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I haven't seen many discussions about the Slater Mobster 24" FS frame so I took a bit of chance in buying one. It was one of the few bikes I could find frame/shock only for under $1k that would grow to fit 26" wheels. I had many nice parts around so was really set on frame only. I know what people will say about the frame/single pivot suspension design, but hold your commentary on that ;-)
I called BJ at Slater bikes in Colorado and after some discussion, I realized this was as close to the geometry and sizing I wanted in a frame only option as I was going to find. It can be built as a DH rig with up to a 170mm (not a typo!) fork or as more of an eduro rig with a 140mm (what I am opting for). The specs state a HTA of 64 degrees, I think that is with a 160mm fork, so it gets less slack with a 140mm fork. As luck would have it, he had a scratch and dent special for me, $500 with headset, seat collar and a very entry level shock (with 150mm of rear travel, again, not a typo). Normal price is $950, I bit at the offer.
The frame arrived and the scratches and dents are hard to even see. But one negative was a needed to get both the BB and the head set chased and faced to remove excess paint. +$50 from local mechanic, no big deal but never have had to do that on a new frame before.
The build: I had a set of 24" Alienation Malice wheels laced to 28h Novotecs that I had bought and built up a while ago, they were under $150 all in. I decided to improve on the drive train i had kicking around, so spent $60 for an XX1 gripshift 11 spd, $50 for an NX 11 spd deraileur, and used a newish XT cassette kicking around. I decided to buy the Trailcraft 152mm direct mount cranks because I am not impressed with the Suntour Xeron that I bought for my daughter's bike (can't get the chain line to work...). For fork, I found a used Manitou Mattoc Pro 26" with 140-160mm range and got that for $250 (it has the IRT option added which is a bonus for tunablity). The Mobsters that Slater showed me built up all have 27.5" forks (!), he uses the Suntour Aoins because Suntour will valve them for lightweight riders for no cost when ordering them. So I figured going with a 26" fork would keep the front down a bit for the more all around riding my son will be doing. I finished it out with some carbon bars off ebay ($15), a nukeproof stem ($10) from some closeout sale last year and a nice set of Deore brakes I had from a take off a few years ago (love the adjustability of these for small hands and the ability to make them grab at the start of the stroke). I also found a 27.2" carbon seat post for peanuts and then hit up my local shop for a really nice specialized xs seat they had from a takeoff (more than I wanted to spend unfortunately).
Initial impressions and tuning: Can't find my luggage scale, but it's definitely not heavy. Think the Fat Albert and Hans Dampf tires are beefy but heavy and the XT cassette is a tank. Will look for the scale to get a total weight. This is a 26" frame no doubt! So if you have 24" wheels on it, you will have a longer wheel base. It's about 3.5" total additional wheelbase compared to his pretty compact 24" hardtail he is using now, but that thing has a pretty steep HTA and is smaller overall. No big deal in my book, we're likely to be doing mostly either smooth flow or more traditional straight on steeps. When I had everything on the frame, it was clear we would need to do some suspension tuning. The BB height is an issue out of the gate with 24" wheels. Since I don't want 160mm of front travel and don't really care about the full 150mm in the rear, I can get it to where I think the BB is low enough with 24" wheels. I dropped the Manitou fork to 140mm and then messed around with the IRT adjustment and the air pressure and just increased sag a bit so the axle to crown height dropped a bit more. Same thing on the back, the cheap shock is at least a dual air design and so I was able to get pretty decent sag combined with good rebound control. Again, I think that reduced effective travel to around 130-135mm in the rear, but that lowered the BB below the axles even a bit more.
Initial ride impressions: We haven't taken it out far or on anything crazy aggressive yet, but I'm pretty impressed with the ride and in particular how well the suspension works for him. The cheap stock rear shock has a lock out lever and I watched him click that into place, stand up and crank up a really steep section with only minimal movement in the rear suspension. Definitely no bob, so at least for the long uphill segments, having the lockout should temper the admittedly primitive rear suspension design. The front suspension height is perfect, he was never close to pulling up the front wheel. I think what is effectively a 26" wheel base out behind him negates that. And he was really comfortable standing and cranking up, the bike fits him well. We haven't been on anything steep with switchbacks to check its handling there, I am guessing he will have to learn how to muscle through that sort of terrain with the longer wheelbase. Overall it climbs way better than I expected, I had some worries here as I built the bike up in the stand. Heading down he was really comfortable, that is where the geometry really shines. The fork is tuned well for drops that are 1-2 stairs in height (6-12") and when he is going down it just looks like the geometry was made for that direction.
Next steps: Because of the geometry and how I have it set up, it really needs a seat dropper. He hasn't used one before and it's going to be hilarious watching him try to learn how to use it, but he's going to need this for any sustained climbing. I still have to play around more with the rear suspension and measure how much travel he is using. I may also start looking for a used rear shock as an upgrade (it's 190mm x 50mm so I should find used options). I may pull the Manitou apart and try a few other tricks I've read (dropping to 2.5w oil instead of 5w) to try to get a bit more low speed sensitivity. But I also need to just get a better grasp of the 3 dials on the right side of the fork and how they interact with each other (I've never used a Manitou before).
Cannot seem to get most pics to upload right now, here's a one in the front yard to give a sense of the bike.
![Bicycle tire Bicycle frame Tire Wheel Bicycle wheel rim]()
I called BJ at Slater bikes in Colorado and after some discussion, I realized this was as close to the geometry and sizing I wanted in a frame only option as I was going to find. It can be built as a DH rig with up to a 170mm (not a typo!) fork or as more of an eduro rig with a 140mm (what I am opting for). The specs state a HTA of 64 degrees, I think that is with a 160mm fork, so it gets less slack with a 140mm fork. As luck would have it, he had a scratch and dent special for me, $500 with headset, seat collar and a very entry level shock (with 150mm of rear travel, again, not a typo). Normal price is $950, I bit at the offer.
The frame arrived and the scratches and dents are hard to even see. But one negative was a needed to get both the BB and the head set chased and faced to remove excess paint. +$50 from local mechanic, no big deal but never have had to do that on a new frame before.
The build: I had a set of 24" Alienation Malice wheels laced to 28h Novotecs that I had bought and built up a while ago, they were under $150 all in. I decided to improve on the drive train i had kicking around, so spent $60 for an XX1 gripshift 11 spd, $50 for an NX 11 spd deraileur, and used a newish XT cassette kicking around. I decided to buy the Trailcraft 152mm direct mount cranks because I am not impressed with the Suntour Xeron that I bought for my daughter's bike (can't get the chain line to work...). For fork, I found a used Manitou Mattoc Pro 26" with 140-160mm range and got that for $250 (it has the IRT option added which is a bonus for tunablity). The Mobsters that Slater showed me built up all have 27.5" forks (!), he uses the Suntour Aoins because Suntour will valve them for lightweight riders for no cost when ordering them. So I figured going with a 26" fork would keep the front down a bit for the more all around riding my son will be doing. I finished it out with some carbon bars off ebay ($15), a nukeproof stem ($10) from some closeout sale last year and a nice set of Deore brakes I had from a take off a few years ago (love the adjustability of these for small hands and the ability to make them grab at the start of the stroke). I also found a 27.2" carbon seat post for peanuts and then hit up my local shop for a really nice specialized xs seat they had from a takeoff (more than I wanted to spend unfortunately).
Initial impressions and tuning: Can't find my luggage scale, but it's definitely not heavy. Think the Fat Albert and Hans Dampf tires are beefy but heavy and the XT cassette is a tank. Will look for the scale to get a total weight. This is a 26" frame no doubt! So if you have 24" wheels on it, you will have a longer wheel base. It's about 3.5" total additional wheelbase compared to his pretty compact 24" hardtail he is using now, but that thing has a pretty steep HTA and is smaller overall. No big deal in my book, we're likely to be doing mostly either smooth flow or more traditional straight on steeps. When I had everything on the frame, it was clear we would need to do some suspension tuning. The BB height is an issue out of the gate with 24" wheels. Since I don't want 160mm of front travel and don't really care about the full 150mm in the rear, I can get it to where I think the BB is low enough with 24" wheels. I dropped the Manitou fork to 140mm and then messed around with the IRT adjustment and the air pressure and just increased sag a bit so the axle to crown height dropped a bit more. Same thing on the back, the cheap shock is at least a dual air design and so I was able to get pretty decent sag combined with good rebound control. Again, I think that reduced effective travel to around 130-135mm in the rear, but that lowered the BB below the axles even a bit more.
Initial ride impressions: We haven't taken it out far or on anything crazy aggressive yet, but I'm pretty impressed with the ride and in particular how well the suspension works for him. The cheap stock rear shock has a lock out lever and I watched him click that into place, stand up and crank up a really steep section with only minimal movement in the rear suspension. Definitely no bob, so at least for the long uphill segments, having the lockout should temper the admittedly primitive rear suspension design. The front suspension height is perfect, he was never close to pulling up the front wheel. I think what is effectively a 26" wheel base out behind him negates that. And he was really comfortable standing and cranking up, the bike fits him well. We haven't been on anything steep with switchbacks to check its handling there, I am guessing he will have to learn how to muscle through that sort of terrain with the longer wheelbase. Overall it climbs way better than I expected, I had some worries here as I built the bike up in the stand. Heading down he was really comfortable, that is where the geometry really shines. The fork is tuned well for drops that are 1-2 stairs in height (6-12") and when he is going down it just looks like the geometry was made for that direction.
Next steps: Because of the geometry and how I have it set up, it really needs a seat dropper. He hasn't used one before and it's going to be hilarious watching him try to learn how to use it, but he's going to need this for any sustained climbing. I still have to play around more with the rear suspension and measure how much travel he is using. I may also start looking for a used rear shock as an upgrade (it's 190mm x 50mm so I should find used options). I may pull the Manitou apart and try a few other tricks I've read (dropping to 2.5w oil instead of 5w) to try to get a bit more low speed sensitivity. But I also need to just get a better grasp of the 3 dials on the right side of the fork and how they interact with each other (I've never used a Manitou before).
Cannot seem to get most pics to upload right now, here's a one in the front yard to give a sense of the bike.
