Read it & weep (frame geo history)

[snowaddict91]

Double post, but I want to give a shout out to the 2006 SX Trail I rode as a trail bike for a few years. I think it was the same frame as the Enduro but with a slacker HTA via the shock mount. It was a pig to pedal around, probably in part due to my stubborn ass riding it as a 1x9, but the geo was a revelation coming from similar bikes. When I got my Giant Trance X 29 a few years ago, I thought "this is what I wanted the SX trail to be."

[raisingarizona13]

As an amateur trailbuilder with a lot of opinions about trails, this is something that I think about and discuss with my friends a lot. We have a lot of new trail getting built around here, and some trailbuilders are better at building "modern trails" than others.

NERD! Haha, it takes one to know one eh?

It's such a fun time to build these days. The old categorized trail character designations isn't really a thing anymore. Old school DH trail has become blurred with mechanized builds and the "hybrid" ideology is more of a thing than ever. In fact, I'd say hybrid isn't really a thing anymore and it's all just modern trail building as it absolutely should be. Why would anyone want to pin every trail as being just this or just that when the best trails imho do a little bit of everything but are also designed for todays shorter travel, more nimble, lighter and super slack bikes. These trails take a little more effort and more attention to the tiny details but I think they are way more fun and it's especially awesome not being stressed all the time about blowing up my wheels or ripping off an expensive derailleur. I can't afford to destroy gear anymore like I would back 20 years ago doing shuttle laps down the rough and raw rake and ride trails we had back then.

[raisingarizona13]

Double post, but I want to give a shout out to the 2006 SX Trail I rode as a trail bike for a few years. I think it was the same frame as the Enduro but with a slacker HTA via the shock mount. It was a pig to pedal around, probably in part due to my stubborn ass riding it as a 1x9, but the geo was a revelation coming from similar bikes. When I got my Giant Trance X 29 a few years ago, I thought "this is what I wanted the SX trail to be."

I had a 2006 Turner High Line. It was also a pig to pedal around but man it could put down the plow. That was one of my most all time favorite bikes I've ever had.

[jono]

All things considered, I'd say it happened pretty quick - the most progressive outliers started really experimenting in maybe 2013-ish, they'd refined their experiments by 2015-ish, the ideas started to catch on in 2016-2017, and by 2018-2019 almost everyone was on board, at least to some extent. So that's a ~6 year timeline to completely re-write a century's worth of ideas on bicycle geometry.

It's interesting to compare this with other changes. Even if you go back a few more years for the beginning on this it compares pretty favorably with the multiple decades it took to overcome ad copy claiming bouncy rear suspension wasn't a problem (looking at you, Specialized).

And that's despite the fact that it's needed some complimentary changes to stuff like tires and forks. And the learning curve for changing your preferred riding position is among the steepest. "But I was used to the way Ellsworths pedaled!" said no one ever.

The Gravity Dropper was almost off patent by the time dropper posts started to be widely adopted.

Now think how long it's going to take to get a 30/28 mullet!