And whilst many think of Jack’s bike as being the super long super slack bike associated with recent Nicolai’s, relative to the GeoMetron bikes from Mojo it’s actually quite a lot shorter in the reach. In fact its massively smaller (reach) than the the longest GeoMetron and significantly smaller (arguably a whole bike size shorter) than even the smallest bike from the suspension specialist Mojo who sponsor the team.

In fact this bike is similar in reach sizing to some trail and enduro bikes being offered by many brands, where more often than not the reach is longer than on downhill bikes, the reasons for which there does not seem to be a consistent answer. For example a Whyte G160 in medium has a longer reach than Jack’s bike, so too a Mondraker Dune, both 160mm bikes. What does this tell you? That enduro bikes need more rider space? Maybe that enduro bike geometry is more progressive than downhill? Or that downhill is stuck in its ways?

It’s not all about the reach. You’ll see that Reading’s bike is in fact longer (wb) stock with almost as much up front (front centre) as the longest GeoMetron, this is mostly a result of the slacker head angle. But this is matched with a longer chainstay to attain a good balance on the bike. So even though reach is important it must be matched by chainstay numbers to balance a bike out. When compared to one of the longest production DH bikes, the XL Canyon Sender, which has adjustable chainstays, the XL G19 is over 50mm longer in wheelbase.

How does this compare to other bikes on the circuit? Reach on the G19 is exactly the same as an XL Summum but wheelbase 30mm longer so you could argue it’s just a size interpretation except that you can go one more size on the Nicolai and they offer a more up to date bikes for riders over 6′.

And it also has to be recognised that reach is a very isolated number and many bikes are nowadays customised especially up front in the bar stem/headset area. For example Greg Minnaar’s XXL Santa Cruz V10 measures on average about 920mm from bottom bracket to bar end, Reading’s is a shade over 910mm even with the -8mm offset fitted. Clearly everything revolves around stem length, height, bar height, sweep and fork insert length. On the Specialized Demo which I raced recently a +7mm offset was fitted to get pretty much identical numbers on bar end to bb – 912mm. In other words the frame and fork are just the start to achieving the perfect geometry.

The component build is thorough on this bike.

Hope components are key to the build including brakes, wheel and crankset.

Pacenti rims, Schwalbe tyres.

Suspension is taken care of by Mojo with a stock Fox X2 damper but custom fork build.