ROB’S N G16 GEOMETRO MOJO/NICOLAI £2,600 (frame)

Could this be the future of bike geometry?

I’ll admit that I was a little worried before heading out on my first ride aboard the G16. OK, I’d done a few runs on one of the earlier versions of the GeoMetron some time ago and got on with it well, but this was to be my bike for an entire year and I really wanted to love it.

While it took some time to adapt to, these worries didn’t last long. Thanks to the steep seat angle (mine measures in at 77 degrees), the ‘Long’ size doesn’t actually feel that big when you’re sat down pedalling. In fact, its 622mm effective top tube – a measurement a handful of more mainstream brands can top on their medium bikes – feels just about right for my 5ft 8in frame.

Point the GeoMetron uphill and, while it’s not the lightest bike at 14.6kg/ 32.19lb (with pedals), its climbing prowess is seriously impressive. But I was more interested in how it would feel going back down. Riding familiar trails was an odd sensation to begin with, because I was used to having a livelier-feeling bike beneath me. The G16 oozed stability but calmed things down a little more than I was used to.

While short bikes can fidget around a little and ping about from feature to feature, the GeoMetron feels calm. Very calm. This can dull things down somewhat if you’re not sliding down something with a bit of grrrrr about it, but has meant that I’ve been encouraged to ride the G16 as fast as I can everywhere, to really make the most of the stability that’s on offer.

I’d initially gone with a base setting for the Fox Float X2 shock, but ended up straying from this in a bid to give the bike a bit more of an ‘alive’ feel and add a bit more pop to suit my riding style. This seems to have helped on mellower trails, without affecting the GeoMetron’s brutish ability to go ridiculously fast when the tracks open up or steepen up. The biggest thing I’ve had to get used to is cornering, and how hard you can weight the front of the bike. Once you commit, it’s quite astounding just how much pace you can hold through a turn on the G16.

Because the bike is so long I’ve left plenty of room on the fork’s steerer tube to allow me to move my stem up and down while perfecting the bar height. So far I’m a smidge higher than normal but it feels pretty much spot-on.

Next time around I’ll let you know all about my custom build, why I picked the parts and how it’s all holding up so far. www.mojo.co.uk