At 6'3" I'd go with XL. I'm 6'1" and ride that size.
Stay away from 27.5, I had one for a while and sold it. The 29" wheels just roll better, and give you less of an "over the front end feeling"

Are you sure the bike wasn't just too short (front to back) for you?

At 6'3" I'd expect you to be on a 29er but front/center makes a difference too.

1. You have to like plaid
2. You have to have a neck beard
3. Hug a tree
4. Never take a shower
5. Eat granola
6. Wear baggy clothing
7. Don't mind being toothless and scabby
8. Be proud of all your scars
9. GoPro every ride
10. 1-9= pink

I'm also 6'1" and also ride an XL. I have a Canyon Exceed which is a 29-er hardtail. Most of my rides are in the mountains and have long climbs which makes a hardtail a great choice. Downhills are fast but rocky and rutted but my hardtail works totally fine.

I would make sure to have good quality components, so shifters work very smoothly and even more importantly the brakes. And get a bike with a good quality fork you can lock (preferably remotely).

Nope, I'm a large. I'm all leg. I have to reach too far on an XL.

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-----------------------------Baron Von Speedypants
-----------------------------RunTraining articles here:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...runtraining;#1612485

Just got back into mountain biking as well. Similar to you I thought I’d ride 1-2x/month then I fell in love with the trails 😁

Got a used trek fuel remedy 27.5 fs since I don’t care about going fast and I am most out for a fun workout and it’s really kept me sane this last spring/summer with races cancelled. Getting faster on strava segments on both uphill and downhill has been a fun goal. If you can get a used deal on a fs I’d say it’s been worth it for me. I have a friend who flips mtn bikes here in San Diego who is your size so if you want to contact him to see what he has them pm me.

I ride all the same trails on the fs, I just go faster so it’s more fun. I agree with above posters that 1x, dropper posts, and tubeless are game changers. So nice.

If you’re send gonna bomb trails or try jumps I recommend pads and a full face helmet. They’ve saved me a few times.

Mountain biking is fun cross training for triathlon until you crash and bruise your calf so bad you can’t run 😂😂😂

Also everything looks way smaller when you film yourself doing drops and jumps so skip the go pro and imagine yourself getting huge air 😁

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I’m all leg too. Make sure you can run your post at the safe height. I “could” ride a large, but I found a lot of frames at that size have short seat tubes. So I’d have a ridiculous amount of post showing. I’ve broken one post and bent a TI one before. It’s no fun.

That's a good point. I put a friend on an XL mountain bike last spring because I thought the seat tube on the Large would be too short.

Without being able to see the bike in person before buying it (during the lockdown) we had to make an educated guess based off the geometry charts. It turned out to be the right decision.

https://imgur.com/xWBDxBf





No idea why I can't show the image, but you can click on the link.

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-----------------------------Baron Von Speedypants
-----------------------------RunTraining articles here:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...runtraining;#1612485

Nice work - I’m picking that’s a Neuron? You’re going to absolutely love it. Welcome to the dark side!

Nice, having fun with it?

To both of you, yes, Neuron AL 7.0.

So far so good. I'm certainly handling the trails a lot better than on the old '99 Specialized Hardrock.


Compared to what I'm used to, it feels kind of like I'm driving a truck. I can certainly see why someone might want 27.5s or a hardtail.

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-----------------------------Baron Von Speedypants
-----------------------------RunTraining articles here:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...runtraining;#1612485

Awesome - stoked to hear. Regards feeling like a truck, I found that when I went from a fully rigid to 100mm of travel, and then again when I went to 150mm of travel, and then again when I went to 170mm of travel!! Doesn’t take long to get used to it, and you’ll wonder how you managed with less. I think 130 will be perfect for the use you’ve described - you’ll just find you’ start riding faster than before.

This may sound silly, but I'm loving the logovers. I mean, back in the way back, that was something I was always nervous about.

I also really enjoy the SRAM Eagle gear (I think that's what the big one is called). I'm riding up a lot of steep inclines where I live.

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-----------------------------Baron Von Speedypants
-----------------------------RunTraining articles here:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...runtraining;#1612485

That could be. However, if you crash on a carbon verses aluminum bike, which bike are you ok to continue riding and which may end up in the garbage?

This is your second mention of liking 27.5... the heart wants what it wants, haha.

The “truck” feeling sounds like how I described the 29r feeling. You can ignore technical trails a bit more and just monster-truck it, but it tends to feel like you are “on top” of the bike.

I never got too deep into the mtb geometry geek hocus-pocus (road and tri aero hocus-pocus is enough of a distraction), but some of this feeling may be bottom bracket relation to front and rear axles, and wheel diameter affecting that part of the frame designs and overall dynamics.

Truck feeling?

Imagine what someone a foot shorter feels like on a 29er

Honestly I think it's just because it's new to me. A few days of riding in, and already I don't really notice it anymore.



BTW, my general philosophy on any piece of equipment (like my drum set, for example) is that if you are inexperienced, you don't know anything, and should even try to pretend that you do. Just buy something that's generally recommended for what you want to do. Once you have experience, you can dial in what you really want.

Some day you might see me out there on a hardtail 27.5 with xyz components, and lmnop mm of travel in my suspension. Or maybe I'll be on a fatboy. For now, I really don't know what I want, other than to ride.

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-----------------------------Baron Von Speedypants
-----------------------------RunTraining articles here:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...runtraining;#1612485

Where are all these broken carbon frames or aluminum for that matter? Most guys on this forum are riding hardtails or minimal suspension XC bikes. The odds of breaking these bikes in a crash is low. I know guys who ride competitive high level enduro and dh races and they seldom break frames.

There is no good reason to avoid a carbon frame over aluminum unless it’s price.