This Bike Was A Total Joke. Then It Broke Records

Quick Overview

The Pinkbike "Grim Donut" bike, initially a joke with a wildly slack geometry, surprisingly performs exceptionally well downhill, though it struggles with climbing, proving that sometimes unconventional designs can lead to impressive results.

Key Points: The "Grim Donut" bike, with its extreme 83-degree head tube angle, performs surprisingly well downhill but is almost unrideable uphill. The bike's slack geometry, while making climbs and flat terrain handling difficult, excels on descents, allowing for high speeds and stability. Pinkbike's testing revealed that the Grim Donut's unique geometry allows it to handle rough terrain and turns exceptionally well downhill. The bike features a custom linkage and a 135mm/160mm suspension travel setup, with the front travel being longer than the rear. The "Grim Donut" branding and custom graphics, including a bat-like creature on the hubs, add to its unique and humorous appeal. Despite its challenging climbing characteristics, the bike's overall downhill performance was praised by testers. The experiment highlights how radical geometry changes can lead to unexpected performance benefits in specific riding conditions.

Context: This video from Pinkbike features Mike Levy and his colleagues as they test a mountain bike called the "Grim Donut," which was initially conceived as an extreme, joke-like design with a very slack geometry. The video explores the evolution of mountain bike geometry, particularly the trend towards slacker head tube angles, and how this affects a bike's performance.

Detailed Analysis

This video explores the "Grim Donut," a mountain bike born from a joke that ended up being a surprisingly capable downhill machine despite its extreme geometry. Initially conceived with an 83-degree head tube angle and a very slack design, the bike's creator, Mike Levy, and his colleagues at Pinkbike set out to test its limits. They discovered that while the bike's steep head tube angle makes climbing almost impossible and handling on flatter terrain awkward, its slack geometry excels on descents. The bike's design, which evolved from a 2010s trend of slacker head tube angles, proved to be a testament to how geometry impacts performance. The video details the bike's build, including its custom linkage and components, and showcases its exceptional downhill capability on challenging terrain. Despite its oddity, the Grim Donut's ability to maintain speed and composure on descents, even with its challenging climbing characteristics, makes it a noteworthy and successful experiment in bike geometry.