Anyone found it harder to pedal a mullet Rise?

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theremotejuggernaut

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So... I decided to try a 27.5 rear wheel.

It was a fairly cheap experiment, I already had the wheel on my HT so the only outlay was a Bosch magnet for the disc.

Observations
-possibly slightly better on steep, loose stuff in the woods.
-possibly worse everywhere else.

The front was wandering all over in climbs and pedal strikes were back with a vengeance. The seat tube angle changed enough that I was hovering over the nose on climbs which I haven't had to do for a long time.

I might try and offset it a little with a longer stem but we'll see.

Anyway, straight out of the carpark the bike immediately felt sluggish and slow. I know 29 rolls better but just pedalling to get up to speed on tarmac felt loads more difficult. It felt like the assistance was restricted. I even got off to check that the brakes weren't stuck on.

Freewheeeling, it felt fine. It was just peddling that it felt terrible.

Has anyone else felt like theirs was slower after fitting a smaller rear wheel?

For reference, both the 29 and 27.5 wheels are Hunt Trailwide. I know the 27.5 is lighter because I weighed them a while ago. Tyres are the same, Bontrager XR4. Again, I know the 27.5 is lighter. Cassette and freehub are the same (swapped from 29 to 27.5). So the whole set up is ~250g lighter.

I know the tyre rolls well so it's not excessive drag. And if it was, the bike wouldn't have Freewheeled so nicely.

Confused.
 
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You've dropped the bottom bracket, slackened the seat angle and put your weight slightly further back. Did you check your shock sag? Will probably also be sitting a bit lower due the the SA change.
And slackened the head angle.

What you're describing seems consistent with all that.
 
It's no so much the geo changes that I'm bothered about. I was expecting all of those.

It's the pedalling thing that I'm not sure about. It's not just the feeling of being less efficient that you'd maybe associate with slacker angles, it literally feels like the motor isn't assisting as much. It's hard to pedal.

Sounds silly because a smaller, lighter wheel should spin up quicker. It feels completely the opposite. Like trying to pedal a heavy arsed wheel around with a MaxxGrip DHR.
 
theremotejuggernaut said:
It's no so much the geo changes that I'm bothered about. I was expecting all of those.

It's the pedalling thing that I'm not sure about. It's not just the feeling of being less efficient that you'd maybe associate with slacker angles, it literally feels like the motor isn't assisting as much. It's hard to pedal.

Sounds silly because a smaller, lighter wheel should spin up quicker. It feels completely the opposite. Like trying to pedal a heavy arsed wheel around with a MaxxGrip DHR.
Click to expand...
Of course the speed sensor just measures revolutions of the rear wheel. since the smaller wheel has a different circumference (2213 vs 2333 mm for a 2.4 tyre) you'll have reduced the cutout speed by about 1mph as well. But that's not what you're describing.
 
My partner has changed her Rise rear wheel to 27.5, with a BigBetty, and she loves it! Never really got on with the 29 rear. Raced the Enduro2 in the Alps and she much prefers it to the 29” rear. Other changes from stock: Lyrik ultimate at 150mm, 150mm cranks. For reference she is 165cm and weighs about 58kg kitted up inc. water. With the changes, she now much prefers it to before.
 
So... There's a chance I might know what the issue was...

It looks as though I might have mixed the end caps up on the wheels. The Hunt Trail wide use a microspline specific pair of end caps. I think I had the wrong cap on the non drive side.

Both the 29 and 27.5 wheels are Trail wide V2.

29 is Microspline and 27.5 is HG. I swapped the MS onto the 27.5 to run it on the bike.

The end cap I had fitted is like a top hat shape that fits inside the end of the freehub.

The end caps should press against the inner race of the freehub bearing and are clamped in position when the through axle is tight. The freehub should rotate around the end cap when pedalling.

Fitting the top hat shaped end cap to the MS freehub meant that the end cap would have rubbed on the inside of the freehub. This means when pedalling, there was drag from the cap rubbing the freehub.

As the freehub only rotates when pedalling and doesn't rotate freewheeling, there would have been no resistance when freewheeling and pretty much explains my issue.

User error 😂
 
I have changed my Rise to Mullet. I do love the conversion. Did you change the wheel circumference on shimano app at the dealer? Before changing the setting, my bike was super sluggish going up the hill.
 
What changes are needed if I want to convert my Rise to a mullet, but keep the geometry (HA, BB height etc) exactly as it is with the 29 rear?

Every thread, video etc I can find seems to involve upgrading shocks, forks etc to get more travel as well, rather than JUST mulleting the bike.
 
The longer eye to eye shock is what preserves the geometry and keeps the BB height. You end up with more travel because of the increase in stroke.

Fit a 27.5 front wheel and your angles will be the same. BB will be 3/4" lower.

To keep everything identical, you'd need a new (custom) linkage.
 
So offset bushings with the standard shock wouldn't have the same effect?

Not really. Offset bushes will reduce the eye to eye of the shock which would drop the BB slightly and slacken the HT. When you mullet the bike, you need the opposite which is why you want a longer shock. If you'd fitted a 27.5 wheel AND the offset bushes, you'd have significantly changed the geometry.
 
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