I tried a 303 a couple years ago, and it felt super cramped. I'm 6'1". I ride a Demo now, but the Konas I've rented felt the most laid out.
FYI, my shop guys ride Yeti trail bikes, but dumped their 303s for Demos. They didn't give a reason, since they still sell 303s. That would suck being 6'6" and trying to find a DH bike. Good luck.
If anyone finds a trail bike that actually fits someone 6'6"+ I'm all ears. For DH bike you definitely gotta go custom or semi custom. Hank at Bicycle fabrications can make one. Frank at FTW Industries might still be interested.
It'll be too small for you. For reference, I'm also 6'6". I have a large 2011 Demo 8 (same as the current model). It's too small for me. I'm on the hunt for a proper XL-sized DH bike, hopefully with 650b wheels. So far no 650b, though the Intense 951 looks ok. There's also a Rocky 650b prototype that looks promising.
The biggest DH bikes I've found are the V10C, Canfield Jedi, large Glory and large Kona Operator carbon.
At 6'6" you're a little too big for most of these bikes. I'm running an external lower cup headset race, 2cm of spacers below my upper crown and 8mm of spacers above it, a 60mm Truvativ stem (the longest direct-mount stem I could find) and a 25mm rise bar and it still doesn't fit quite right. After all that the bars on my Enduro 29er (with normal bar and normal stem and no spacers) sits taller.
You need to look carefully at the geo (especially reach and stack) to see. They for some reason assume tall people have the same need to make their bars as low as possible, which doesn't make any sense. By XL they mean under 6'5". I thought Large was for anyone up to about 6'2", and XL for everyone beyond that. But that's not how it works.
How does that compare to the 2013? I watched a 2013 review and they were *****ing that the bike was way to short.
Anyway thanks, I may have missed out on riding DH at all this year my local ski hill opened for the first time ever a couple weeks ago... and now its snowing lol.
Maybe by next year some of the shops in town will actually carry stuff other than XC bikes so I can get a feel for some.
If you're 6'6" 29" is better for this application. Besides, there aren't any 650b bikes that I've seen that are as big as the XL E29. Some come close but they consistently fail by using shallow seat angles and short head tubes.
I spent the season on large Specialized Demo and while rideable it's definitely too small (I am 6'5''). Longer stem does not help much. On XL Enduro my riding position is oh so much better - but I want proper downhill bike. I have read that Minnaar and Peat who are both about 6'3'' ride XL V10s with custom eccentric headsets for longer reach.
The perfect option is new Nicolai Ion 20 with 650b wheels. In XL it's stack/reach is so close to XL Enduro... Very tempting - true XL downhill bike.
Judging by published reach numbers XL Turner DHR is shorter than medium Demo - is that for real?
I am in the exact same boat. After riding an Enduro 29 all summer I hate riding my Demo now. Partially it's because the bigger wheels just feel better to my higher center of gravity and partially because no matter what I do I can't seem to get the Demo to fit.
The only bigger bikes than the Demo are the XL V10 and the 2014 GT Fury, which is massive.
The V10 isn't truly bigger. It has the same reach and stack numbers as the Demo but it has longer chainstays which translate into a longer wheelbase. The longer ETT is misleading because they just stick that seat tower further out back to get that number - if the front center was bigger that would be reflected in the reach.
The GT looks promising. But it's not approved for 650b wheels, though they might still fit.
Everything else is smaller. The L Aurum, XL Podium, XL Session, 303, 450, Glory, etc are all built for people up to to about 6'4". If you're taller, well. Tough luck.
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