A BRAND IS BORN – LEE MCCORMACK’S JOURNEY FROM MAKING BETTER RIDERS TO MAKING BETTER BIKES

By Lee McCormack

Modern mountain bikes are amazing! Just look at the specs. They have slacker this, longer that and stiffer thingamabobs, as well as more compliant doodads. If you buy one of those bikes, you surely will shred just like this kid in the video! You still can’t shred like that? Well, you need the “Bro-Works Extreme Team” model.

I jest, but that’s what they’re selling us: images of extreme shredding with the tacit understanding that you, too, can feel like an extreme shredder—if your bike has progressive geometry and other modern features. This is human nature. When a market adopts notions like these, companies have a hard time selling anything else. Look at the dearth of new sedans on American roads.

The mainstream bike companies must sell against each other in the categories they’ve established—XC race, downcountry, trail, enduro, SuperEnduro (really) and so on. Each category has certain features or numbers that sell. In trail and enduro bikes, “longer, lower and slacker geometry” sold a lot of bikes. If longer sells, then even longer should sell more, right? This has led to two conditions:

1. Bikes properly fit fewer and fewer riders. I have talked to people at every major bike brand, and they are revealing no logical, biomechanical method for fitting customers to mountain bikes.

2. Bikes aren’t fundamentally designed to be safe and easy to ride. Can you jump this bike off the roof of your house? Yes. Can you corner it on gravel without feeling like you’re going to crash? Maybe not.

WHAT HAPPENED TO MAINSTREAM MOUNTAIN BIKE GEOMETRY?

Here is how I see the progression of mountain bike geometry:

1. Compared to today’s trail and enduro bikes, the first production mountain bikes, like the Specialized Stumpjumper, were relatively short in front of the bottom bracket and long behind the bottom bracket. They had a nimble, balanced feel. At the start of mountain biking, the main aspirational goals were exploration and adventure.

2. Chainstays got shorter. In the ’90s, Gary Fisher introduced his Genesis geometry and made a believable case that short stays climbed better. Now, short stays are cool and edgy, and long stays are considered stodgy. Back in the day, the main buzzword in magazines like this one was “agility,” as shorter stays can make bikes feel more agile in the right hands.

3. Wheels got bigger. Standard trail bike wheels went from a 26-inch diameter to 29s, with some 27.5s mixed in.

4. Bikes got more suspension. As speed and amplitude became the aspirational goals, bikes became more capable. Most of us humans don’t feel capable. A tougher bike helps us feel more capable, and the bike industry happily fed that need.

5. Now we had a packaging issue. With a traditional laid-back seat angle, plus short chainstays, big wheels and long-travel suspension, the rear tires would hit the seat. What to do?

6. Seat tubes got steeper. Mountain bike seat tubes went from 73–74 degrees to 75, 76, 77 and even 78 degrees. Each degree of steepness moves the saddle forward about 1cm depending on your saddle height. What an easy way to increase the space behind the seatpost! But, what about pedaling and climbing? Haven’t biomechanically optimal seat tube angles been established for a long time? Well, the marketing departments told us the steeper seat angle is better for climbing. In some cases and for some riders that might be true, but biomechanics don’t change with mountain bike trends. The change in posture, and muscle recruitment can make climbing more painful and less powerful. Have your knees started aching since you got your new superbike?

7. Then the bars got too close to the seat! The seat came forward several centimeters, remember? In lieu of developing a deep understanding of pedaling mechanics (who has time for that?), riders tend to prefer whatever feels familiar. The shorter-seated reaches felt cramped.

8. Frame reaches got longer. What a genius way to open up that seated cockpit. They told us some believable stories about improved stability due to the added length. “Stability” is the new buzzword. I hear smart, educated people parrot that all the time, and I just shake my head. No modern bike is unstable.

HOW DOES MODERN GEOMETRY AFFECT THE RIDER?
Simply put, the frame reaches are too long for many riders. Imagine a lever going from your bottom bracket to your grips. I call this “rider area distance,” or “RAD.” RAD is calculated from your frame reach and frame stack, as well as parameters of your headset top cap, spacers, stem and bars. Frame reach is the main determining factor when I choose a bike frame for a rider. I call the angle of the RAD lever compared with level ground the “RAD angle.”

When the bike’s RAD matches your body size and shape and the RAD angle is steep enough, you have full range of motion with your arms, and you use the strongest muscles in your upper body. When the bike’s RAD lever is too long or the angle too shallow for you, you lose range of motion in your arms, and you use weaker muscles in your upper body. You simply cannot move the bars the way they must be moved, and you spend more time feeling uneasy and ultimately flying over your handlebars. This effect is easy to measure and hard to argue logically.

Most people I measure are riding bikes with excessive RADs and too-shallow RAD angles. This leads to more muscle and joint pain, chronic injuries from using their bodies improperly, and acute injuries from slamming their bodies onto the ground. This is not your fault! You should be able to believe the bike companies’ size charts. As an example, see the comparison of the 2013 versus 2023 Santa Cruz Nomad frame reach above. The newer size small is longer than the old size extra large! Since someone at Santa Cruz told me there is no logical sizing system for mountain bikes, I’m left to think they’re guessing and following trends.

Front wheels are too light. Because bikes are longer in front and shorter in back, the majority of the rider’s weight is on the rear wheel. The relatively light front wheel tends to slip out in turns. Also, the heavier rear wheel is more likely to hang up on bumps and send you over the bars. Great technique mitigates these issues, but that requires mobility, strength and skill that few adults have time to maintain.

To sum it up: Despite the carbon doodads and long-travel suspension, on modern mountain geometry you are more likely to experience muscle and joint pain, get thrown over the bars, and wash out in turns. Too many of you accept those things as “part of the sport” and “how you pay your dues.” That is absolutely ridiculous. But, it shows how amazing mountain biking is, doesn’t it? We still love to ride!

LEE MAKES BIKES
As part of my mission to help people live joyfully via mountain biking, I’ve dedicated my professional self to understanding how bikes and bodies work together, then communicating those truths to the mountain bikers of the world. So far I’ve published 11 books, hundreds of magazine articles, thousands of web articles and received millions of video views. In my direct work with more than 10,000 riders of all styles and levels, I’ve devised a system for dynamic mountain bike fit, and I have created a simple, complete system to teach riders how to ride with safety, confidence and joy. By the way, if you want to win races, joy is a highly effective and fully legal performance enhancer.

I do mountain bike fits with all kinds of people in person and remotely. It’s getting harder to find bikes that optimally fit anyone under 5-foot-9 for dynamic riding. That is half of American men and most American women. I never considered making bikes because I thought the bike industry had it covered, but maybe they don’t.

Now that I look back, my unique talents and obsessions have created coherent, simple, scalable systems for all aspects of mountain biking. The only thing missing was a bike that’s designed specifically to help real people ride better.

I did some math in the bike-fit calculator at my member site, came up with some geometry numbers and hired Walt Werner from Waltworks to build me a test frame. A couple months later I had the Pink Mistress:

• Straight-gauge steel with a single pivot. It had 160mm-travel front and rear via Fox 36 fork and Float X2 shock. Now I’m running a Fox 38 fork at 180mm travel for Masters Downhill Worlds. See below.
• Frame reach and head angle are identical to the 2019 Stumpjumper I’ve been rallying.
• Very long chainstays to better center my weight between the tires. Compared with “progressive geometry,” the Pink Mistress is shorter in front and longer in back.
• Classic slacker seat angle because now there’s plenty of room back behind the seat.
• Powdercoated pink. Ha! I just remembered that I powdercoated my first real mountain bike—a 1989 Diamondback Apex—the same pink.
The Pink Mistress was named by my partner, Elyse. Pink is self-evident. “Mistress” is feminine for “master,” as in head mistress or any woman who is in charge. The Pink Mistress embraces divine feminine energy, which is where we find that sweet transcendent flow.

WHAT DOES THE PINK MISTRESS FEEL LIKE TO RIDE?
Cornering feels better. The front end just hooks up, and I feel like I’m inside the bike. Everyone who rides the Mistress says the same thing. I rode for weeks on the loosest trails in Phoenix with not one front-wheel wash, drift or unclean thought.

Seated pedaling is amazing! That slacker seat angle puts the work in the glutes where it belongs, and it opens up the seated cockpit without compromising the front of the bike.

Technical climbing is very good. I was worried about the longer stays reducing leverage to the rear tire, but the longer lever actually makes traction easier to maintain, and the front end doesn’t wander like normal. Look at hill-climbing motorcycles.

Rocks and bumps feel smoother. I think it’s the reduced weight on the rear wheel, plus my weight being closer to the middle of the bike.

Jumping and manualing are just fine. This was another concern because of the length of the longer lever in back. I’m flowing through the dirt jumps easily, and my pump-manuals are solid. I can’t lean-back-manual any bike, but riders who can manual are manualing the Mistress well.

The bike just looks and feels cool. Straight-gauge steel, a single pivot and pink for the win.

LET’S DO THIS
Mainstream mountain bikes are incredibly refined. I’ve been with Specialized for my whole 22 years in this business, and I deeply appreciate their support. They make amazing bikes that serve many people. But, I know there are riders who need a different approach. So, I’m going to make bikes, and the company name is Mistress Cycles.

Editor’s note: Lee McCormack is a world-renowned mountain bike skills instructor, personal performance coach and motivational speaker. His books, articles, videos, and classes have helped millions of people ride and live better. You can learn with Lee via his Lee Likes Bikes MTB School in a live class or in a Zoom lesson. Follow “Lee Likes Bikes” on YouTube and Instagram. Follow the birth of Mistress Cycles at www.mistresscycles.com.