Re:
I’d strongly recommend going for a 65 to 64 degree head angle and steep seat angle. Ragley’s from 2016 led the way on this (mmmBOP and Bluepig) and COTIC and Stanton followed. 160 suspension overforked to 170 works brilliantly. This really gets you into the right performance territory. The Cotic souls can be good (I have a couple of 26er Souls which I love, but are not as dynamic and capable as the Ragleys in our stable. You can emulate the steep seat angle of Transition (which are wonderful frames but big dollar here) by sizing up in 2016-18 Ragleys, and using a saddle forward on the rails in an in-line post - and still use a 35mm stem. The chainstays are so short anyway that you don’t lose climbing traction. I am 5-7 but use a Large 2016 mmmBop. I am on medium 26er COTICS even though Cy’s older size charts say that I should be on a small. The small needs a 60mm stem and that loses all the benefit of the new geometry. This all takes a different mindset for sizing - reach is critical, then try to get the right reach in a cockpit with a steep effective seat angle and a 35mm stem. And that often means sizing up on pre-2020 frames. Transition blew away the rule book in 2018 with the Sentinel SBG geometry and although the other companies do not acknowledge it, they have all crept in to follow Transition and adopted steeper seat angles and 64 head tube angles, and longer reach. And taken a couple of years to do it.
