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  • Hi Constant,

    This is a bitof a brainfart but I hope it helps

    I was running a 69mm trail on a longer wheelbase jumpbike (420mm CS, 590mm F-c) and it felt nice cornering but the steering was heavy. I didn't want to add any more trail as I didn't want to make it feel any heavier.

    When I had my own frame built I lifted the front end geometry (69mm trail and 74 deg headangle) and shortened the rest of the frame a lot.

    With all the extra weight on the rear wheel of the new bike the front end would feel very light, understeer and be more prone to jack-knifing early.

    I was running an adjustable length fork for messing with headangle and trail, so I spaced it from 74deg out to 73deg w/ 20mm Rake on a 642mm OD wheel. This has added a bunch of trail and the bike rode so much better for it.

    I then got a Maxpower fork with it's 10mm rake so I can mimic the same trail with the steeper 74deg headangle.

    I suggest those bikes above will have light steering and jack-knife early due to not enough trail.

    A simplistic explanation for polo frames:
    The headangle dictates how well the bike will ride at low speed. (it changes the speed of steering inversion)
    The trail dictates at what point the bike will jack-knife.

    If you're small then get your fit correct and your trail to a reasonable number and let the headangle be where it needs to be. Loss of low speed stability can be corrected by rider skill but a badly fitting frame cannot.

    Also those frames both have quite long front-centres. I can run 560mm F-c with 170mm cranks and 642mm OD tyres. I have overlap if I point my toe, but when I'm riding hard I drop my heels anyway so it's never caused a problem.

    One more thing, if you're ordering from Marino try to have some reasonable tolerances to all your clearances as it probably won't turn up quite as ordered.

    But the advantage is the shorter the seattube, the stiffer the frame will get, and of course a marginal weightloss, from having less tubing.
    mitigated by the fact that you have your seatpost, a large unsupported piece of tubing flexing back and forth.

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