a 30.5" wheel standard, and xxl bikes that are actually shaped like their medium counter parts. Maybe something will appear under my christmas tree.

14:55 Thats where the BMB Raised Reversed Stem comes across my mind. Id love to see you try out and explain how it works or if it even works as intended. Cheers ride on Edit: I should have watched the whole thing first lul

And thats one of the reasons I just got the RAAW Madonna, long rear end and high stack. Great video Henry!

I'm currently running 80mm Diety Highsides on my both of my bikes and am very very happy with how they ride.

As a taller rider, I feel geometry has been messed up for us for a long time and still is.. Another relationship to you think about is your seat height to the top of your grips. Anything more than 1 1/2 inches of drop to the bar is pretty uncomfortable. We definitely need more stack height on XL and XXL bikes. The only fix is to buy a bike with shorter travel and over fork it. An then high rise Bars to Compensate for the bike industry's lack of experience.

As great as the topic and the singing is I see that Henry has gone full Canadian and adopted the Canadian Tuxedo. Can confirm that's the best part of the video and I suggest you let that one marinate.

The info in this video really stacked up, maybe it’s a bit of a reach but this really handles the issue at hand. The best video to get a grip on it all, bar none.

Couldn't agree more. Running a 2021 Dreadnought in XL as a 6'4'. Long rear end and even with a reach of 506 and stack of almost 640, I still need a 35mm riser bar on it. Same with the Reign E+ and 500 Reach/655 Stack.. Using longer stem and 20mm riser.

I've been riding my Spire for the same amount of time (since your review) here on the NS. Mid summer, this year I got tired of teh flop and put on a 1 degree Works Components angle set. Wow what a difference! Its so much better suited for the slower teck, climbing AND steep Techy descents . If I wanted to I could drop to the low setting for whistler laps...but I don't think id bother. Cheap and easy change to a great bike.

16:26 To all the people wondering what the gold stem at the end of the video is and why I made it, this is the RR (Raised Reversed) stem. It is both Raised up and Reversed in offset so that your hands are ultimately behind the steering axis instead of in front as is traditional. The Raised height helps improve the riders stance with a better arm angle to the bars for confidence, proper bend in the elbows for control, and more rider weight supported by their legs instead of hands. It also gives a longer lever between their hands and feet to give them more leverage for maneuvering the bike. These help the rider to feel more comfortable and confident, and makes the bike more maneuverable. The Reversed offset improves and calms the steering dynamics. Since it arcs out instead of in when turning relative to the frame, it allows the rider to position themselves on the outside of the bike when cornering to load their side knobs properly while also leaning the bike in further for a kinematically tighter turn. The hand to front axle position parallels a 59 degree headtube angle for ultimate confidence in steep terrain, with a steering feel that is less floppy and more direct than the stock headtube angle of the bike with a traditional stem. These help the rider corner much better with improved feel of the front end, keep better balance in loose terrain, and feel more confident in steep terrain. I am consistently significantly faster riding on a bike with the RR stem relative to traditional 50mm - 35mm stems. I have gotten better race results, such as when I won 🥇 the Southridge USA DH Expert Men 19-29 race with a time 3 seconds faster than 3rd place in Pro Men, and I can now ride more technical terrain and bigger jumps than I ever could before using the RR stem. The RR stem has been in development for over 3 years testing all kinds of different heights and offsets on various bikes and terrain, always benchmarking against the traditional 50mm - 35mm stem. I tested anything from below traditional height to about 80mm taller than the RR stem you see here, and 70mm offset forward all the way to 70mm offset Reversed. The RR stem that I now sell on the Be More Bikes website: https://bemorebikes.com is the culmination of all of that testing to find the best Enduro mtb stem geometry with a -15mm Reversed offset. If you have any questions please leave a reply, or check out my Tech and FAQ’s page here: https://bemorebikes.com/tech-and-faqs.html I love having discussions.

so my "All Mountain" bike is going to be back in fashion!😂

My mind was blown with the mid sing song 😂

I like slacker bikes in high speed for obvious reasons but I also like it at slower speeds in steep terrain. I find it’s easier to track stand with the stiffness of steering/flop almost like a steering stabilizer as the bike compresses. Also steeper head angle much more twitchy in balancing in steep terrain and slow steep terrain and ruts. Steeper head angle also only gets steeper as it compresses which makes it harder to balance in slower steeper terrain and super twitchy at high speeds. But makes a bike more fun on average intermediate trails.

This is why I ride taller riser bars on my bikes

Good Stuff. Humor, info, and thought. I have played with this notion of high stack for 2 years now. A high fork tube helps but as noted, it bring everything towards you. That can feel good to a point but shortens the cockpit. I then added a taller rise bar and a longer stem in order to have my similar reach yet still having a corrected steerer angle. The results was more comfort on the hands and better stability for me. Downside is you have to get use to not pulling on the bars as much as it will lift the front end easier due to more leverage. Try it out and see what y’all think. Get a high rise bar and a +10-20mm stem and it becomes a quick swap and test.

that was a really long way of saying “they’ve milked the long low and slack revenue stream, and they need to go back to steeper to sell more bikes”

Totally agree with this pov... those low front ends on modern bikes will eventually wear out the arms, shoulders and backs of their riders... trends in geometry have been largely dictated by fashion which comes from racing people and we all know these are not average riders.... good work I think you are spot on with the observations... very interestied to see part 2...