Are Mullet Bikes Faster? | Is Mixed Wheel Size Better For MTB?
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- čas přidán 15. 02. 2020
- With downhill and enduro racers of all statures testing and racing mullet mountain bikes - a 29" wheel up front with a 27.5" in the rear - we thought we'd do some investigating and figure out whether this MTB set up is actually faster 🤔
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Leave us a comment below! - Sport
For a second i thaught that was the "surfer guy" from sam pilgrims channel making an appearance
Only would happen when changing tyres .
Definitely been raiding the Pilgrims props department...
Need to get the two mullets together for a video!
To be faster than Blake, you have to be a Super Dude?!?! ;)
Same😂
The same XD
I feel like Blake's tech videos are just an excuse for him to dress up in all sorts of weird outfits
and? 😂
@@wheetbread1 he looks fabulous
@@richardwarmington5394 he is definitely beautiful people
thats what we others call weekend XD
This episode : dress as Billie Ray Cyrus 🤣
Mullet Blake is the cousin of the Californian from Sam Pilgrim’s channel 🤙. You say it was the smaller rear wheel, I say it was the hairdo🤘🤣.
trcXL was thinking the same thing when he popped out of the woods 😂
Being a Californian I'm triggered 🤣
Yea
That mullet hair was adding lots of downforce! That made it faster :D
A little known fact is that they are actually brothers separated at birth. They've lived in two different countries ever since :)
Motocross been running mullet for years
not just for years, for _decades_
@@leftaroundabout that's years too, but a bit more
@ Nah, it's still just years., which is plural for year. Could mean 2, could mean 20, could mean 200 or 2 million. Depends on the context...
At least for century bro..
So have motocross fans. 😆
26in in the back and a FatBike wheel in the front ;)
You may lose races, but you’ll win hearts.
Think of that front end grip. Lol
That's basically a reverse Schwinn Stingray bicycle.
now I honestly think 26 in the back plus 27 in the front might win you some races
Go all early 2000s specialized and make it 24 in the rear!
Mullet Blake should meet Californian Sam XD
I get the feeling that why the mullett version was faster was more to do with the geometry of the bike after fitting the smaller rear wheel, rather than just having a 27.5" wheel in the rear. Blake said he felt more comfortable on it downhill but it climbed terribly which i would put down to the geometry. It'd be interesting to see a 29" wheeled bike with the same, slightly slacker head angle and overall geometry as the mullet bike to see if it was faster or as fast to see if the wheel size actually made a difference.
Probably more to do with comparing 1 run on each... literally the worst way of testing. Should have run at least 5 runs alternating. Then rested and started again starting with the other bike instead
Matthew webster I'm always a bit sceptical with these single run comparisons, the more you ride a trail the more familiar you become with it and the faster you go. I'd say the second run will usually be faster than the first.
My Geometron G1 is set up properly for 650/29 hybrid wheels, its great, but I bet a 29/29 cruises faster and is smoother over rough, the 29 front end was certainly smooth over rough ground than the 650 when I swopped over on my previous G16 back in '18. However, I also bet the hybrid setup turns in better and pumps better. so, being faster would be very track dependent IMO
When mullet blake appears you should play „Danger Zone“ from top gun.
Riding full 26er dh bike for 4 years... last month. i put a 27.5 tire on front and i really feel the difference having the mullet setup. Cant deny the bike runs faster with the mullet setup compare to the full 26..
The Mullet hair style is short at the front and long at the back. So if everyone insists on using this terminology the 29" wheel should be at the rear and the 27.5 at the front
Yup. All this mullet talk should be renamed “reverse mullet”. It stupidly confusing
I’m liking the step up in graphics, quality content as always lads
I'm confused. The mullet bike was faster on black by 4 seconds, blue by 1 and red by 2, and overall it was faster by 4 seconds? How does that work?
The overall time is even more confusing because 1:50+2:21+1:02=5:13, but apparently it was 4:33? What am I missing
Times are 5:20 and 5:13. From what I can see blakey cant add?
Session times excluded the short climb inbetween
rounding maybe?
segments overlapping maybe? Defo needs clarifying.
It's the metric system.
Racing motocross for all my life I’ve always thought about this as the front wheel is Bigger than the back and how it would effect a mountain bike. Mint video 👍🏽
I was kinda expecting such results. The advantages and disadvantages looked so obvious.
By the way, I loved the way you blazed past those trails with the wig!!!
Should have included a 27.5" front and rear time for further comparison!
I really like these types of videos.. keep them coming!
What about a 27" front and rear against 29" front and 27" rear?
This video was made in past.
horrible!
I have been running my Liteville 301 with 27.5 x 2.6 DHF and 26 x 2.8 DHRII for 2 years before the 2.8 I ran a 2.4. Love this set up!
@blake the geometry numbers do not seem right. Did someone calculate based on difference in wheel diameter instead of radius? There is no way the mullet setting changes the angles by 2 degrees or drop the BB by 4cm. Can you have someone double check?
I wonder how much course familiarity helped with the second run
He's ridden that bike park for years, he knows the trails there well.
@@mrvwbug4423 you still are always faster on secind run anyways
I always find that my fastest runs are often my 2nd or 3rd. You just know how the trail is going to be on your second run and your more in tune with the bike on that run.
Mullet is way slacker and i think because of lower center of gravity. Hedtube abgle change is like putting a bigger fork. I think strive has 160mm fork as standart and changing that with 200mm fork.
Would be interesting to see same thing going up the hill and do combine times.
With 1 run for each wheel setup this wasn't anywhere near scientific. Just another subjective 2 cents from some guy who rides bikes. Kinda pointless to speculate about sources of error
Don't need a test video to figure this out. Simple physics, established a long time ago. Smaller back tire = better acceleration, but lower top speed (rpm x circumference). Motocross uses this setup for this reason. You won't find it on cross country mtb or touring motorbikes, for example. What you use all depends on the style of riding.
Make comparisons between a motocross and a mtb is a nonsense... the riding technique the weight the response on trail and the diameter difference between front and rear wheel are absolutely not the same as the mtb... that's really a nonsense comparison.
I ride a 1992 Koga Miyata SkyRunnerCarbolite, last year I've mulleted the bike to 27,5" frontwheel combined with a 100mm suspension fork. Resulting in a nice 2020 style 65 degree headangle.
And a 67 degree seat angle ..... :D
@Anton Chigurh instagram com/p/B8oEMirhhxL/
Fun video! Great work Blake and team. I’m curious if the results would be different if you controlled for geometry, particularly head angle. Maybe next time get some head set cup to slacken out the 29er to the same HTA. Obvious 2deg slacker and a lower BB can make you feel more confident. If you want to take it further, put super heavy tires on the 27.5 to match the rotation inertia of the 29er.
Thanks Blake! I'm excited to try a Mullet set up on my 2019 Megatrail.
Mainly because this set up will allow me to hover around the same geo as the orginal with adjustable reach and stack heights.
The stock seat tube angle is pretty steep too, 76°. That shoild will help in climbing.
Finally a 27.5 is probably a "better" bike to convert to a 29er since the BB height will be already on point. Adding a 29er upfront will only raise it just a few mm.
Could you do a video explaining the Click Clack settings and pros and cons of each. I've never heard anyone else bring this up and I'm just curious. Thanks for sharing your time and knowledge. Love your vids and I'm a huge fan of GMBN. I haven't watched every video yet, but working on it.
Thanks for explaining mullet bikes. For years I’ve wondered why dirt bikes have different size wheels and tires, your explanation makes complete sense for both dirt bikes and mountain bikes
Another great testing video #GMBN
Great video Blake and Mullet Blake sick dude!
My old Specialized Big Hit from 2003 has 26" front and 24" rear from the factory...i totally understand de "confidence" factor with such a setup. Nice vid!
I'm running a mullet on my Scott Ransom and absolutely love it. It's super flickable and easy to throw around but still rolls over rocks and logs!
More videos Kiel these. PLEASE love them 😂🤟
*like
I understand you need to meet a video format, however, this kind of test should be done with at least 10 rounds (alternating) per setup. Blake is a mega pro (I know) but the second round you always will go faster. Anyway the mullet angle has tons of benefits.
Ps: love your videos, just a friendly comment from a fan.
Totally agree. That test is anything but scientific. Also in the beginning he mentioned the shorter chainstay but using a 29er doesn't give you that advantage. Either put a 29er fork in a 27,5" bike or test a bike made for both wheel sizes
i would say the second round you would be tired and slower
@@mikieson or loose and warmed up, it's a professional on a 5 minute ride
Wow that was some serious bad ass riding, you the man !
I've been Frankenstein mullet bikes 4ever. Me being short only 5'5" with inseam of 29" & a regular length torso I fall in between SM 15.5" bikes & MD 17.5" bikes. I've always ran missed match size wheels....tall front & short rear.
only problem was NO rear brakes until discs brakes came out.
I ride an Trek Fuel EX MD 26" front & 24" rear. Santa Cruz Superlights, Hecklers, & Specialized Stumpjumpers all with this 26" F & 24" R....I'm also known for drilling & tapping & installing zerk fittings to headsets, bottom brackets, & hubs..my next mission is to customize a NEXUS hub for a crank bottom bracket & single
speed rear hub....mullet bikes are great for jumpers & fast corners & amazing for descending.
And now use a cane creek angleset and offset bushings to make the 29“ have the same geo as the mullet version, to get comparable results. Still loved the video :)
Great video full of important details
it was bad on the ups because you used a 29er as a base. the sweet spot for mullet is 27.5 base with a 20mm difference in travel front to rear so the geo stays pretty much the same, so 140mm rear 160mm front 27.5 bike => 140mm rear 140mm front 79er
Alexandru cel Bun think about it, this is not right. If you want to do it right you have to consider the other 20mm of the wheel on the ground. In summary 40mm.
@@tayfunatwork if you want to keep as close to the intended geometry of the original bike you must subtract the difference of the bigger wheel from the travel of the fork. and yes the difference is 38mm between wheels, the rest you can take from the spacers under the stem (if you have any). there is no exact conversion, just the "nearest conversion" :)
What about on a hard tail?
If the difference in radius of the rear wheels is 1.75 cm, how could the BB fall by 4 cm? You dropped the rear axle by 1.75 cm, the BB should have dropped by maybe 1 cm as the amount of drop would decrease towards the front axle.
prusak26 I think they measured both and the only possible explanation is that with the 29” wheel the SS was in XC mode which raised the BB and with the 27,5 it was in DH mode. That explains the otherwise impossible amount of change in the head angle, seat tube angle and reach...
@@tamasvarga67 That’s what I thought, but I think Blake said he would ride the bike in the same setting on both wheel sizes.
prusak26 He might rode it in the same settings but it wasn’t the same when they measured it :)
I've read elsewhere that it changes it 4mm so I presume he just got words muddled
The bottom bracket drop wouldn’t have been affected at all. It’s measured as a drop in the centreline between the two axles.
So even just starting this video, the whole point of a mullet bike is the short rear chainstay and higher travel.
Aside from the lower polar of movement of a 27.5 I don't think this geo is being fully utilized
Mullet bikes FTW! I did this on my Guerrilla Gravity Megatrail and haven't looked back! It's cool to see the timed test. Cheers!
^^^THIS GUY. Total shedder and the main reason GG and mullets are completely on my radar now. Yew!
So good! Maybe confident of 64* rather than the smaller wheel?!
Great vid Blake
So how can mullet bb be 4cm lower than on 29" when overall diameter difference between 29" and 27.5" is only 3.5cm = rear axle is 1.75cm lower on 27,5.. no way that BB is 4cm lower. That doesnt make any sense.
I agree 1/2 of 3.5cm is 1.75 lower which should be correct
@@waltersparks5271 rear axle is 1.75 lower. So the bb would be even less low than that because it's further forward relative to the line intersecting both axles.
@@BardLeSnee l agree you are right I forgot about difference between front and rear axles . I did some math but since there is a difference between the lengths from bb to rear and front axles it comes to about 1.55 mm
The Vittoria "Mota", gotta love it.
Added the 29er front end setup to my Marin Rift Zone 27.5...handles awesome...great pedal clearance..great trail bike
My conclusion with mountain biking is that we are finally learning the motorcross guys had all this figured out a long time ago! Cool vid
You guys are the very best, top class, number one - period 🚀🚀🚀
I think tests like this are quite interesting but to get a proper comparison of any back to back test, then a number of runs need to be done so that an average can be worked out as there are just so many variables involved.
Mullet bike with 29'' with 26''?
A M I ride with that set up what I can say is that it’s very hard on the climbs but descent are very fast and you feel really confident going over rocks, roots and hitting jumps and drops
That existed a few years ago. That was the Trek 69er
I've been riding a 26" hard tail with 29 forks & front wheel for years.
The only compromise I noticed was a slight loss of lateral stability at slow speeds -probably due to lifting the bottom bracket.
Other than that, it was a total no-brainer. Big grins all round.
I've read that, all thing being equal (and they're often not designed equally), a 26'er is TWICE as strong as a 29'er!
exclusively as a chairlift rig, sure!
I'm glad you talked about climbing in the end there, I was keen on one until you said that because unfortunately there aren't a lot of lifted trails around here
it would've been nice to see a rider outline of how body/riding position changes due to the new geometry of the bike mullet bike compared to the standard 29". Maybe a future add on to geometry videos?
Watching this video has given me an idea, Iam thinking of getting a 27.5 fork and front wheel for my 26er.
Numbers dont add up 3.5cm drop in tyre radius yet have a 4cm bottom bracket drop ?? Think another run with the flip chip in the higher position in mullet would have been a closer comparison and maybe a hill climb test as well. Better vid otherwise compared to Neil's a while back .😄
Agree. The bb drop doesnt make sense.
Maybe it was 2004 when Sherwood Gibson shows his very first Mullet 29" with 26" wheels, It was a dream of vermillion bike! I remember using that photo as background on my PC. For 5 years i've been enjoying my Turner 5 Spots with 27,5 in the front and 26" rear, not that radical as the Ventana, but I wouldn't change it at all. I LOVE MY FRICKING BIKE!!
I have a 27.5 carbon hardtail but i run a 26” easton xtr wheel on the rear with a easton ar24 27.5 up front and its a dream
Can't wait for this year's Mega, to see Blake wearing his mullet in the race?!
Hold on here; reducing your wheel diameter form 74.5cm to 71cm (3.5cm reduction in diameter, or 1.75cm reduction in radius) reduces your bottom bracket height 4cm (from 37 to 33)? Where does the other 2.25cm come from? That's not even accounting for the fact that the BB is 435mm forward of the rear axle, so the change in BB height is actually 1.1cm, not 4cm.
Also, reducing the radius of the rear wheel by 1.75cm on a bike with a 119.6cm wheelbase changes the headtube angle and seat tube angle by 0.84 degrees, not 2 degrees.
Accordingly, the rest of the geometry pronouncements are equally as flawed.
what about comparing a 27,5 bike to a mullet?
The credit of glittering hair!
Great video. Perhaps if you could pick up a bike designed for the Mullet wheel setup? Maybe a Foes Mixer? That way your geometry is not all wonky.
I did the same experiment a few months ago. It is good. More DHish because it is slacker, stack height is higher in relation to BB (again more DHish), tighter turning, and less tire butt buzz. The not so good is climbing is tougher and BB is lower (more pedal strikes).
Way back when I was racing downhill in 2000-2008 I was running a 26" front and 24" rear. The biggest downside was the fact there were very few good 24" rims. I ended up with dice 26 and dice 24 rims. They weren't as strong as demax but at 1/4 of the price it didn't matter. They buckled badly but they could end up like a 50 cent coin (Australian).
Specialized did it in 03, big hit comp. I loved that bike.
How did you make the change in geometry numbers? Hey don’t look right to me. Specifically the BB drop.
Great video and comparison !!! You've talked about 29 against mullet bike, but what about 27.5 against mullet bike ?
I rocked a reverse mullet in 78'. A purple Raleigh Chopper Mk2.
As a 10yo I fitted BMX forx and blue Dale Industries mags... As a 10yo I discovered triangulation... or lack of it... leads to weak design. And gussets helped prevent frame cracking... and pedals with c-clips to retain them were good for ripping the instep of your bata bullets (kiwi shoes of the day) and didn't do much better for the instep of your feet.
And i learned the word "Gudgeon"... Luckilly my dad was a "This is MY GARAGE....... try not to brake anything.." q8D
Interesting concept!
I have a mullet spez enduro 2017 29/6fattie, it kinda has a short wheelbase but i run 27.5 2.6 dhr rear and a 29 2.6 assegai on the front, i love it, doesnt really suffer on the climbs but on the steep and loose and wet terrain here in my local trail, its grippy and it corners fast
Yes mullet bikes are the way to go! 😍👍
I recommend an 18" in the rear and 55" or 56" in the front for optimum effect 🤘💪
Penny farthing is the ultimate mullet bike😂
Reject modernity
R E T V R N to Penny Farthing
Penny farthing is the ultimate in modernity 🤗
No. A 128”/20” penny farthing!
I love Blake so much
Keep up the great video guys
Why did the reach change? The smaller wheel changed the size of the frame or what?! 😂
And the overall time was different..
29er: 5:20 (1:54+2:22+1:04)
Mullet: 5:13 (1:50+2:21+1:02)
It was 7 second faster, not 4
This level of scientific rigor is par for the course. Like someone else said, some people are too busy sending it to learn basic math
I would say to be very accurate you would have to run it four times. Because the second time you will also be more relax because you’ve don’t it once. Now if you changed it up to four times. It would be consistent with comfortability. But over all that is a huge number distance which proves it’s fast. Great video guys best bike content on the web.
The math is a bit off :) The aggregated difference in 3 segments was 7 seconds, but the total difference was just 4?
I was also wondering - that didnt add up. Should have been 4:30 for the mullet I guess.
And when the bike is designed from the get go as a mullet bike, you get a decent seat tube angle and good climbing. I am really interested to try a mullet bike now. I currently ride a 27.5 and like its poppy and playful disposition.
The issue I have wiith tests like these, is you're doing one run, then another, so you're more familiar the second time around (but I assume you've ridden these trails before). A better test would be doing maybe 3 runs on each wheel size and taking the averages.
+100 to this. Better yet, have other riders do the same test. This would actually be a good crowdsourcing problem. Get 100 riders to do it. Each time flip a coin to determine which config to ride first.
Please do a Mullet Bike with 26” rear and 29” front
it might be even mightier with plus size tire at the rear
OK. I have been using 96 and 97.2ers for the last 7 years. First two were to fix handling issues with a Rocky Mountain Element Carbon 50i( 26") and the evil Santa cruz Blur XC carbon (26"). Both had ridiculously low bottombrackets and the XC had a way too steep head angle for the trails we rode ( tight rocky and all climbing /descending). The SCXC was my bike, 29 front with 29" forks and 26" rear. Fixed all the aweful pedal strikes and I reset it up to rebalance the feel and it climbed and descended way better. You could climb over the front of the bike better ( my preferred riding style).
The RC element 50 was my girlfriend's. She had come off the bike so many times she had bought herself a new SC BLUR LT2 Carbon and refused to ride the RC anymore. I did the front 29 wheel and fork and rebalanced the bike ( seat angle/ bar distance angle, shock height etc). So it was also a 29/26" setup. The good thing about the 29 forks is I could change to a 26,27.5 or 29 quickly. I then had her ride up and back along a slightly ascending then descending twisty trail with the respective wheels on the front. I didn't tell her which was which. Results were: 29/26 fastest down and, second fastest up ( by stuff all). 27.5/26 fastest up and second fastest down, 26/26 slowest up and down.
She liked it so much that she got me to convert he SCBlutLT2 carbon the same way. 29/26.
I bought a Giant anthem advanced xc carbon ( the one that self destructed frames). Again tried it with a 29 front and the stock 27.5 rear. Vast improvement ( again I rebalanced the bike to the new setup). Interestingly my frame lasted LONGER than most peoples before it had to be replaced ( nearly 3 years). That is possibly because I am a bit gentler on frames than most ( stuffed cartledges in my neck means no big air).
Now my new Santa Cruz 5010. Went straight to 29/27.5. Something wasn't kosher. It handled very well but no matter how I balanced it it felt skittery on climbs, even when loading the front. Went back to 27.5 front and it improved everywhere except fast downhill. Moral of that story is not everything benefits from a different diameter wheels.
My hard tail is also 29/27.5 and handles superbly for a frame with an elasticity modulus that work at small bumps, but bounces the back into the air on big hits. It was designed originally for 27.5/27.5.
My take on this is the same a dirt motorcycles. The bigger gyroscope of the front allows better control over the rear that is fixed to the frame.
You guys should make a mullet bike that was originally 27.5 front and rear
I am researching the advantages/disadvantages of a mullet bike, so I ended up here. Thank you for the last conclusion. I was about to change my XL Specialized Enduro to mullet, just to suit me a little better, but to sacrifice the climbing ability of that awesome bike... no way.
Others have said it but the real test will be to take a naturally 27.5 wheeled bike and put a 29er fork and wheel on it. I know this is more work but that would be a better test. It would have the effect of raising the bottom bracket as opposed to dropping it. It will still slacken the head tube and seat tube angles though. I've been really wanting to do this on my Rocky Mountain Altitude...this would keep me from buying a whole new bike for sure..:) thanks for the great content. Cheers, Bo
Should have included a full 27.5er in the test. Maybe next test is 27.5 vs Mullet?
Didn’t realise there was such a thing as Mullet bikes. The funny thing is that’s how I set my bike up years ago. What would be interesting to see is a mullet setup what the wheels with tyres are the same diameter. So the rear tyre is fatter, a plus’s type of tyre on the rear.
Never get tired of watching Blake shred. Also mullet Blake FTW
Let's do 27.5 front, and a classic 26 rear. We grew up on 26"
Peter Bonilla I'm running a mullet 26.5/26 Standton slackline, I've dropped the fork travel to Co, oe sate for the higher front end. its a fair bit faster
i wanna do that setup on my hardtail, because i cant find my rear rim in size 26"
Lol 26
Oh cummon Blake. Been waiting for this test. Thought you would do your Scout 27.5 and whack a 29" front on it. Building a scout 275 at the moment and wondering whether to go mullet or not.
How about testing dropping a 29er back wheel down to 27 VS putting a 29er wheel on a 275.
Use hardtails to make the test more technically perfect.
I put a 29er wheel and fork on my 27.5 DH bike and the headangle only slackend 0.5° not 2°
So that maybe explains why most people convert a 27.5 bike to mullet
If a 27.5 owner had a fork that took BOTH 29" & 27.5+ they'd be sittin' in tall cotton? This could change my geometry just enough to take me from AM to Enduro specs.
Aren’t 29 forks only 190mm not 200? That might have been the reason for less of a change then expected.
@@kyleslater5245 yeah you can get them in 180 or 190 too, but I still have 200mm. Same fork just 29 lowers
Okay good to know. I’m still a ways off from that yet but who knows what the future holds
Look at my comments below. It explains the numbers correctly. And as you have found, it drops your head angle by just over half a degree
Wow - I just installed installed a 29 fr on my 27.5+ this evening. Going to the mullet has several advantages: 1) raise BB 2) slacker geo 3) lighter tire/wheels. We'll see how it goes tomorrow am.
I went mullet on my 27.5+ as well but put a 2.6 tyre on the rear, that way the bottom bracket height remains in the same position and therefore helps with stability
@@michaelstewart9308 That's a good point - mix and match tire sizes to keep an optimum BB height. I was plagued with pedal strikes on my 6fattie. Happy to report that the mullet config was a significant improvement. (29 2.6 fr and 27.5 3.0 rear)
7:25 interesting noise
Wish you would talk about the feel of the bike more and consider doing this with a bike that holds its geo together better in mullet form, but that is pretty tough
Great video thanks. 1- Worth it on a hardtail too? 2-Would it be different with a 29 front wheel on a 27.5 bike?
I'm currently riding mine with 29x2.4 in the front and 27.5x2.8 in the rear. It's feels really nice. Just go for 650b+ in the rear. It cushions really well and does, what it's supposed to do. Also its more forgiving when you come up short on gaps and hit roots really hard.
3:02 nice!
Blake challenge. How small can you go on the rear wheel and it actually be ride-able, trick-able?, practical. 26’, 24’, 20’??
Might be a fun video.
On dirt motorcycles, our dirtbikes, motocross etc... We've gone mullet from the start. It's common sense when riding on dirt. You Mtbikers discovered this now? Here's a tip: everything we've done on our dirtbikes, copy the specs, angles, design etc & apply it to your mountain bikes.
The editing is absolutely WHAAAAAA
Wasn't one of the reasons to keep the back short?
Shouldn't you start from a 27,5?
I think so plus you wouldn't lose ground clearance
And something smaller than a 2.6 on the rear
The early specialized big hit was available as both . The mullet version didn’t last but it was fast and aggressive.
Blake I recent put a 29front wheel with a 160 fork on my firebird 27.5 feels faster and don't suffer poor climbing
I was thinking about doing this to my knolly warden 27.5 instead of buying a new bike... Should I do it?
I'm currently putting together a 27.5'' bike with a boost hub fork on the front which can take a 2.8'' plus tyre. It can also take a 29'' wheel with a smaller tyre so I heard, so it's basically the same effect. Although a 27.5'' rear on a 29'' frame will have a slightly different effect than a 29'' front on a 27.5'' frame, the former would lower the BB and the latter would raise it, maybe it will make it less stable and controllable, we'll see.
Now there's a big difference between swapping your rear wheel for a smaller size (and shapeshifting it too) or swapping the front for a larger one.
I still have a 26" and am thinking upgrade... the only way to go is to get a new front. But I think it can actually be ok, since it's got a steep head angle too, as was usual back in the day. Going larger should in theory kick out the front a little, plus increasing the wheel for a smoother ride. I like the idea.....
Think the difference can actually be bigger than what Blake is doing here, especially with his highly adaptable geometry soaking up a lot of the rough edges. What do you think?
Over Motoren that will be okay. I did that on one of my bikes and definitely found an improvement.
Cool! Good to know. That'll kick some new life in the old beastie
I tried 27.5 front with 26er Lyrik fork a few years ago and felt a small increase in rollability.
After a few rides that feeling went away and going back to 26 front didn't feel different.
But I was running a big 2.5 26er tire vs Maxxis Ardent 2.2 27.5 tire so not much difference in actual diameter.
However, this off season I am permanently swapping front with proper 27.5 fork and getting new mullet wheel set built.
I like how people don't remember that this was a thing back in the day. Running a 26" wheel up front and a 24" wheel in the rear. "Mullet bikes" have been around forever. Seriously, everything old really does become new again.
Not only MTBs... 1980 XR250 Honda had a 23" front wheel when everything else was 21". Even trail bikes had mullets in the '80s
I think the boost in confidence on the mullet setup came mostly from that 64 degrees HA.
I don't understand why Canyon went with a 66 degrees HA on a long travel 29er, especially that it also has the Shapeshifter. I guess it was the "do-it-all bike" mentality.
I just realized how much Blake like to use the phrase "Dramatic Change" .... LOL
The tyre diameter has reduced by 3.5 cm, which means the radius has reduced by 1.75 cm. How did it dropped the BB by 4 cm?
I don't think 27.5 is an exact measurement for 650b
"my mouth's cold!.... Does that ever happen Blake???😂