Mountain Bike Geometry - Head and Seat Tube Angles

Revolver22

Currently weighing up my options for a new bike, with one of the options being a Canyon Nerve AM. Problem is I cannot see one in the flesh to try it out.

Looking at the geometry, the bike is 1 degree steeper (68.5 degree head tube and 72 degree seat tube) than a Giant Trance XL (69.5 and 73.5 respectively).

There other main area of difference is the top tube length, with the Canyon being another 15mm longer (600mm as opposed to 585 for the Giant).

I would obviously notice the difference in length and reach for the top tube. But with regard to the angles, in the real world, would I notice this 1 degree difference?

warpcow

The Canyon is 1-degree slacker, not steeper. Whether you would notice that is hard to say. The toptube length I would say you will almost definitely notice though. Whether it is better or not is up to you; I personally like longer bikes. It also depends on how Giant and Canyon measure toptubes; is it horizontal or end-to-end?

nicklouse

to add to the above. How do they measure the angles? is it at sag? fully extended? or at some predetermined length? are the forks shocks the same i2i and A-C lengths?

Revolver22

Thanks for the replies guys.

Hard to tell on the measurements, I took them both off of the manufacturers websites

Canyon Nerve AM:
https://www.canyon.com/_uk/mountainbike ... tml?b=2085

Giant Trance X Limited
http://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-GB/bik ... 868/48596/

clamps81

If you're handy with photoshop and you can get hold of decent side on photos then overlaying one other t'other with images scaled so that rim sizes match should give you an idea of how they compare.

sofaboy73

agree with the above re: how are they measuring it.

however I noticed effectively slackening the head angle on my bike by about a degree or so when I swapped to longer forks.

also worth bearing in mind that it may be preferable to compensate for a longer top tube with a shorter stem, rather than the other way round in terms of handling characteristics (esp if you like wider bars)