From Dirt Issue 138 – August 2013
Words by Steve Jones. Photos by Steve Jones.
Tim: How did you chose the chassis?Dirt: For a few years I’ve used a selection of bikes, but I settled on a carbon Trek Fuel EX with 120mm travel as my lighter trail bike, and a 150mm Remedy as my gravity enduro bike. I started thinking of ways to combine the best bits of the two in order to achieve my ultimate ‘do everything’ bike. I needed the weight of my carbon fibre Fuel with the travel and angles of the Remedy.
What about sizing?From the manufacturer sizing information my size put me towards the upper end of the medium frame range or the lower end of the large. Being 5’ 11” with only a 31” inside leg meant that in order to achieve a comfortable position I had to run a 90mm stem on the medium Remedy 9.9 which meant compromising the control on tighter trails. At 25 ½lbs with 150mm travel for trail centre style trails it flew, yet taken onto natural steeper tracks it didn’t work quite so well with its 90mm stem. It was time for a rethink.
About the same time Chris (Porter) here at Mojo started playing about with a Mondraker using the ‘Forward Geometry’. I found the concept, and the arguments for it, really interesting. I started having a good look at whether it would be possible to achieve a similar set–up using a ‘standard’ frame (not Mondraker Forward Geometry). A bit of time spent measuring my Remedy and studying the geometry charts for several manufacturers I worked out an XL Remedy frame might do the trick combined with a 35mm Easton stem.
My bar to seat position was now identical to my medium frame with a 90mm stem so my riding position remained the same. I’d gained 50mm on the wheelbase, the weight just under 27lbs and was instantly more at home on the steeper natural trails but it still worked as well on the XC trail centres like Cwmcarn. So I gained performance in some places but didn’t lose it in others, so overall it was a positive step forward. >>
