Hey guys, small update.
I ride a lot of bike park laps, so my bike is pretty much set up for DH. By that I mean I'm running a Saint drivetrain and a DH-focused setup.
One thing that always bothered me was that the rear suspension seemed to lock up under braking. It felt really harsh on braking bumps.
I tried everything: different tires, opening up the high-speed compression on my coil shock, and a bunch of other setup changes.
No matter what I did, I just couldn't get the bike to feel good with a full 29" setup.
The suspension felt really stiff, the rear wheel would hit my seat pretty often, cornering felt terrible, and even on really rough trails the bike just wasn't confidence-inspiring.
After talking with a few friends, they suggested trying a mullet setup. At that point I honestly thought the geometry would be completely messed up and ride even worse. I was already looking at buying a new bike.
So I picked up a cheap 27.5" ZTTO rear wheel just to test it.
Bike park day comes around, I swap the rear wheel, leave everything else basically the same...
Completely different bike.
Every single complaint I had was GONE.
The suspension works amazingly now. Even under braking it doesn't feel like it locks that much up anymore. Cornering is so much better, the head angle feels way more confidence-inspiring for DH, and the bike still jumps really well.
What surprised me the most is that I didn't even get pedal strikes. I'm on a size M frame with 165 mm cranks.
So yeah... for me, mullet is absolutely the way to go. The full 29er setup just wasn't working, but with a 27.5" rear wheel the bike finally rides the way I always wanted it to.
