DH frame advice for really big guy...

sikocycles · Feb 20, 2012

Pbj 29er. Love mine.

jnooth · Feb 20, 2012

I dont want to start a 26 vs 29er debate. in most cases i think 29er DH bikes are silly but in this case I think its really the only way to go. I dont have exsperiance with the lenz but I have seen them before and they would probably be the best fit.

S.K.C. · Feb 20, 2012

IH8Rice is a tall drink of water AND large burly man.

His daily routine:
1) Get up; eat 1 Holstein cow.
2) Go to gym - lift.
3) Ride DH.
4) Throw cars at Magneto.
5) Heat-Therapy with a relaxing soak in a volcano.

Rice is currently on an M9 and this seems to suit him so far, but I'm sure he can speak about this himself.

BMW (Brooklyn Machine Works) used to make Cro-Mo DH frames such as the Hitman and Racelink but I'm not sure what their current status is.

Foes Racing also makes some pretty burly frames, so I'd say that would be another option for you.

Paging IH8Rice

EDIT: Rich Houseman aka "Biiiig House" is also currently on an M9.

stoney · Feb 20, 2012

At your size, a 29'er is the way to go without question. I'm 6'4" and my 29'er just feels so much better, more fitted, when I ride it. The harder part will be the frame obviously, but Lenz had made a DH frame for large guys for a long time. I saw go with experience.

Jim Mac · Feb 20, 2012

IH8Rice is maybe 5'11" and shrinking...every day...

sikocycles · Feb 21, 2012

I am 6'5" and weight 240ish. This is an XL PBJ.

jonKranked · Feb 21, 2012

The Joker said:
At your size, a 29'er is the way to go without question. I'm 6'4" and my 29'er just feels so much better, more fitted, when I ride it. The harder part will be the frame obviously, but Lenz had made a DH frame for large guys for a long time. I saw go with experience.

wheel size yes... but at that size your options for burly DH rims are limited.

sikocycles · Feb 21, 2012

Salsa Gordo and sun MTX33 and both very burly rims. And velocity P35 is very burly also. On some Chub E13 DH hubs will be plenty burly.

Tires are the big issue. I am running WTB Dissents with 29er thorn proof tubes. No flats last year.
Maxxis is testing a minion 29 dh tire now.

IH8Rice · Feb 21, 2012

S.K.C. said:
IH8Rice is a tall drink of water AND large burly man.

His daily routine:
1) Get up; eat 1 Holstein cow.
2) Go to gym - lift.
3) Ride DH.
4) Throw cars at Magneto.
5) Heat-Therapy with a relaxing soak in a volcano.

Rice is currently on an M9 and this seems to suit him so far, but I'm sure he can speak about this himself.

lol, i might be 230lbs geared up but im a midget compared to some of the other people here. HuckBanzai is 6'8" and shoots lighting bolts out his arse. he rides a XL V10. im only 6'2" and my M9 does feel perfect but the OP is juuust a bit taller then me.

jonKranked · Feb 21, 2012

sikocycles said:
Salsa Gordo and sun MTX33 and both very burly rims. And velocity P35 is very burly also. On some Chub E13 DH hubs will be plenty burly.

Tires are the big issue. I am running WTB Dissents with 29er thorn proof tubes. No flats last year.
Maxxis is testing a minion 29 dh tire now.

sun rims? burly? i've toasted more of their rims in my life than any other brand.

edit: are the mtx33's still just pinned rims?

IH8Rice · Feb 21, 2012

jonKranked said:
sun rims? burly? i've toasted more of their rims in my life than any other brand.

edit: are the mtx33's still just pinned rims?

ive gone several years on my multiple pairs of MTX33's and they are still going strong. i love them. anything over a year is good w/ the abuse they see with me
they are welded

Huck Banzai · Feb 21, 2012

Im wobbling on the 9er fence @ 6'8" -- in this case, I think we've found the 9er zone.

I love the fit of my XL v10c; but Im ONLY ~6'8" - 38.5" inseam, 37.5 sleeve. Breaking 250 is also a size barrier as when I was 263 (sans gear) getting heavy enough springs that arent pillow soft is tough. Dont get heavier!!

Look into that PBJ! Otherwise the SWD or Ventana are both good choices. (I think 'Id do SWD myself.)

ALSO - (nod to Gemeni2k) - speak to FTW - apparently their XL is ENORMOUS (if Gemini2k isnt insane) and Frank may do customs? (I may be speaking from the posterior sphinctorium, but hey - maybe!?!)

StabprimoMonkee · Feb 21, 2012

sun rims? burly? i've toasted more of their rims in my life than any other brand.

edit: are the mtx33's still just pinned rims?

I'm 188cm, 100kg. I also think that MTX33 are awesome rims. Rear held for almost two seasons. Coming from a guy who would trash 2-3 Mavic rims a season.

jonKranked · Feb 21, 2012

IH8Rice said:
ive gone several years on my multiple pairs of MTX33's and they are still going strong. i love them. anything over a year is good w/ the abuse they see with me
they are welded

a number of years ago ( i wanna say around when they were first introduced) they made a pinned, single wall version of the rim. It very may well have been an OEM model though...

jonKranked · Feb 21, 2012

Huck Banzai said:
ALSO - (nod to Gemeni2k) - speak to FTW - apparently their XL is ENORMOUS (if Gemini2k isnt insane) and Frank may do customs? (I may be speaking from the posterior sphinctorium, but hey - maybe!?!)

Frank will absolutely build a custom. I think that's what he's focusing on for bike fabrication these days.

William42 · Feb 21, 2012

My old large canfield lucky had about a mile and a half long reach, and a 49inch wheelbase, if you can find one of those. And it'll definitely hold up, that thing was a tank.

gemini2k · Feb 21, 2012

Huck Banzai said:
Im wobbling on the 9er fence @ 6'8" -- in this case, I think we've found the 9er zone.

I love the fit of my XL v10c; but Im ONLY ~6'8" - 38.5" inseam, 37.5 sleeve. Breaking 250 is also a size barrier as when I was 263 (sans gear) getting heavy enough springs that arent pillow soft is tough. Dont get heavier!!

Look into that PBJ! Otherwise the SWD or Ventana are both good choices. (I think 'Id do SWD myself.)

ALSO - (nod to Gemeni2k) - speak to FTW - apparently their XL is ENORMOUS (if Gemini2k isnt insane) and Frank may do customs? (I may be speaking from the posterior sphinctorium, but hey - maybe!?!)

Ha ha, I HOPE I'm not insane. It is pretty massive, and damn burly. I love it so much I picked up a second in fact! 7' is massive though.

OP have you tried sitting on bikes? Any idea what kind of stack/reach dimensions you'd want? My guess is 19-20 inch reach That's the horizontal distance between the center of the bottom bracket and the center of the top of the headtube. Stack (the vertical distance between the top of the center of the headtube and the middle of the BB) is slightly less important since you can fiddle around with handlebar/crown heights a bit. Either way you're gonna want something around a 6" headtube and handlebars with a 2-3 inch rise. All this will probably put you around a 51-52 inch wheelbase. You'll probably want to go with really short chainstays to compensate for the super long front end. My FTW is an 18inch reach with ~50inch chainstays and it feels a hair too long for anything tight. I love the front end length but I'd kill a man (seriously) for .5" shorter chainstays. (I'm 6'7.5" with a ~37.5" inseam"

Give FTW and ventana a call though. Those guys are all pretty helpful and enjoy challenges like this (as long as the money is right...). You could MAYBE get away with a stock XL FTW frame, but I think It would still be a hair too small. But if Huck Banzai can be happy on his xl v-10, the stock xl FTW would probably be relatively the same fit on you.

Don't worry about all the other parts being durable enough. Stuff like rims, cranks, etc. are all sufficiently strong. The only people who really have trouble with consistently breaking that stuff these days are either pro caliber speed or seriously hack riders.

iRider · Feb 21, 2012

Nicolai is offering custom options on all frames in their line. If you really want a frame that fits and performs well then these guys are your best bet.

gemini2k · Feb 21, 2012

Also, I don't think 29'er is the answer. I don't really buy into the idea that bigger guys need bigger wheels. I think wheel size is application specific and 26" is the right size for the mtb application. Look at moto's. Frame sizes hardly differ and wheel sizes don't really differ at all, not matter if its for a 5'8" or 6'8" rider. I definitely never am thinking while riding my DH or moto bike "Gee I wish my wheels were bigger".

Well that's not entirely true. I would like to TRY it sometime.

(Disclaimer, I could be totally full of sh*t on this.)

jonKranked · Feb 21, 2012

gemini2k said:
My FTW is an 18inch reach with ~50inch chainstays

gemini2k · Feb 21, 2012

jonKranked said:

lol, I meant 50" WB, 17.75 CS.

Uncle Cliffy · Feb 21, 2012

Although Ventana offers custom sizing, the Cuervo is the only frame Sherwood never did custom on...

marshalolson · Feb 21, 2012

jonKranked said:
a number of years ago ( i wanna say around when they were first introduced) they made a pinned, single wall version of the rim. It very may well have been an OEM model though...

that was called the S-Type. those sucked.

the current mtx-33 is super durable. totally legit DH rim for the heaviest and most abusive rider for sure.

marshalolson · Feb 21, 2012

i am only 6'2'' and 205lbs, but i should add that even my size, true 2 ply dh tires are 100% mandatory. those are not offered in 29". the 2.5 DHF that is coming is a tubeless ready 1ply trail bike tire.

FTW should be very strongly looked at. sick bikes, accomplished builder, and knows how to build exactly what you are after.

Racerx7734 · Feb 21, 2012

2007 V10.

I'm 245 and beat the crap out of mine, big drops nasty rocks, you name it......guys our size cant really be weight weenies, so build it like you mean it and it will be fine.

norbar · Feb 21, 2012

If you can afford it get a custom build nicolai. They will get you anything you want on their frames, 5 year warranty and all their products are build like tanks. Their new ION has a pretty good geo too. If you can afford it I'd look no further as I bet they could get you a true XXL custom frame.

sikocycles · Feb 22, 2012

I do love my nicolai. Great bike

DirtMcGirk · Feb 23, 2012

Jesus, thinking back to when I was 5'10" and 280, I feel like Jabba the Hut.

That being said, my Yeti 303 held up to four seasons, two of which were above 250#. No broken frames.

William42 · Feb 24, 2012

if money isn't a huge issue I would pickup a manitou dorado over a wb groove (if you end up going the 29er route and need an inverted fork). But it definitely costs a lot more and if you're already going custom it might be over budget.

Lelandjt · Feb 24, 2012

This chassis with 29" wheels:

That should handle just about anything.

DH frame advice for really big guy...

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