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chas wrote:From what I have gathered with people who have these bikes, they just pick a setting and leave it there.
Personally, I change my trail by about 10mm. I like having athletic responses on road tires, but those agile changes can cause havoc on gravel - so a little relaxation in the steering is a good thing. I've always been curious about trying out those headsets that allow you to change the HT angle, but not willing to spend the time and $$$ on it yet.
I do have a bike that has adjustable wheelbase, but I've never really paid any attention to any affect it might have. I'll say, that a short wheelbase can be almost impossible to drift compared to a longer wheelbase, so there is that...
Yuushi wrote:Is adjustable geometry just a gimmick or can it positively affect the feel and performance of a bike?
There's lots of examples out there of solutions aimed at making a bike able to go from stable to twitchy which is appealing for that elusive quiver killer but are there drawbacks that outweigh the benefits? Is a static geometry for a dedicated purpose or tire size the way to go?
Examples:
traditional sliding dropout
Otso Tuning Chip
Solace Cycles OM3 slide/pivot dropout
GT Grade Flip Chip fork
Rondo Rutt Twintip fork
Columbus Futura Cross multi-rake fork (on the Kinesis Tripster)
Cervelo Aspero TrailMixer fork dropout
No reviews I've seen have spent any significant time in both settings and those that have switched things around briefly seem to parrot the manufacture's marketing blurb.
I'd like to know what the experiences of the community are. Thanks.
(Have you seen the gorgeously brilliant symmetrical yoke on the Solace!)
Mudge wrote:
what do you mean by athletic, agile, and relaxed?
chas wrote:
The biggest difference I notice* is initiating a turn.
lower trail bikes (agile bikes) can dive into a turn, which is great on the road or aggressive urban riding (which gravel type bike excel at). This is a negative on gravel as you want a very gentle turn initiation.
On the other hand, with relaxed geometry I have to manhandle the bike to get it to initiate a hard turn, and I'll end up running wide anyway (at the same speed).
(*along with the ability to drift a longer wheelbase).
That is the difference between agile (low trail) and relaxed (higher trail) bikes.
I do think they make a difference.
I see two benefits:
The biggest one is maintaining bottom bracket height. If you want to run a paved and gravel wheelset, the gravel tire wheelset will raise your bottom bracket. Most people prefer a lower bottom bracket for gravel than for paved.
Similar for people who want to run a fat 650b wheel set and skinnier 700c. If you don’t adjust fork offset, you will have less trail with the 650b wheel, but you probably want more trail(since you are using it in sand or rough terrain).
I see less benefit to adjustable chainstay length on a gravel bike. Road bikers like short rear centers. They need those because the front of a road bike is also super short.
As the front center grows (on a gravel bike), so should the rear center.
However, many roadies think that having the rear center on their gravel bike as close as possible to their road bike, will make it handle just like their road bike.
Doing that, they ignore the difference in trail and front center.
Yuushi wrote:Thank you, everyone, for your input. The consensus seems to be that adjustable geometry is nice to have but doesn’t have an overwhelming effect on handling or performance.
I will have a column for it on my spreadsheet in search of a good titanium all terrain bike but it won’t be a priority feature. Thanks.
jfranci3 wrote:
I have an adjustable rear on my Trek- it is not very noticeable. It's only useful for running big tires or single speed drivetrains.
For the front, the trail measurement changes with tire size. I cant tell, from a practical perspective, the difference in trail when I move from 700x50c tires to 25c tires on my bike. That's about the biggest change you'd see. It doesn't radically affect 'hands off bar' stability nor actual/perceived handling. I'd look at this as a small way to minimize toe overlap when you're running a bigger tire.