George Thompson, ‘award winning’ writer of #MakingUpTheNumbers, joined us at the Singletrack Trade Day for a bit of a ride out in the Calderdale sun. He brought with him what might be the biggest bike we’ve ever seen – but then he might be the tallest man we’ve ever seen. If you watched the video of the awards presentation, you’ll notice we had to zoom the camera out rather a lot to fit him in. Andi grabbed some shots, and George talked us through it…
Nicolai GeoMetron G18 29er – is this the biggest trail bike in the world?
- 1370 wheelbase
- 62 degree Head Angle
- I believe the reach is around 550mm
- 820 wide bars
At the start of the 2017 season I had an issue with my G19 DH bike and Chris Porter lent me this as a replacement. It was a custom frame he’d had made up and in the fortnight or so that I had it in my possession I took seven seconds off my PB down the Ffar Side trail at Revolution Bike Park. It had to go back though, but at the end of the year I managed to get my hands on it & this time it wasn’t just a loan. For some reason though I couldn’t get to grips with it for DH so I converted it into a trail bike. The GeoMetrons are pretty flexible so…
It was 650b but it’s now 29. This has raised the BB by 25mm which means it’s now at 355mm, roughly the same as a Santa Cruz V10, so it’s no longer “low” but it’s not off the charts. I’ve found it to be a bit of an advantage really as I’m noticeably not getting as many pedal strikes which means I’m making it up some short technical climbs on the local that I’d never made it up before.
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It’s 180mm travel rear and 160mm travel front. The Fox X2 came off Chris Porter’s bike after one of the Trans races, possibly Provence. I’ve asked him why it feels so good & all he’ll tell me is that he “did something nice with the negative spring”. The forks are Fox 36’s but they’re 650b crowns with 29er lowers. This means the offset is 44mm rather than 51mm to give a larger trail figure for increased stability. There’s no hole for a stealth dropper post so it was either external cable or something radical. Given that I have little time for maintenance (and following the amazing review on Singletrack!) I went with the 150mm Magura Vyron. Loving the bluetooth and it’s so easy to swap out if you need to.
The rest of the components are very similar to those I have on the DH bike: Shimano and Hope in the main as I know how they work and that they’re reliable. Schwalbe Magic Mary’s with Procore in the rear & Tyre Yoghurt. ZTR Flow rims as they’re so easy to work with, the tyres just pop on every time and there’s no issue seating the Procore. Leave a ShockWiz on the forks, was currently scoring 94/100 after 6 runs at Havok!
I’ve second guessed Chris on a few occasions and on most things I’ve ended up agreeing with him. The only thing I can’t get my head around is super short stem. I’ve tried it so many times and I just can’t get on with it. The only reason I can come up with is that because I have the stem pretty high (with spacers underneath) my 50mm stem is effectively a fair bit shorter than if it was slammed to the head tube.
I’m going to try a 650b rear wheel to see what difference having the wheels turning in different size arcs makes.
And I might try putting the ShockWiz on the rear shock to see how the technology rates Chris’ tuning!
hells bells!
its a 29er?!? Thats funny, when I looked at it I thought it looked like my old 26″ NP mega for size, maybe 27.5
Big bike indeed, I’d really like a go please 🙂
You’re more than welcome to have a go if you’re ever in the Huddersfield area @big_scot_nanny
One thing bugs me. Why-oh-why saddle is sooooo far back on it’s rails?
Cheers!
I.
Hi @IvanMTB, the seat angle is pretty slack, I presume because the frame was initially designed for DH. When I first converted it this was my biggest concern. There aren’t any pictures here but with the seat post at full extension (150mm) the seat is really far over the back wheel if I run it in the middle of the rails so I’m running the it slammed all the way back to compensate for that.
Turns out it’s pretty perfect but I’d love to try the Pole Machine which has the seat directly over the pedals. I imagine that keeps the weight central, maybe that wouldn’t be so good for steep climbs though???
Like the idea of taller bb, less pedal strike. The one thing that erodes my confidence on steep tricky climbs is catching the pedals ,or often talking yourself out of it waiting for the pedals to dig in and stop you. maybe this keeping the pedals out of the way might catch on who knows.waiting for the marketing men to get hold of it ,the next gen trail bike with higher bb no more pedal strike , you wait it’ll happen and by the sounds of it not exactly slowing you down on the descents .
@reinswood LOL. They’ll have to schedule that one in for after 29 front 650b rear… I’ve just converted the G19 DH bike to 29 as well & only been out on it once but on neither bike have I noticed the increase in BB height. I’m wondering if because it’s so long & so slack it doesn’t need to be so low?