On Monday, December 9, 2013 1:09:14 PM UTC-7, Montclair BobbyB wrote: > > I love what Surly is doing with the 29er+ bikes (Krampus / ECR), except > I'm not a big fan of the slightly slack headtube angle (69.5 degree)... > maybe Surly is concerned about toe overlap (with those gargantuan tires)... > still I'd rather see a longer top tube than slack head angle... For > downhill, great... but for climbing, nimble maneuvering and certainly for > touring I'd rather have something closer to 71/72. > > But maybe that's just me... > >> >> Quite a few manufacturers are going to slacker head angles these days, and it's been puzzling me, too. Obviously, they've been increasing the offset of the forks to compensate and reduce the trail back to a familiar number. The remarkable thing is that almost everybody who rides them says that they handle just as well in off-road situations as the bikes we're used to.
>From what I can figure out, I think the move has to do with a slate of new suspension forks that will be hitting the market, and the desire to be compatible with them. Those forks must have more rake/offset to them, too. As the travel gets longer and longer, I guess it makes sense that you'd want to stick the fork "outward," where it compresses in a slightly more horizontal vector, rather than keep jacking up the front end. And slight differences in tire diameter and fork travel would theoretically have less effect on effective frame angles too, as people experiment with these things. And I suppose that there's less leverage exerted on the headtube, for a given fork length, which reduces risk of frame damage. I also agree that eliminating toe overlap with bigger and bigger tires must also come into play, but it's interesting that others BESIDES Surly, who single-handedly drive the "big" tire market, are going this way. This is my working theory anyway, as a curious industry non-insider.... -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
