Hey everyone. I want you guys to think about something for a second. If you had to narrow

down to just one thing, what would you say has been the single most important advancement

in mountain bikes? Diss brakes are pretty

nice, aren't they? Especially if you've been around long enough to remember using shitty

cantilever rim brakes. But modern suspension lets long travel bikes pedal crazy well and short

travel bikes be crazy capable, so maybe there's an argument for that. But then again, I don't even

remember how to ride a bike with tubes. There's no doubt the tubeless tires and modern rubber

have made our lives so much better. But while all that stuff has been helpful, it's geometry

that's had the most significant and consequential impact on how our bikes perform.

This is the Pink Bike podcast. I'm your host, Mike Levy, and episode 78 is all about mountain bike geometry.

We're going to get into the time machine and talk about some scary older bikes that we didn't even know we're scary at the time.

How geometry numbers have changed over

the years and how that translates onto the trail, and we'll look at some modern numbers and

maybe talk about if longer and slacker is simply always better. And of course, we're going to

explain what all the terms mean. As usual, other Mike is here as well. Hey, Kaz, Kazmer, I've got a question for you.

I'm going to make you pick. R rigid bike with crappy tires, ribbon brakes, 26-inch wheels, those

tiny wheels, but kick-ass geometry, or a full suspension bike with disc brakes 29 inch wheels but geometry from way back in

1997 and I know you remember what that was like. So if you had to choose one of those to ride

for the rest of your life, is it 29er with terrible geometry and a 350 millimeter reach? Or is it the bike with good geo, but nothing else

going for it? I'm going with the terrible geometry. Oh, really? I didn't expect you to choose that,

actually. Yeah, because he said it has 29-inch wheels, got full suspension. Like, I don't want to have to

ride a bike with crappy tires, rim brakes, and 26-inch wheels forever. Like, that's what I started to ride on. So, like,

...